Herbstreit on Breaston “Worthless” Comment

Explains what he meant by “Worthless”, regrets choice of words
ANN ARBOR MICHIGAN NOVEMBER, 3 2006 Here’s a summary of the ESPN chat with college football analyst Kirk Herbstreit, explaining his use of the term worthless to describe Michigan WR Steve Breaston.

Rick (New York): When you call Steve Breaston “worthless”, and promise to meet Eddie George at his restaurant for the OSU “victory party” over U-M, don’t you lose your credibility as a national journalist? I bet you don’t even have the guts to answer this question.

Kirk Herbstreit: First of all, I did not call Steve Breaston worthless. I called his production in the Michigan offense worthless since his freshman year. That was probably said more out of frustration for Steve and wishing that he were more of a factor because of his ability to make big plays. I really regret that the newspaper painted me into a corner, making it look as if I called Steve worthless, which I never did. And I would never call any player worthless. But the facts are the facts and he has not been involved in this offense consistently since his freshman year.

Kirk Herbstreit: The other thing that really ticked me off about that article was the headline that said that I feel that the Michigan defense will fail against Ohio State. I NEVER said Michigan’s defense would “fail”. I simply said they would not be able to dominate the Ohio State offense the way they’ve enjoyed dominating everybody they’ve played up to this point. I take a lot of pride in the fact that I’m an objective analyst, and anybody who’s listened to me analyze Michigan over the last 11 years on ESPN, if they were being honest with themselves, would have to say I’ve always been fair to Michigan. If there’s any regret that I have, it would be in using the word “worthless” to describe Breaston’s productivity in the Michigan offense. That was not a term that I would ever use about a player and the person who he is. And it was clearly misconstrued, misrepresented and mean-spirited by the paper. I will continue to be objective and I will continue to enjoy seeing Michigan play well. As far as Eddie George’s party, for me and my travels, I don’t get a chance to see former players very often and I took Eddie’s comments about a get-together as just that, win or lose that a bunch of former players were all going to get together. I hope all of the Michigan fans understand that this was clearly an attempt to paint me into a corner, as being anti-Michigan, which is the furthest thing from the truth. I’ve talked with Bill Martin, the Athletic Director and I have a call into coach Carr. And I’m looking forward to seeing Michigan win their next two games and I literally can’t sleep because of my excitement about the Maize and Blue and Scarlet and Gray meeting to decide which of the two teams will play for the national title.

Reaction:
– He’s correct, he’s been very fair to Michigan and everyone else. He does a great job on ESPN and I look forward to hearing his takes each week.
– He played for the freaking Buckeyes, he loves Ohio State, he was talking to an OSU crowd, what do you expect him to say? This wasn’t ESPN, it was a local radio show.
– Breaston has certainly been a smaller part of the offense than expected after his amazing performance in the Texas Rose Bowl. This said, he has netted more yards on punts (both in returns and in his fearless fair catches) and is a big part of this team. I’d love to see him put one in the endzone in Columbus.
– I assume this show was in a restaurant/bar, and I assume Kirk had a few barley pops. I’ve heard these types of shows when driving in Ohio, they are rowdy.
– I think Herbsteit should answer bigger questions, such as why is his face the color orange?