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Kirk Herbstreit issues apology to Les Miles and kisses ESPN Butt (hates Ohio State)

Written by Lloyds Apple

Thursday, 06 December 2007

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This just in, Kirk Herbstreit, the first ever John Cooper football commitment at Ohio State and eventual captain at QB, has officially stated he hates the Buckeyes. This confirms what perfectly reasonable Buckeye fans have been saying all along; Kirk Herbstreit is the anti-christ and would shoot his own mother in the back.

Check out what he says:

Detroit Free Press
December 4, 2007

ESPN and ABC analyst Kirk Herbstreit talked with WDFN-AM Monday about his erroneous report. Herbstreit reported Saturday morning, citing an anonymous source, that coach Les Miles was taking the job at Michigan. Miles agreed to stay with LSU on Saturday.

On if he was surprised that he became the biggest name in sports last Saturday:

I wasn’t real comfortable with it that’s for sure. I leave it to the professionals to break stories, guys like you and the media and guys that are a little bit more comfortable in that role.

On not being a breaking news guy

I would much rather talk about what teams are doing on the field. One thing I can assure you, you will never see me gathering news and reporting information ever again.

On why he came out with the story

Honestly, the best way to describe it is by the time Friday came around I had some information that trust me on this it was very accurate base on not a source but someone that was going to be involved in the situation. I made the mistake, I guess telling the ESPN bosses it and in doing that they are journalists and they said you’ve got an obligation to talk about that and go with it. You guys know, I as a former player really pride myself on my relationships with coaches and players and just not real comfortable in breaking stories, leave that up to Pat Forde and the others to do that stuff. When they talked about that and really thought it over and over because it was going to happen they didn’t want to get beat on the story and they suggested that I go with it.

On LSU making a huge money offer to keep Miles

I applaud LSU. For having your players sitting around the hotel, you could imagine what was going on in their mind. They decided to get proactive and beat Michigan to the punch and decided to try to lock him in and kind of force him to make a decision probably before he was ready to do so and said listen we cannot afford to have this thing continue to linger, let’s put this to bed once and for all, you know are you with us or against us and decided to have an impromptu press conference, came to some type of agreement evidently and had the press conference and you could see the emotion on the face of Les Miles when he talked to the media and ended up going out and blocking out all of the distractions and winning the game.

On his apology to Miles

I called Les late that night after the Missouri-Oklahoma game and really called for nothing else but to apologize for it becoming such a huge story, such a distraction for him his team to have to have to deal with. It was never my intent, so that was the one thing that I regretted it became such a significant story everywhere, everywhere you turned.

On if you think you made a mistake bringing it out on Saturday:

I think it’s ironic that people from LSU think that I deliberately tried to create a disturbance for them to get ready for an SEC title game and Michigan people think that I tried to prevent them from getting their coach. Are you out of your mind? That’s like bizarre that somebody would actually think that I did that. I didn’t even think about that until people brought that up that people would actually consider that. I simply had a very, very; I wouldn’t even call the person I talked to a source. It was somebody that was going to be involved directly in this move.

On if there was strategy behind LSU to flush out Michigan.

I really believe that he was going to be announced as Michigan’s coach and I think that LSU felt that they were tired of hearing about this and the fact that it was on national TV and the players are sitting around and theirs all this speculation. They needed to do something quickly and they did, give them credit and they have a long term relationship it appears now with Les Miles.

On how people think he’s biased because he’s a Buckeye

One of these years people are going to realize, I went to school at Ohio State, I was a captain at Ohio State, my kids love the Buckeyes. … I’m an analyst. I don’t care, I really don’t care. I don’t have a hard time removing myself from Ohio State. I don’t have a hard time saying great things about USC or Michigan or Florida State. To me, I am evaluating teams and players. I don’t see things through the eyes of a scarlet and grey former player. I know that is really hard for people to grasp but anybody’s whose listened to be the past 12 years, I really don’t care. … My loyalty is to ESPN and ABC and being an analyst, not to Ohio State.

