Kirk Herbstreit doubled down on his recent comments that men don’t belong in women’s sports.
The ESPN “College GameDay” host explained he’s been “biting [his] tongue” about the topic for years, and he’s “done giving any s—ts about it” during an appearance on OutKick’s “Don’t @ Me! with Dan Dakich” on Tuesday morning.
“I didn’t give a s–t, though. I don’t really give a s–t at all. Like, I’m done giving any s–ts at all about any of it,” Herbstreit said when asked about responding to a question about transgender athletes on social media last week. “It’s almost like there are two different sets of rules and if you have a view that’s a little bit more traditional — I’m a Christian guy, it’s like there’s a different set of rules for that viewpoint and it’s hard to just turn the other cheek time after time after time. I didn’t really care.
“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 to, ‘Oh, gosh, I don’t want to get canceled. I don’t want to get people upset.’ I don’t give a s–t. 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, so that I have to be careful of that.”
Herbstreit, who has served as an analyst on “College GameDay” since 1996 and is ESPN’s top game analyst for college football, was asked “Do men belong in women’s sports?” by an X user last week.
“Of course not,” he replied. “Ridiculous question.”
He said he did not hear from ESPN regarding his comments.
“I’ve been biting my tongue on a lot of topics for three years,” he said. “I was just 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 like a long answer — that was it, and I didn’t realize it would be way more positive than negative.
“I’m sure people are 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’d probably be way more outspoken about the discussion on the topic.
“I’ve tried to stay on the sidelines for a lot of that, but you know, 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 … I’ll be able to say what I think a lot more.”
His comment came amid the controversy surrounding Algerian female boxer Imane Khelif, who won gold at the 2024 Paris Olympics.
Khelif became engulfed in a gender debate at the Summer Games when her opponent, Italy’s Angela Carini, surrendered 46 seconds into their first-round welterweight match after being struck multiple times in the face.
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Carini said she had “enough” after taking multiple punches to the face during the women’s 66kg fight and called it “unjust.”
Her coach, Emanuele Renzini, said she was warned by many not to fight the 25-year-old Khelif, who was disqualified from the 2023 World Championships due to failed gender eligibility tests.
Nabil Boudi, a lawyer for Khelif, said Sunday in a statement on Instagram that his firm had filed a complaint with the Paris prosecutor’s office about the harassment she faced online about her gender at the Paris Olympics.