kirk-herbstreit Page 1 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights
Ranking the major sports networks from most elitist to Fox Sports
Prestige and journalism shouldn’t go hand-in-hand together. Sure, there are outlets with enough history and money to have ethics departments, fact-checkers, and paying subscribers, but the omnipresent tier — the ones controlling the rights to the big sports — are cost-cutting corporate slugs like th...
Kirk Herbstreit is going to need Secret Service for future visits to Athens, Ga.
Perhaps the juiciest story to come out of college football’s National Signing Day centered not on a recruit but an ESPN analyst. According to Dominic Raiola, father of top three QB recruit Dylan Raiola, Kirk Herbstriet reached out to him to endorse Dylan flipping from Georgia to Nebraska. ...
ESPN will have to say bye-bye to more Emmys if it partners with the NFL
ESPN is reportedly close to completing its full transition to propaganda production as the NFL is in advanced talks to buy a stake in the network. This comes as no surprise given ESPN’s parent company, Disney, has encountered a few well-documented, multimillion-dollar missteps of late, and the netwo...
ESPN earned 30+ Emmys using fake names for on-air talent
Updated Jan. 12: According to a report by the New York Post, ESPN’s former senior vice president of production Lee Fitting’s dismissal was directly tied to the fake-name Emmy scheme....
The NFL’s 'Inspire Change' weeks have begun — does anybody know?
When the Los Angeles Chargers and Las Vegas Raiders meet on Thursday night in a game that will determine who’ll be third and fourth in the AFC West, Al Michaels and Kirk Herbstreit will more than certainly find time to discuss the NFL’s biggest priority for the next two weeks — “diversity.”...
Stephen A. Smith wants to be ESPN's biggest earner
Stephen A. Smith’s future at ESPN could be up in 18 months if the money isn’t right....
It’s time Dr Pepper eliminated the chest pass from its Tuition Giveaway contest
Gerrit Cole doesn’t throw bounce passes from the mound. LeBron James has never tossed an off-speed slider on a backdoor cut. So then, why do we have to watch college students throw footballs like basketball-chest passes to win scholarship money?...
So 2 AFC North teams clubbed each other into oblivion after a short week? Shocker
The NFL is eventually going to win. People can push back on the product, and complain about Thursday Night Football and overseas football all they want, but in due time changes become normalized, and even the most inept schedule makers hit on a matchup. Enter the Cincinnati Bengals and Baltimore Rav...
On-campus pregame shows are the latest casualty of college football’s ‘evolution’
As someone who was programmed to watch college football every fall Saturday from birth, the on-campus pregame show (now plural) was the background noise to my morning routine. It’s always fun to see how drunk college kids get just to stand outside and scream on cue for three hours. All of the analys...
The NFL’s new flex rules are helpless against this season’s national TV slate
There are so many more interesting teams than the New York Jets and Giants, Denver Broncos, and Chicago Bears, but from now through Thanksgiving, NFL fans will be subjected to those franchises 13 times on national TV. It’s early, and there’s still time to course correct, yet after just two weeks, th...
The Jalen Hurts-AJ Brown ‘drama’ embodies the Eagles' expectations
This time a season ago, the Philadelphia Eagles also were 2-0 coming off a convincing win over the Minnesota Vikings. Unlike last year though, there’s a little controversy surrounding the Birds as Jalen Hurts and wide receiver AJ Brown were caught having an exchange on the sidelines. The incident wa...
Slow start or bad investment? NFL’s TNF ratings drop after move to Amazon
Is it at all surprising that a more difficult entry point for Thursday Night Football games led to a drop in ratings? With the news that Amazon had to compensate advertisers because it didn’t meet the expected viewership numbers, it might be time to ask: How suitable is the streaming model for live ...
What were the best and worst sports trends in 2022?
As 2023 approaches, it gives media outlets opportunities to do wrap-ups, year-end lists, and rank anything else in the timeframe of the past 12 months. It’s really the only upside of time being arbitrary and a construct of people in power to make sure the plebeians arrive at the salt mines at 9 a.m....
Gus Johnson, not Ian Eagle, should succeed Jim Nantz as the voice of March Madness
Ian Eagle is really good at his job. Gus Johnson’s just better....
ESPN’s <i>College GameDay</i> has its new resident jackass — and he’s not the worst
In its heyday, College GameDay was the de facto No. 2 studio show behind Inside the NBA. Pregame shows are notorious for filling the air time with a panel of experts struggling to find opportunities to make points or move the conversation into a meaningful discussion. I challenge you to watch the Su...
Carson Wentz, the best a man (Ron Rivera) can get
As the now-Commanders acquired Carson Wentz to be its next quarterback after three decades of unsuccessful options — none lasting more than three seasons as Washington’s primary starter — the fan base just sighed. Wentz was never going to be the guy. He looks like Peyton Manning and Ryan Leaf on bac...
Justin Fields and a tale of two halves
The first half of last night’s primetime game between the Washington Commanders and Chicago Bears was horrendously boring. The snooze fest that was Thursday Night Football Week 5 crept over into the first half of Week 6. Three points, seven punts, and ugly play from Bears quarterback Justin Fields....
Is this why Daniel Snyder hasn’t been drop-kicked out of the NFL?
It’s still blackmail if it’s done in plain sight. Daniel Snyder’s alleged antics to uncover disparaging information about other league owners — and possibly NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell himself — were detailed in Thursday morning’s near-8,000-word ESPN expose written by Don Van Natta Jr., Seth Wic...
If Amazon Prime can make Steelers-Browns watchable, world domination is within reach
Amazon wants its Thursday Night Football games to be a Monday or Sunday night event as bad as Cleveland wants a Super Bowl. Well, maybe not that bad, but still pretty bad. Tonight’s game between Pittsburgh and Cleveland features one AFC North team trying to find the heir to Ben Roethlisberger on the...
Someone might want to check to see if Boone is still standing
Appalachian State earned its first appearance on ESPN’s College Gameday after upsetting then No. 6 Texas A&M in College Station a week ago. Usually, when Kirk Herbstreit, Lee Corso, and the crew roll into town, the game rarely lives up to the pregame festivities....