When sportscasters try to be the story instead of report the story, their 15-minutes of fame needs to be over. Kirk Herbstreit needs to go away.
Kirk was Ohio player of the year in high school and was a quarterback and team captain at Ohio State like his father before him. He started only his senior year in 1992 and set a team record against their rival Michigan, passing for 271 yards to earn a 13-13 tie. There was little interest in him from the NFL after his college career. He eventually landed with ESPN as a color commentator on their Thursday night games and wrote a season column for "The Sporting News". Enough with the Bio.
Kirk has never liked life out of the spotlight. The problem is...he is now a commentator. He is supposed to report the story, not try to be the story himself.
The day of the SEC Championship game he bragged about his "sources" and proclaimed that Les Miles is leaving LSU and going to Michigan. This forced Les Miles to proclaim his support for LSU and make a job decision in front of the nation and his players (who are about to play for an SEC title) during a pre-game press conference. At the same time, he is influencing the coaching prospects of his college rival, Michigan, and using a National sports network, of which he is an employee, to do it.
The validity of Herbstreit's sources are questionable, his using ESPN as his unwitting ally to screw with his college rival is questionable and his timing of coming out with this just before the SEC championship game was nothing more than an attempt to try to divert attention from the kids on the teams playing the game that deserve it - onto himself.
He's too biased in his reporting, he obviously has a personal agenda when reporting the games and has very questionable journalistic integrity. ESPN need to knock him down a few rungs on the ladder and back to the Thursday broadcast until he can learn how a broadcaster is supposed to act.
