ESPN’s Kirk Herbstreit set off a firestorm when he said he’d be “shocked” to see the 2020 college football season take place due to the coronavirus. Now he says people shouldn’t have taken his word so seriously.
Herbstreit said on a Monday conference call that his comments were “misconstrued,” and his statement was not meant as a prediction.
“It was kind of misconstrued, misrepresented based on what I said in a radio interview and how it was taken by a lot of people,” Herbstreit said, via Riley Gates of 247 Sports. “…I was almost just thinking out loud. It was the day baseball was supposed to start, Opening Day, and we were reminiscing about how sad it is that we weren’t having any baseball. I was like, ‘Hey, man, this thing’s scary. We may not even have football.’ I was kind of thinking out loud at that point.
“…I’m not making any predictions. I really wasn’t that night. I was trying to explain how real this pandemic is.”
Yes, Herbstreit was giving his own opinion. But he was pretty clear about how he thought the whole thing would go. It’s somewhat odd to see him disputing how his words were portrayed, as the original comments don’t really leave a ton of room for interpretation. Given how Herbstreit is seen as someone in the know and people are desperate for information about the status of upcoming sports, he probably shouldn’t be musing about it on the radio if he doesn’t want to be taken at face value.
