Ohio Statement
January 14, 2015
Nike’s Ohio State “Celebration” t-shirt is pretty sweet
January 14, 2015
Kirk Herbstreit has a tough gig sometimes. He’s lambasted by Ohio State fans when they think he’s not enough of a homer and he’s lambasted by other fanbases who think he is too much of one. Meanwhile, Herbstreit has become one of the most pleasant, professional and polished sports broadcasters in the world and that’s the thanks he gets? USA Today had a fascinating piece that goes behind the scenes of ESPN’s “megacast” for the National Championship but this little tidbit seemed especially interesting to Ohio State fans.
The broadcast booth is luxurious. It’s roomy — enough for 8-10 people, including a couple spotters, audio and stat guys, a college football rules expert. It’s low enough that you don’t need binoculars, and right on the 50-yard-line. The front is open and fans took pictures of the duo the entire game. It also just so happens to be on the Oregon side, and late in the game when Ohio State looked to have sealed the win, angry Duck fans tried to get Herbstreit’s attention by saying, “You’re happy, you know it!”
That’s the danger of broadcasting in Jerry World too, I guess. There are a few fans in the club section of FirstEnergy stadium who might be able to yell at Jim Donovan, but that’s about it. I won’t pretend that Kirk Herbstreit’s life isn’t enjoyable or that he’s got it rough because of these kinds of things, but I do feel badly for him in a lot of ways. Even if Kirk Herbstreit was happy – and it’s reasonable to assume he was given the fact that his whole family was at the game decked out in Buckeyes gear – you wouldn’t know it any more than you would know he’s happy about any team winning in any other game he calls. Between the lines, Kirk Herbstreit is virtually the same temperament no matter what.
I’ve been talking a lot about Kirk Herbstreit lately. I’m a sensitive boy and I recently found out that I am BLOCKED on Twitter by Mr. Herbstreit and I don’t know why. This isn’t about me though. Really, it’s not. The only thing I can think of is that he didn’t like when we wrote about the story of him moving to Nashville after living among Buckeyes fans became rough on his family.
“Nobody loves Ohio State more than me. I still have a picture of Woody Hayes and my dad in my office, and nobody will do more than I do for the university behind the scenes. But I’ve got a job to do, and I’m going to continue to be fair and objective. To continue to have to defend myself and my family in regards to my love and devotion to Ohio State is unfair.”
I guess it’s just forever going to be true that you can’t make everyone happy. It’s a hack phrase and about as cliche as it gets, but it’s also abundantly true.
9 Comments
Guessing that after spending formative years being screamed at by tens of thousands of opposing fans every other Saturday the yells of a few into the booth didn’t bother him much. Heard him on “Mike and Mike” the morning after talking about how he couldn’t be objective about the outcome and was just thrilled.
Guy is the best in the business. There is no hint of favoritism with him – which unjustifiably irks Buckeyes fans, but is also undeniably the correct route. Desmond Howard is allowed to be a Michigan homer because he doesn’t have the same role that Herbstreit has, but that doesn’t eve bother me because Howard is also really good at what he does. Could Herbstreit be more of a Buckeye homer? Sure – Chris Spielman walks that homer line pretty well, in my opinion; but I’m glad he’s not. It’s really too bad that he has to take any heat for his alleged homerism or lack thereof.
Honestly, my only complaint with Herbstreit this year was his constant line about “all that Jameis Winston has had to go through this year.” Bad form, and pretty tone deaf. Otherwise, he’s great.
“You’re happy, you know it!”
So, clap your hands?
http://stream1.gifsoup.com/view2/3529992/men-at-work-golf-clap-o.gif
Some Ducks fans yelled “You’re happy, you know it!”??? This is taunting? This is newsworthy? What am I missing here?
Yeah, I hate that sanitized, passively stated garbage. It’s not like Winston had bowel cancer or lost a parent. Although, maybe he was taking crab legs to feed his starving siblings? After all, we just don’t know the struggles he had to endure this season. We all have our crosses to bear.
It’s actually pretty amazing if you think about how many guys have OSU ties. Just off the top of my head: Holtz, Galloway, Herbie, and Spielman. but Corso and Howard also have Big Ten ties. I love it.
Is he the guy that kept talking about the very dangerous streets of Cleveland?
Ohio State beat Oregon fair and square. The Ducks can go out with their heads held high. The ending touchdown of the game by Ohio State would NOT have happened if Oregon was in the lead. The Buckeyes scored a final touchdown within 3 minutes of the end of the quarter and still had their amazing quarterback in ! ! ! Marcus Mariota rarely finished the final quarter of a game when Oregon had a commanding lead. This is class. Ohio State decided to rub it in when they already had the victory. So Sad
2 possession game before the TD. unless you can run out the clock for certain, then you run up the gut and try to score there (or leave 90+ yds for the opponent to have to go the other way). Oregon can score pretty quickly, afterall.
and, up 45-20 in the 4th quarter against FSU and in FG range, Oregon went for it on 4th down and Mariota ran it in for a TD.
nothing wrong with either, just how the college game works now that so many teams can score so quickly.