ESPN star Kirk Herbstreit weighed in on the debate over transgender athletes playing women’s sports last week when he was asked on social media, “Do men belong in women’s sports?”
Herbstreit made his stance clear, “Of course not.”
He explained on Tuesday in an interview on OutKick’s “Don’t @ Me with Dan Dakich” that he didn’t give a s—” about what the reaction was going to be.
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Kirk Herbstreit (Cooper Neill/Getty Images/File)
“I’m done giving any s—s at all about any of it. It’s almost like there are two different sets of rules, and if you have a view that’s a little more traditional, or I’m a Christian guy, it’s like there is a different set of rules for that viewpoint,” he explained. “It’s hard to just turn the other cheek time after time after time.
“So, yeah, I didn’t really care, and I don’t care at all. Which is a good thing, I think it’s good and healthy to get to that place compared to2, ‘Oh gosh, I don’t want to get canceled. I don’t want to get people upset.’ I don’t give a s—. I’m just going to say certain things. My problem is I have a temper, and so if I get to that point, if that fuse gets lit, I let it go, and then I’ll explode and say something. That I have to be careful of.”
Herbstreit said he didn’t receive any blowback from ESPN.
ESPN’s Kirk Herbstreit is shown on the field prior to the Chick-fil-a Peach Bowl between the Georgia Bulldogs and Ohio State Buckeyes on Dec. 31, 2022, at Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta. (Michael Wade/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)
“I think I have been biting my tongue on a lot of topics for three years. I sent a tweet out – I get pretty quiet in the offseason – I sent a tweet out about something. It might have been about college football coming up, and I’ve gotten into a habit of not scrolling and looking at the comments because it’s obviously pretty bad. I happened to see somebody say what he said. I think he said, ‘Should men be able to play in women’s sports?’ and I just was like, I’m just going to give a quick answer: ‘Ridiculous question, of course not.’
“I didn’t dwell on it, I didn’t give a long answer, that was it. I didn’t realize it would be – way more positive than negative. I’m sure people were upset about it. I think it’s kind of a no-brainer. I don’t have a daughter; I have four sons. If I had a daughter, I would probably be way more outspoken about this discussion on this topic. I just kind of made it sound like, ‘Why are you even asking this question,’ is the way I took it.
Kirk Herbstreit talks with Kentucky Wildcats head coach Mark Stoops in October 2022. (Bryan Lynn/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)
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“But yeah, man, Lee Corso used to give a speech, and one of the things he would say within that speech was, ‘Don’t ask me about race, religion or politics, or don’t talk publicly about race, religion or politics,’ and now I think that’s all anybody talks about is race religion and politics. … I try to stay on the sidelines for a lot of that, but you can only take so much until you want to start to speak up a little bit and actually say what you think. When I retire or get in the position that you’re in, I’ll be able to say a lot more.”
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