ESPN’s Kirk Herbstreit revealed Tuesday that his wife, Alison Herbstreit, was diagnosed with breast cancer during the last several months.
His wife’s health, alongside a few other recent life events were the reason he cried after Ohio State won the national championship live on-air.
Herbstreit did not reveal when Alison was diagnosed with breast cancer, or her status in current day. The broadcaster did not miss an assignment with ESPN or Prime Video this season.
‘I haven’t really talked about this publicly, Ally, my wife, faced some stuff, it’s been a tough year for me behind the scenes,’ Herbstreit said Tuesday on ‘The Pat McAfee Show’.
‘My wife got diagnosed with breast cancer, Ben [Herbstreit’s dog] dies. It’s a lot of emotion. And when you do what we do, you endure, you do your job.’
In November, after accompanying him on many road trips, Herbstreit’s golden retriever Ben passed away due to leukemia. When a tribute played to his dog on ESPN’s ‘College GameDay’, Herbstreit was also overcome with emotions and cried on-air.
Kirk Herbstreit said Tuesday that his wife, Allison Herbstreit, was diagnosed with breast cancer
Alison pictured with their four sons: twins Jake and Tye, as well as Zak and Chase
Herbstreit’s beloved dog Ben died in November after a battle with leukemia
After Ben’s passing, another one of his golden retrievers, Peter, has been going on those football road trips.
Herbstreit’s revelation came after McAfee was curious as to why he cried after the conclusion of the national championship game.
Herbstreit and fellow commentator Chris Fowler were tasked to do a check-in during SportsCenter on late Monday evening wrapping up the college football season.
Herbstreit could not get through the spot without getting choked up and needing to grab a tissue off-camera. The broadcaster went through the list of reasons he got emotional.
Before revealing his wife’s diagnosis, Herbstreit talked about another family member.
‘It was almost like a perfect storm for me,’ Herbstreit said. ‘My son had heart failure to years ago. They were talking about a heart replacement there for a while and he had to medically retire.’
‘The gratitude I have for [Ohio State head coach] Ryan Day putting his arms around Zak [Herbstreit] and keeping him involved. He’s almost like a [graduate assistant] with what he was doing.’
‘And Ryan insisted on putting his arms around him, [offensive coordinator] Chip Kelly, all these guys. So there was that side of it, looking down and seeing him in his jersey after potentially replacing your heart to that.’
Zak Herbstreit joined the Ohio State roster in 2021 as a walk-on tight end. Kirk was a quarterback for the Buckeyes from 1989 to 1993.