This just in: Kirk Herbstreit should run for President

I personally suspect that Herbstreit got his tip from Jon Tenuta, who spoke to Les Miles about coaching with him at Michigan (as was rumored). Amidst the chaos, Miles chickened out and his final move is yet to be made. As Michigan Man Ryan Schreiber reported, Miles could still be the man. He has left that opening wide open, in my opinion. Until Michigan hires somebody else something smells Ann Arbor (fishy).

As far as Herbstreit's comments about Ohio State, no big deal to me. During the Cooper years I remember sitting in a bar watching Herbstreit (on live radio) talking about Ohio State's chances for the upcoming season with Joe Germaine at QB. Since then, he has become one of, if not the leading voice in college football. First off, he joined gameday because Craig James left to broadcast NFL games, only to come back to the college game. This was the worst move by a professional in the entertainment industry since that one chick left Cheers and was replaced by Kristie "Cokehead" Alley. If you know who I'm talking about, than you know what I'm talking about. The difference is, Herbstreit made the show better.

As a Buckeye fan, I feel like I know Kirk Herbstreit. I know what he is thinking before he knows what he is thinking. This is because, when I consider what he may say, I say to myself, "what would I say if I were pretending not to be bias." Or, in Herbie's case, what would I say if I actually thought I could be nonbiased. Even when he throws me for a loop, like with his Michigan lovefest last year, I still understood how his mindset would lead him to his various claims.

To me, the BCS and the Bowl system lends itself to forcing analysts to apply bias to all of their logic. Defending their team, their objectives. Herbie's role is to be fair. That's what he is paid to do. Sometimes he goes overboard to counteract his alleged pro-OSU agenda, like when he said no major high school offensive player should play under Jim Tressel.

Compare that to Mark May, Lee Corso and the others and you can see they all have their own games to play. None of them are as noble as Herbie. He's trying to play it non-biased in a system that won't allow it. He's held to a higher standard or he loses his job. He pretends those are the standards before him, even though countless other people prove otherwise.

Take Mark May, for example, who in 2004 said the Ohio State athletic program should get the death penalty. Or Lou Holtz, the walking contradiction/pep talk that could not help but pick Notre Dame to win every week. Or Lee Corso, who openly admits he only follows college football during college football season.

In the end, no matter how many apologies he makes or how much ass-kissing he does, it's all just another chess move to the top. Judging by the reaction he gets, he's already reached the nose-bleed section. He basically said it himself, he no longer reports it; he is the news. Through his role in the college community, he is forced to respect journalistic reporting with careful fragility, far more than anyone else.

This is why every half hour you hear Brent Musberger openly announce that Herbie played for Ohio State. Because like us, he knows better.

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JEH45 said:

Herbie makes alot of money doing what he does. Great for him. What I don't appreciate is the hype they give the teams that appear on their broadcasts. I believe it affects the voters. Teams keep becoming the flavor of the week. I have no inside info, but I do feel sorry for herbstreet in the Miles deal because my guess is what herbstreet said, when he said it was true. Circumstances changed and he got bit on the ass-my opinion. I have no problem that herbie is not an OSU cheerleader. His paycheck doesn't come from OSU.

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December 07, 2007
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Lloyds Apple said:

	Herbie said yesterday that he thougth Terrelle Pryor would go to Michigan. He also said he did not follow recruiting too closely. Jay Mariotti and the rest of the ESPN blowhards followed with similiar comments. None of these guys follow recruiting closely. Assholes!
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December 19, 2007
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JEH45 said:

Lloyds: The expertise of the talking heads on the tube is pathetic. There also seems to be no accountability as to what they say week to week. I know I am not an expert, but just to speak to deathrattle-would you trust what analysis you get on TV over what Bugeatersteve says here about Nebraska? Bugeater lives and dies Big Red football. Corso doesn't. factor out Bugeaters fan prejudice and I would listen to him anyday over the tv stars.

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December 20, 2007
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Lloyds Apple said:

	There is an article over on Yahoo that says Pryor could go to OSU and convince current OSU commits to follow him. Anyone that know anything knows this is an absolute joke and not even worth thinking about, let alone writing in a national column. Seriously, OSU has owned Michigan. The national media is doing all they can to hype Pryor to UM. It's a freaking joke.
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