Ryan Leaf Exposes Kirk Herbstreit As A ‘Liar’ Before Deleting Post With Private Messages

Former Washington State and Dallas Cowboys quarterback, Ryan Leaf, made headlines on Wednesday when he called out ESPN college football analysts Kirk Herbstreit and Pat McAfee.

Leaf initially joined ESPN in 2019 as an analyst until his midseason ousting in 2023. He criticized the "College GameDay" crew for making light of the Washington State-Oregon State rivalry. The programs are currently the only members of the Pac-12 Conference.

Leaf was fired shortly after his critical comments, which were responded to by McAfee and Herbstreit .

"And College GameDay is supposed to be a celebration of CFB Instead, they choose to make it a big joke, and everyone on the panel enables it," Leaf tweeted. "Just a bunch of wind socks."

"Huh? Is this a real tweet??? You must have been hacked Ryan," Herbstreit responded in a tweet. "Lee’s point OBVIOUSLY was-it is 2 teams that have been left out-that haven’t found a home yet-NOT the “no one watches Bowl”. Know you’re excited your boys won but DAMN!"

Leaf claimed on the “Outkick Hot Mic” that the pair influenced ESPN to fire him following the dispute with Herbstreit and McAfee.

“Herbstreit and McAfee are the most, you know, overly sensitive people I’ve ever met for guys who live in this high platform," Leaf said. "They get criticized all the time, but boy, God, are they overly sensitive. Narcissists."

Leaf said that he reached out to both Herbstreit and McAfee, but the pair denied any involvement.

“They tried play it off like, ‘I don’t know what you’re talking about,'" Leaf said. “Just silly stuff. It is what it is.”

Herbstreit broke his silence on the matter on Thursday via the " SI Media" podcast .

“When someone does that, I really don’t know how to respond to it," he said on the SI Media podcast hosted by Jimmy Traina . "I don’t want to get caught up in a game of lashing back out on him, I don’t know what he’s referring to."

Leaf quickly fired back with a screenshot of alleged private messages between he and Herbstreit. The messages seem to show that Herbstreit has been aware of why Leaf believes he was let go for some time.

"Doesn’t know a thing about what I’m talking about huh… here’s our text from 10/28/23 where I blatantly tell you liar/fraud!!," Leaf tweeted before deleting the post.

Leaf had already been let go at this point, according to the Oct. 28 timestamp. Leaf served as a national radio analyst for Georgia-Florida that day.

Leaf: "I appreciate the compliment. I just finished calling Fla/Ga, but I’ll be honest. It’s very confusing. You do know ESPN fired me, and I was told it was because of complaining and pressure from you and McAfee. That’s why I sent that text a few weeks ago. So you can see my confusion. I’m over it, I love college football and love calling games so that was very hurtful. All my best... good luck."

Herbstreit: "Absolutely not man. I would never do that. Always enjoyed our time and just assumed you were mad about what’s happening to your school that night. Which I get. I’m sorry you feel that way man. I’ve always been a huge fan of yours- especially as a man. Love to make it right and I’m sorry things are sideways."

Herbstreit joined McAfee on Thursday for an appearance on "The Pat McAfee Show." The pair did not discuss the ongoing situation and instead spoke about the upcoming season and their trip to Ireland to cover Florida State-Georgia Tech on Saturday.

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