{"id":852897,"date":"2026-09-19T05:08:12","date_gmt":"2026-09-19T05:08:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/852897\/"},"modified":"2026-09-19T05:08:12","modified_gmt":"2026-09-19T05:08:12","slug":"kirb-herbstreit-offers-flimsy-defense-for-espns-decision-to-interview-ted-cruz-on-college-gameday","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/852897\/","title":{"rendered":"Kirb Herbstreit offers flimsy defense for ESPN’s decision to interview Ted Cruz on College GameDay"},"content":{"rendered":"

ESPN committed a bizarre broadcasting faux pas last Saturday, by giving Senator Ted Cruz (R-Texas) an extended platform on College GameDay to push for the passage of the so-called Protect College Sports Act (which also could be called the Screw College Players Act or, as Simms suggested, Protect the ESPN and SEC Contract Act<\/a>). The story has resonated throughout the week, and it looms over Saturday\u2019s episode of College GameDay in Oxford, Mississippi.<\/p>\n

Kirk Herbstreit, one of the College GameDay analysts, addressed the situation in comments with reporters on Friday.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was first really impressed<\/a>,\u201d Herbstreit said, via Mississippi Today. \u201cI\u2019ve never seen a guy booed that long and be able to just power through that. You know, I don\u2019t know if he could hear what I could hear, but it was pretty \u2014 I think he was booed pretty much the entire time he spoke. <\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t really get into politics. It\u2019s just not \u2014 I\u2019m kind of an independent guy, right down the middle of the fairway. I\u2019m for America, so whoever helps us as a country, I\u2019m for. Whether it\u2019s somebody on the left, somebody on the right, so I don\u2019t really follow it. I don\u2019t know anything about his political views. I don\u2019t know what he\u2019s for or against. I care about football, my family, and my faith, and my country. Those are things I love. <\/p>\n

\u201cAnd so, I don\u2019t really pick sides, and I was surprised. I didn\u2019t know what his deal was, so him being booed, I asked people, \u2018Like, what\u2019s going on here?\u2019 And we had him on because they were gonna be voting this week, and maybe he could give us some insight to what\u2019s going on. That was really it. So we\u2019re not picking sides in any way at all. We just want to see the chaos that\u2019s surrounding this sport kind of be reeled in, and if this will help us get to that, then great. Now, the fact that the guy that sits right next to me, Nick Saban, was heavily involved in putting this act together, this guy loves college football more than anybody I\u2019ve ever met. And so if he\u2019s happy about what this could do, then I follow his lead. But yeah, that was surprising. But, again, I don\u2019t really follow it, so I didn\u2019t really understand it.\u201d<\/p>\n

There\u2019s a lot to unpack there. I\u2019ll keep it simple. Herbstreit is either flat-out lying or he\u2019s ridiculously naive.<\/p>\n

How can anyone say \u201cI love my country\u201d while being completely detached from the issues that shape its present and future? How can any American adult not know what it means to be a Republican or to be a Democrat, and how those labels have become so inherently polarizing and conducive to negative reactions?<\/p>\n

Beyond Herbstreit\u2019s claim that he\u2019s clueless as to why someone like Ted Cruz would be booed, Herbstreit\u2019s position that he\u2019s \u201cright down the middle of the fairway\u201d and that ESPN isn\u2019t \u201cpicking sides\u201d on the issue at hand can\u2019t be reconciled with his viewpoint that the \u201cchaos\u201d needs to \u201ckind of be reeled in\u201d and that he supports anything Nick Saban recommends on the matter because Saban \u201cloves college football more than anybody I\u2019ve met.\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s entirely possible to love college football and to want to limit player pay and mobility. Which is precisely what the Screw College Players Act will do. <\/p>\n

The word \u201cchaos\u201d is a matter of perspective. From the players\u2019 perspective, it\u2019s not chaotic; they have real rights and power. From the perspective of those who don\u2019t like the fact that the rabbit has the gun, it\u2019s definitely chaotic. Because the rabbit has the gun.<\/p>\n

The best news is that folks seem to be figuring out what\u2019s going on here. The powers-that-be don\u2019t like the fact that they\u2019ve lost some of their power, given the implosion of a system that was fueled by antitrust violations that collectively prevented players from getting paid. In the aftermath of the reckoning, those who don\u2019t like the new reality are shedding crocodile tears and screaming \u201cthe sky is falling\u201d to anyone who may be able to help them implement a system that limits the new rights the players enjoy.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a grift. It\u2019s a scam. Herbstreit has made himself part of that scam while pretending to be neutral \u2014 and not even his dog will shield him from the criticism he now deserves.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ESPN committed a bizarre broadcasting faux pas last Saturday, by giving Senator Ted Cruz (R-Texas) an extended platform…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":852898,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[67],"tags":[399,398,396,397,99],"class_list":["post-852897","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ncaa-football","tag-football","tag-ncaa","tag-ncaa-football","tag-ncaafootball","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/852897","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=852897"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/852897\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/852898"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=852897"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=852897"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=852897"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}