Kirk Herbstreit sure has weathered some storms in his life. After building a career at Ohio State, he chose not to give the NFL a shot. Instead, he gravitated towards an arena he now thrives in. Herbstreit made a bigger name for himself as an ESPN broadcaster and will complete 30 years with the network this year. But on the personal front, the College GameDay host has been dealt some tough blows. He shares one such worrying incident that ultimately ended another possible avenue for him.
Herbstreit grew up at a time when kids took to sports in bigger numbers. “Back in our day… we were in the yard. We were in the creek or the yard; that was all we knew,” he shared at a June 1 episode of The Learning Leader. This was also a time when Herbstreit was an excellent baseball player. He revealed it in an answer to a question asked by his mother. She asked him if he missed the sport and mentions that Herbstreit had a batting average of 500 as a senior at Centerville High. The love for sports had Herbstreit taking to the bat like a natural in his prep days. “Baseball was probably my first love. Baseball, again, was my most natural thing,” he said.
However, a major health issue put a full stop to his baseball career right then and there. “I made the varsity as a sophomore, which was fun but scary, just being around that environment. I burst my appendix. Almost died, my 10th grade year because they misdiagnosed it,” he revealed.
When college came knocking, Herbstreit decided to play football full-time, sadly bidding his baseball dreams goodbye. He also mentioned that he doesn’t miss his football career as much as he does baseball. Appendicitis is a condition that is quite rampant. 2015 saw roughly 11.6 million cases being reported, and approximately 50,100 patients lost their lives to it.
NCAA, College League, USA Football: Orange Bowl-Notre Dame at Penn State Jan 9, 2025 Miami, FL, USA ESPN analyst Kirk Herbstreit before the game between the Notre Dame Fighting Irish and the Penn State Nittany Lions at Hard Rock Stadium. Miami Hard Rock Stadium FL USA, EDITORIAL USE ONLY PUBLICATIONxINxGERxSUIxAUTxONLY Copyright: xNathanxRayxSeebeckx 20250109_szo_om2_0009
The burst appendix was the first of his many major hospital trips later on in life. Not for himself, but close members of his family have been in more dangerous situations. In 2023, his son Zak was first regarded to be suffering from pneumonia. Later, it turned out to be a heart condition, which required a recovery period of 3-4 months. He told Pat McAfee that Zak did not show the necessary symptoms until they did an echocardiogram. Now, Herbstreit’s wife, Alison, is dealing with breast cancer, which is definitely a tough issue for both her and Kirk to brave.
“It’s been a tough year for me behind the scenes,” he said, hinting at his wife’s battle with cancer and the passing of his beloved pet, Ben. “And when you’re doing what we do, you endure. You do your job,” he said. Ohio State winning the national championship was an emotional affair for him last year, given what he saw on the home front and how he found happiness in that of the winning team.
Kirk Herbstreit thought of Zak as he turned emotional for OSU’s Natty win
Zak Herbstreit joined the Buckeyes as a walk-on TE in 2021. His name is part of their 2024 football roster, but Zak couldn’t be part of the team after his health scare. Kirk Herbstreit revealed that he had to medically retire and was also in talks to have a valve replacement to treat his condition, all when he was 20-21 years old. All of Herbstreit’s kids play football, with Jake also being a Buckeye. But the tragic end of Zak’s career moved Herbstreit when Ryan Day lifted that National Championship trophy in 2024.
““I try so hard to be impartial. I try so hard to be just objective and fair. It’s almost like the culmination of just a release because you’re looking at confetti coming down, and you’re seeing all that goes on with these players who had everybody against them, and they had their moment,” he said on the show. Then he added how his son’s health factored in those emotions. Turns out, things were more serious than just a ‘scare’ for Zak. “My son, he had heart failure. He almost faced a heart transplant. That being a part of it, looking down, seeing him, you know, just all kinds of stuff that was going on, and it was just like all of that at once.”
Kirk Herbstreit might be a smiling figure on College GameDay. But beneath that smile lies a history of pain that both he and his family are troubled with. It’s not easy to be resolute when not one, but two family members have close run-ins with death. Here’s hoping that Herbstreit sees some good news coming his family’s way as they deal with this troubling time.
The post Kirk Herbstreit Confesses That He ‘Almost Died’ in Critical Health Condition That Takes Over 50,000 Lives Annually appeared first on EssentiallySports.