As Ohio State navigated a tumultuous season to become the first national champion in college football’s 12-team Playoff era, ESPN’s Kirk Herbstreit faced criticism. During a postgame segment on SportsCenter with Scott Van Pelt, he became emotional after Ohio State lifted the trophy in Atlanta, shedding light on the profound personal challenges he experienced over the past year.
In an appearance on The Pat McAfee Show on Tuesday, he disclosed that his wife, Alison, was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2024. Coupled with the loss of his cherished dog Ben and his son Zak’s ongoing recovery from heart failure, it has been an overwhelming year for Herbstreit. “I haven’t really talked about this publicly, but Ali my wife faced some stuff. It’s been a tough year for me behind the scenes,” he stated. “My wife got diagnosed with breast cancer, 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 they won … 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.”
“It’s been a tough year for my family and I have a lot of gratitude for Ryan Day..
I was just so happy for him and his players..
My wife was in the booth with me and we were looking down watching our son” @KirkHerbstreit #PMSLive pic.twitter.com/hCaju4KUsK
— Pat McAfee (@PatMcAfeeShow) January 21, 2025
The longtime College GameDay panelist and color commentator, who was the quarterback at Ohio State in the early 1990s and resides in Tennessee, has faced challenges in maintaining objectivity as a personal friend of Buckeyes head coach Ryan Day and as a father to a member of the Ohio State program. After Ohio State’s victory in Atlanta, Herbstreit shared a heartfelt moment on SportsCenter with Scott Van Pelt, emphasizing the deep emotional connections in sports. “It was almost a perfect storm for me,” he remarked, recalling that his wife was in the booth during the segment.
This past season, Herbstreit displayed a noticeable shift in his public demeanor, often appearing confrontational and engaging in contentious discussions with college football fans online as well as commenting more vigorously on off-field issues. This suggests that there were underlying struggles impacting his usual persona, and it is disheartening to learn that his wife’s health issues contributed to this turmoil.
