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Shannon Sharpe Threatens Kirk Herbstreit, Chris Fowler Over Ryan Day Comment

Ohio State's win kicked off some ESPN back and forth.

Kyle Koster

Shannon Sharpe and Stephen A. Smith responded to Kirk Herbstreit's Ryan Day zinger.
Shannon Sharpe and Stephen A. Smith responded to Kirk Herbstreit's Ryan Day zinger. / Awful Announcing on X
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As Ohio State put the finishing touches on a clinical dissection of Tennessee in the College Football Playoff, former Buckeyes quarterback Kirk Herbstreit offered some support for embattled coach Ryan Day. The days and weeks after Day dropped his fourth consecutive game to Michigan were understandably rough for the head man in Columbus and he couldn't do anything about it except prepare his team to go on a run and potentially capture a national title. Day got the first of the four wins required to do just that and momentarily turned down the temperature on his hot seat.

"First Take tried to fire him. They thought he was done, so I'll be excited to see what they talk about on Monday after this performance. They had him out, trying to find replacements. But here he is, he still has his hat on. He's still coaching," Herbstreit said.

That's the type of ESPN-on-ESPN commentary that cannot go unanswered. Both because the people on the debate shows take pride in their work and creating internal sausage for content is excellent business. So Stephen A. Smith and Shannon Sharpe were ready to respond on Monday's First Take.

Smith tried to correct the record of what he'd actually said about Day after giving Fowler and Herbstreit their earned respect as faces of the sport on ESPN for decades.

"You've got to quote me accurately," he said. "I stated, Ryan Day, if you don't win the national—if you ain't in that final four competing for the national championship, after that and four straight losses to Michigan we can get somebody at Ohio State to do that. Lose four straight to Michigan? Don't be in the championship picture with a $20 million roster and 20 NFL-caliber players returning to the squad? Oh, we can get somebody that can do that."

Sharpe was significantly pointed, offering a vague threat to do ... something if something like this ever happens again.

"If we're going to be on the same team, if we're gonna work for the same network, don't do that," Sharpe said. "Kirk, Chris Fowler, I promise you, if you ever mention any platform that I'm on again talking about 'I wonder what they're going to say as negativity,' I promise you, ESPN ain't got enough bosses to keep me off y'all for what I'm going to say... don't play with me."

You might be sitting there like Bane wondering why a man who has been at ESPN for just a few minutes would feel the need to escalate the back-and-forth against two on-air personalities that have become synonymous with the network, just know you're doing it wrong. You're supposed to think that Sharpe is so upset about someone remembering the general thesis of a take he had a few weeks ago and slightly misrepresenting it without full context that he'd be willing to go to war with all of his bosses in Bristol.

That's how you create good television.

Day will once again be coaching for his team's life and perhaps his own employment when Ohio State gets a rematch with Oregon on Jan. 1. And then we can relitigate the whole thing—hopefully without this feud simmering even more out of control.

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Kyle Koster
KYLE KOSTER

Kyle Koster is an assistant managing editor at Sports Illustrated covering the intersection of sports and media. He was formerly the editor in chief of The Big Lead, where he worked from 2011 to '24. Koster also did turns at the Chicago Sun-Times, where he created the Sports Pros(e) blog, and at Woven Digital.

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