Kirk Herbstreit reiterated his recent comments that men have no place in women’s sports.
“The host of ESPN’s College GameDay said, [his] He’s been “quiet” about the topic for years, but during an appearance on OutKick he said, “I don’t care about it anymore.” “Don’t @ Me! with Dan Dakich” Tuesday morning.
“But it didn’t bother me. It doesn’t bother me at all. I mean, I just don’t care about those things anymore,” Herbstreit said last week on social media, when responding to a question about transgender athletes. “It’s like there’s two different rules and if you’re a little more traditionally minded, I’m a Christian, there’s a different set of rules to that mindset and it’s like it’s hard to just turn the cheek over and over again. I just didn’t really care.”
“So, yeah, I really didn’t care, I don’t care at all. And that’s a good thing. I think it’s good and healthy to be in that state, rather than like, ‘Oh, I don’t want to get cancelled. I don’t want to upset people.’ I don’t care. I just say certain things.”
“My problem is I have a short temper, so if I get in that state and the fuse is lit, I’ll let it go and I’ll explode and say something, so I have to be careful about that.”
Herbstreit, who has been a commentator on “College GameDay” since 1996 and is ESPN’s top college football game commentator, was asked by an X-user last week: “Should men participate in women’s sports?”
“Of course not,” He replied“That’s a stupid question.”
He said he had not been contacted by ESPN regarding his comments.
“I’ve kept quiet about a lot of topics for three years,” he said. “I just thought I’d respond quickly: ‘That’s a stupid question, of course not.’ I didn’t think about it. I didn’t give a lengthy response, and that was it. And I didn’t think it was more positive than negative.”
“I’m sure people are upset about it, but I think that’s natural. I don’t have a daughter. I have four sons. If I had a daughter, I’d be more outspoken about the discussion on this subject.”
“I’ve tried to sit on the sidelines a lot of it, but there’s only so much I can tolerate until I feel like I need to start speaking up a little bit and actually say what I think. When I retire… I’ll be able to say what I think a lot more.”
His comments came amid the controversy surrounding Algerian female boxer Imane Kherif, who won gold at the 2024 Paris Olympics.
Kheriff was embroiled in a gender controversy at the Summer Olympics after her opponent, Angela Carini of Italy, was hit multiple times in the face in the first round of their welterweight bout, causing her to give up 46 seconds into the bout.
2024 Paris Olympics
“Enough is enough,” Carini said after receiving multiple punches in the face during the women’s 66kg bout, calling the fight “unfair.”
Her coach, Emanuele Renzini, said many people had warned him not to fight Kherif, 25, who was disqualified from the 2023 world championships after failing a gender eligibility test.
Kherif’s lawyer, Nabil Boudi, said: He said in a statement on Instagram on Sunday. He said his company had filed a complaint with the Paris prosecutor’s office about women at the Olympics having been subjected to online harassment because of their gender.
