After impulsively responding to a question about transgender athletes on social media last week, Kirk Herbstreit is reiterating his stance.
In the wake of disingenuous takes misidentifying Algerian boxer Imane Khelif at the 2024 Paris Olympics, Herbstreit was asked “Do men belong in women’s sports?” by a social media follower. Despite the question being a false framing of transgender athletes, Herbstreit responded to the topic without much nuance, saying, “Of course not.” This week, however, Herbstreit was offered the opportunity to provide more context to his response.
Appearing on OutKick’s Don’t @ Met with Dan Dakic h Tuesday morning , Herbstreit was asked about his “of course not” response and the reaction it caused.
“I’ve been biting my tongue on a lot of topics for three years,” Herbstreit said. “I was just was like I’m just going to give a quick answer, ‘ridiculous question, of course not.’ I didn’t dwell on it. I didn’t give a like a long answer, that was it, and I didn’t realize it would be way more positive than negative. I’m sure people are upset about it. I think it’s kind of a no-brainer. I don’t have a daughter, I have four sons. If I had a daughter, I’d probably be way more outspoken about the discussion on the topic.”
Herbstreit added that he received no backlash from ESPN on his comment. And with a growing number of ESPN personalities weighing in on the topic, it negates narratives about Disney’s sports brand lacking conservative viewpoints. Dakich pointed out that even though Herbstreit gave a short and quick response, he had to know weighing in on the topic at all was going to spark a reaction.
“I didn’t give a sh*t, though. I don’t really give a sh*t at all. Like I’m done giving any sh*ts at all about any of it,” Herbstreit insisted. “It’s almost like there are two different sets of rules and if you have a view that’s a little bit more traditional…I’m a Christian guy, it’s like there’s a different set of rules for that viewpoint, and it’s hard to just turn the other cheek time after time after time.
“So yeah, I didn’t really care and I don’t care at all, which is a good thing. I think it’s good and healthy to get to that place, compared to ‘Oh gosh, I don’t want to get canceled. I don’t want to get people upset.’ I don’t give a shit. I’m just going to say certain things. My problem is I have a temper and so if I get to that point, if that fuse gets lit, I let it go and then I’ll explode and say something so that I have to be careful of that.”
Herbstreit has seemingly cared about less important topics featuring his name. And maybe he really doesn’t care about how his opinion on this is perceived, but the small group of transgender athletes who have been used and dragged into a culture war probably do. There are valid arguments on both sides of the transgender athlete debate, but the disingenuous question of “Do men belong in women’s sports?” shouldn’t be the conversation starter.
[ OutKick ]
The post Kirk Herbstreit enters transgender athlete culture war: ‘I’m done giving any sh*ts [about pushback]’ appeared first on Awful Announcing .
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