Last season, Kirk Herbstreit made it incredibly clear that he believes that some Ohio State Buckeyes fans, whom he described as the “lunatic fringe”, take things too far when it comes to the on-field results of the program. But during a podcast appearance on Sunday, Herbstreit went into details about what exactly Buckeyes players have to deal with when it comes to the rabid fan base.
During an appearance on The Learning Leader Show with Ryan Hawk, where he talked in detail about bettering his own mental health, Herbstreit discussed the kind of things that athletes have to put up with in the day and age we currently live in.
In particular, Kirk Herbstreit described how it is incredibly unfair for collegiate athletes to have to deal with fans sending criticisms and even death threats towards players.
“It’s not easy what you guys are dealing with,” said Herbstreit to a fan in attendance at the live show. “And I don’t mean just sports, I’m talking social stuff. You get to college football, you are playing on national TV, you miss a field goal when the game is on the line, you get death threats. Death threats. That is real.”
Herbstreit then revealed how Will Howard, who led Ohio State to a national championship this past season, received death threats following Ohio State’s regular-season matchup with Oregon last year, where Howard made a crucial mistake by running out the clock in the 32-31 loss on the final play.
“Will Howard, he took a knee against Oregon,” said Herbstreit. He played his a** off at Oregon. He took a knee because he lost the time. And he took death threats. It’s so insane that these people have a voice to get to you. And you have just got to somehow insulate yourself the best you can. Because it is brutal.”
This isn’t something that Will Howard has discussed publicly. And given the fact that he won a national championship at Ohio State and is now set to play at the NFL level with the Pittsburgh Steelers, he may never open up about it.
However, this is not the first time that Kirk Herbstreit has broken this kind of news before in regards to his former program. He was, of course, the first one to publicly discuss the kind of threats that Ryan Day was getting from Ohio State fans, detailing how the Buckeye head coach actually had armed guards outside his house following the program’s loss to Michigan last year.
While Herbstreit received his fair share of criticism for his “lunatic fringe” comments at the time, if his comments are indeed true about Howard, perhaps he was onto something all along in regards a select few in the Ohio State fanbase.
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