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Kirk Herbstreit wasn’t able to hold back his emotions after Ohio State won the national championship on Monday night at Mercedes-Benz Stadium, with the longtime ESPN college football analyst brought to tears while he was live on the air.
A day later, Herbstreit revealed there was more happening in his life that previously had not been shared widely.
“I haven’t really talked about this publicly, but Alli, my wife, faced some stuff,” Herbstreit said to Pat McAfee on his ESPN show on Tuesday. “It’s been a tough year for me behind the scenes.
“My wife got diagnosed with breast cancer. You know, (my dog) Ben dies. It was just a lot of emotion. And when you do what we do, you endure. You do your job.
“And I think what happened, I couldn’t predict it, but when (the Buckeyes) won, I was so happy … because of what they faced and all the stuff behind the scenes. It was like almost, I don’t know, maybe a release of all that pent-up stuff, and it just got the best of me.
“I’m an emotional guy in general, and when things touch my heart, I’m not good at talking when that happens.”
Herbstreit played quarterback at Ohio State from 1989-1992. After the Buckeyes’ win Monday night in Atlanta, he embraced his son, Zak, an Ohio State tight end.
He called his on-camera emotional moment on ESPN “almost like a perfect storm.”
“My son had heart failure two years ago,” Herbstreit said to McAfee. “They were talking about a heart replacement there for a while, and he had to medically retire.
“And (head coach) Ryan Day – I think the gratitude I have for Ryan Day putting his arms around Zak and keeping him involved, you know, he’s almost like a GA with what he was doing. And Ryan insisted on putting his arms around him, (offensive coordinator) Chip Kelly, all these guys.
“So there was that side of it…
Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/kirk-herbstreit-couldn-t-hold-231146349.html
Author : CNN Sports
Publish date : 2025-01-21 23:11:00
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