Kirk Herbstreit Threatens To Quit If Forced Into Career Move

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Don't expect to see Kirk Herbstreit arguing on "First Take" anytime soon.

The popular ESPN and Amazon Prime football analyst is one of the best in the game. However, the former college football quarterback turned announcer is making it clear – he's not going to participate in clickbait culture.

While many at his company, ESPN, participate in the spewing of hot takes, Herbstreit is not going to do that. In fact, he's threatening to quit if ESPN ever forces him to do something like that.

The longtime ESPN college football analyst made it clear that it's not going to be something that he'l participate in.

“I think it started with Skip Bayless and Stephen A. because they kind of had a thing with them way back, way back at ESPN, where they would just kind of ‘Let’s argue to argue’ kind of thing,” Herbstreit said on The Inner Circle Podcast this week. “And it works for them, but I think other shows copied it and it just has become — I have to turn it off because it makes me get really frustrated as a sports fan and as somebody in the industry.”

Herbstreit threatens he'd 'quit'

The ESPN college football announcer says he'd quit before going there.

“I watch some of these shows on various networks, especially the NFL shows, and it drives me crazy where our industry has gone,” Herbstreit said. “And politics are obviously this way, too, but it’s a lot of clickbait. It’s a lot of like really loud comments that will maybe go viral. ‘I might not believe in it, but it’s gonna go viral, and people are going to know who I am.’ Man, I will quit before I ever do that. Like, if that’s what it takes to make it, I would never do this.”

Herbstreit believes "GameDay" is different.

“On GameDay, we don’t do that. Again, Pat [McAfee’s] crazy and fun, but we make it about the players, we make it about the coaches, and we make it about the storylines. We really don’t make it about us,” Herbstreit said. “And the reason I’ll tell y’all that is if it ever changed, I would be so fast gone out of studio television. But I’m lucky. I kind of live on an island where we’re allowed to still talk ball and still just have fun talking about ball.”

This story was originally published by The Spun on Dec 26, 2025, where it first appeared in the College Football section. Add The Spun as a Preferred Source by clicking here.

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