ESPN and Amazon football commentator Kirk Herbstreit is back in the news for a controversial take on transgender athletes’ participation in sports.
Herbstreit took to Twitter, the social media platform currently marketed as X, last week to answer a question on the topic without much nuance.
Of course not. Ridiculous question https://t.co/SpwZ07zewv
— Kirk Herbstreit (@KirkHerbstreit) August 6, 2024
Herbstreit earned praise from some observers and condemnation from others. But he’s apparently not backing down according to his recent appearance on Don’t @ Me with Dan Dakich, in which he said he’s done “biting his tongue” on the issue.
“I’ve been biting my tongue on a lot of topics for three years,” Herbstreit said. “I was 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 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.”
Herbstreit didn’t stop there, either.
“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 [expletive]. 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 mentioned that he received no backlash from ESPN for his comments.
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