Kirk Herbstreit And Desmond Howard Called Out College Football Players For Not Playing In Bowl Games And Are Catching Backlash Because Everybody Is Soft Now

Yahoo Sports - ESPN analyst Kirk Herbstreit doesn't think players love football as much as they did decades ago.

Herbstreit criticized players who opt out of bowl games during ESPN's "College GameDay" show on Saturday morning. The network's top analyst openly wondered why non-playoff bowl games were "meaningless" to players who opted to skip the games to prepare for their NFL careers and said he didn't think that expanding the College Football Playoff to include more teams and more games would prevent players on top teams from opting out of games in the future. 

"Isn't that what we do as football players, we compete? I don't know if changing it, expanding it is going to change anything, I really don't," Herbstreit said. "I think this era of player just doesn't love football."

Fellow analyst and 1990 Heisman Trophy winner Desmond Howard then agreed with Herbstreit.

"Their whole mentality right now is about the championship, the playoff," Howard said. "We've got to get into the CFP and because of that they don't value the bowl games. When we were coming up, Herbstreit and myself, to go to a bowl game was a huge reward for a fantastic season. That's what it meant."

This yahoo article then went on to skewer Howard and Herbstreit for being haters, and essentially call them old rich guys who make a fortune talking about college kids playing football, which isn't wrong, who now criticize those same kids for prioritizing dreams of making money at the next level over risking injury. 

And it's everyone online as well.

I can see both sides of the argument. 

One of the biggest names that opted out of their bowl game was Notre Dame's DB Kyle Hamilton who is slated to be an early first-round pick in the 2022 NFL draft. Hamilton took to Twitter on Sunday morning to respond to the commentary.

I get his point, but does he understand that the only reason Desmond Howard and Kirk Herbstreit have jobs in football media is because they played football?  This job is cake for them. They proved themselves in their first go round, playing the game (Herm Edwards voice), and play the game they did, which opened the door to broadcasting for them. They played in an era where it wasn't even an option to rest, or "focus" on the draft rather than suit up and finish the mission with your teammates.

Obviously, you look at a case like Matt Corral of Ole Miss and the Sugar Bowl, and you feel fucking terrible for him. The kid is also set to be a first-round pick, but wanted to play one more time with his team and go out on top, but ended up getting  ̶M̶i̶n̶t̶z̶e̶d̶ injured in the first half.

Luckily it wasn't a Willis McGahee type injury and he'll be ok. 

But the difference between playing when Howard and Herbstreit, and even McGahee played, and today, is today's players have the luxury of buying Loss-of-Value Insurance and supplemental Loss-of-Value Insurance White Papers. 

They have safety nets in case they get injured to the point it devalues their draft stock.

Not saying $10-15 million isn't a lot of money, because it's a shit ton and would make anybody who manages it correctly set for one or more lifetimes, but it does pale in comparison to a hundred million or so a star player could make over the course of a long healthy career. 

So again, I see both sides. My only sticking point with what Howard and Herbstreit said was the wording of it. 

I disagree with saying today's players "don't love football." 

You don't get to the level they are at without loving the game. 

I think the word they should have used, probably wanted to use, but smartly refrained from using, was "selfish." 

I think there's a notion of "I gotta get mine" not just in today's sports, but in every corner of everywhere you look, that's at the core of this. 

I'm sure it crossed Kyle Hamilton's and Kyren Williams' minds that they'd be hurting their team's chances of prevailing by not suiting up for their last games with them. That for 99% of their teammates this was the last football game they'd ever play in their lives. That these Bowl Games, though a stepping stone to bigger and better things in the pros, and afterthoughts for them would be memories their teammates and coaches held onto dearly for the rest of their lives. 

I'm not sure anybody thinks of shit like that nowadays because we're all so wrapped up in ourselves. Which is obviously a shitty way to look at things and a negative perspective but I think that's what the ESPN crew meant to and should have said. Call a spade a spade and have this discussion if you're going to have it. I get that football is a business now. A big business. And colleges have profited off these kids to the tune of billions for decades and decades, so the kids have every right to look out for themselves. It's just shitty that money has compromised loyalty and commitment.

Does Notre Dame win if Hamilton, and more importantly Kyren Williams - the owner of back-to-back seasons rushing for 1,000 yard + seasons - suit up? Yah I think so. Notre Dame had 42 yards on the ground in the Fiesta Bowl without Williams so I think it's safe to say having him would have been a major boost.

Either way, the media ripping Howard and Herbstreit for having an opinion on the matter, when you can't really find two better people to talk the talk, is what is really irksome. If the players themselves want to be pissed off by getting called out that's one thing. But for other people to be triggered by it is just soft. 

p.s.- It's a shame Corso wasn't there to call everybody a pussy