Radio personality Craig Carton has sparked a social media backlash after launching a blistering attack on Kirk Herbstreit and the ‘obnoxious’ love-in over his pet dog.
Herbstreit is a former quarterback-turned sportscaster who works as a pundit on NFL and college football for both ESPN and Prime Video.
He takes his pets with him to work, with his late golden retriever Ben a regular on set of shows such as College GameDay. Following Ben’s death last year, Herbstreit is now accompanied by another dog, Peter. On this week’s set of GameDay, they will be joined by two of his other pets, Mitch and Beau.
But Herbstreit recently came under fire for playing fetch with Peter in the corridor of his hotel before the Bengals faced the Steelers.
And now Carton has taken aim at the analyst, declaring on his podcast on Friday: ‘Someone has to stop this Kirk Herbstreit. We don’t care about your stupid dog.’
He began his two-minute rant by admitting: ‘This one is going to cause a problem owners… I have a rescue dog, I love my dog – one of the greatest dogs of all time.’
Kirk Herbstreit poses for a picture with his pet dog, Peter, before an NFL game in September
The ex-quarterback-turned-sportscaster routinely brings his dog on to the set of shows
But he then accused Herbstreit of ‘forcing the damn dog’ on America and his TV colleagues. ‘That’s great – you have a golden retriever, you love your dog. Yeah… let him stay home,’ Carton continued.
‘A) We don’t care about your freaking dog. B) If you love the dog that died so much, you wouldn’t have pivoted within 24 hours and bought a new dog.’
In November 2024, Herbstreit posted an emotional tribute to Ben, who died aged 10 after a battle with cancer. ESPN even posted a video tribute to Ben, which has received more than half a million views on YouTube.
‘We had this whole big soliloquy, tears coming down his face: “Oh I love my best friend, Petey, whatever it was”. And within a day you have a replacement dog,’ Carton said, branding it ‘obnoxious dog-loving stuff’ that is ‘forced down our throats.’
But his rant did not go down with many sports fans on social media. ‘I’d listen to that dog’s podcast if he had one before any of your bland, typical, and cliche content,’ one told Carton.
‘We care about his dog more than we care about you,’ added another. ‘If you woke up this morning and this was your take. FU dude. I would take my dogs everywhere if I could.’
