Prayers Pouring In For The Sons Of ESPN's Kirk Herbstreit

01/21/2025 08:24 PM

ESPN college football announcer Kirk Herbstreit announced some devastating personal news on Tuesday.

Herbstreit, 55, has been more emotional than usual lately. Monday night, the ESPN college football announcer teared up while talking about Ohio State's win in the College Football Playoff national title game. The Buckeyes topped the Fighting Irish, 34-23, at Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta, Georgia. It's the program's third national championship this century - and their first since the 2014 season.

But Herbstreit wasn't just getting emotional over the Buckeyes' success. He's been hiding some tough personal news, as well. His longtime wife, Alison Herbstreit, was diagnosed with breast cancer last year.

"I haven't really talked about this publicly, but Ali my wife faced some stuff. It's been a tough year for me behind the scenes," Herbstreit said on Tuesday's Pat McAfee Show.

"My wife got diagnosed with breast cancer, Ben dies, it was just a lot of emotion. And when you do what we do, you endure. You do your job. And I think what happened, I couldn't predict it, but when they won … it was like almost, I don't know, maybe a release of all that pent-up stuff. And it just got the best of me. I'm an emotional guy in general and when things touch my heart, I'm not good at talking when that happens."

Kirk and Alison share four boys - Zak, Chase, Jake and Tye. Prayers are pouring in for Herbstreit's boys on Tuesday afternoon.

No one wants to see their mom battling a serious illness.

"Prayers to the Herbstreit family 🙏🏾 That is a lot 😞," one fan wrote.

"Prayers to the Herbstreit family," one fan added.

"This is so sad sending prayers for that entire awesome family," one fan added.

"Sending love and prayers to Kirk and his family during this incredibly tough time. 🙏🏼," another fan wrote.

"Prayers for Kirk and his family. The voice and face of our great sport has been burning the microphone 24/7. He is allowed a tearful reprieve in public," one fan added.

PRAYERS: Kirk Herbstreit revealed his wife was diagnosed with breast cancer this year, adding to his emotions during OSU's win.

🙏🙏🙏

Kirk's son faced heart failure & had to medically retire but stayed with the team, & he also lost his beloved dog, Ben ❤️

(Via @PatMcAfeeShow) pic.twitter.com/M2TVTrRmVQ

— MLFootball (@_MLFootball) January 21, 2025

Our thoughts are with the Herbstreit family during this difficult time. Hopefully, they've been able to spend as much time together as possible lately.