Kirk Herbstreit is a polarizing figure in college football. People have called him out for his bias towards Ohio State and the top 2 conferences. However, even his ardent critics can’t ignore the value he brings to broadcasting. From a guy who wanted to get an engineering degree while playing football to eventually coming to business and becoming a brand, Herbie has come a long way. He might not be that tantalizing, always spicing you with smart quirks while on the mic. Underneath all that persona is a story that starts from his childhood.
They say what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger. We are not sure if the constant nervous tension in his parental relationship helped him to be an iron rod or not. But it certainly developed his resilience. Kirk Herbstreit, the veteran college football analyst, the $20 million man with an extensive career and a wide fan base, has had quite a journey beyond the spotlight. The former OSU quarterback was once a shy, introverted kid growing up in the suburbs of Ohio. Things suddenly went south when his parents, Jim and Judy, split when he was just eight. He had to face a lot of unwanted questions in school. He ended up changing five schools in seven years but couldn’t escape that haunting loneliness.
The gut-wrenching memory he never wanted to let his boys feel in their lives. Herbstreit’s voice was shaking while he continued narrating the story during a conversation on the March 15 episode of the Pure Athlete podcast. “When my dad moved out, he got remarried. He had a new wife, he had a new stepson, and he looked at me, and I think my siblings as ‘yeah yeah yeah yeah, I’m gonna be there,’ and then he avoided, I think, my mom and some of the arguments so he would just kind of put us a little bit on the back burner.”
Navigating through a hard marriage is hard. Especially when you have one of your parents around, but then he’s not really around. Kirk, as a toddler, had to go through this. Imagine the pain behind the spotlight! It’s inconsolable. And beyond all theories on parenting, what really matters is that you’re there, and when you’re there, you’re fully there.
“If I had something to tell him, I would like wait all day to kind of tell my hero like, ‘Oh, I can’t wait to tell,’ and I would tell him, and he’d be you know when you talk with people and they’re like, ‘Oh, okay, is that right?’ You know they’re kind of listening, but clearly, they didn’t hear it, and oh my gosh, you talk about just ripping my heart out,” the ESPN mogul shed light on another traumatic experience he had.
His father eventually developed a killer Alzheimer’s and passed away, leaving his son with a bunch of unsaid feelings and emotions. Not being heard provided him with the empathy to care, to share, and, most importantly, to listen to his kids.
When you hear him talk about his approach to parenting, you can sense that it developed over time, and some of it comes from the gaps he felt were there in how he was parented. “I was plugged in on their lives. I was plugged in on, you know what, they were doing just because I felt like that was my role,” Kirk said on the same podcast about his involvement in his kids’ lives.
Kirk Herbstreit had a series of throbbing personal life crises in 2024
While the awards and honors continued to hype him up, the College GameDay analyst has had a suffocating 2024. He received constant flak and brickbats from fans over the internet for the degrading quality of commentary and for being palpably biased toward a certain CFB program. While Kirk didn’t accept the biased narrative, he couldn’t deny the work quality part.
But if you know the backstory, you might become less defensive. The 55-year-old told the Pure Athlete podcast about the serious health crisis his family has undergone throughout the years. Kirk’s elder son, Zak Herbstreit, had a medical ailment, most specifically an unspecified heart issue. However, he continued playing with the Buckeyes as a tight end. “He had to medically retire, and I think the gratitude I have for [coach] Ryan Day putting his arms around Zak and keeping him involved,” Papa Herbstreit shares, the emotional and physical turmoil his kid has been surpassing.
However, the latest addition to the woes was a nail in the coffin. Back in January, after that glorious championship night at Mercedes-Benz, Herbstreit announced that his wife, Alison, had been diagnosed with breast cancer in early 2024. To make time even more of a nightmare, Kirk lost the most beloved of his family, his dog, Ben Herbstreit. He will rise and shine again, nevertheless, the question is just when, not if!
The post Kirk Herbstreit Makes Heartbreaking Admission on His Father’s Failed Marriage After A Series of Family Tragedies Revealed appeared first on EssentiallySports.
