Kirk Herbstreit had barely made it to the broadcast booth before the LSU-Ole Miss game gave him a reason to panic. The ESPN analyst revealed that he and his crew got trapped moments before they were supposed to go live from Oxford, Mississippi.
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“Well, we got stuck in the elevator. Almost had a panic attack. Kenley saved the day,” Herbstreit said in the latest episode of Non Stop.
The situation was particularly uncomfortable for Herbstreit because he acknowledged that he is somewhat claustrophobic. The elevator was already cramped, with several people packed inside, but he initially tried to convince himself that the ride would last only a few seconds.
“It’s an old elevator. It’s a little small. I’m a little claustrophobic,” Herbstreit said. “But you know what, we’re going to go from ground level to the booth. Just breathe. You can get through it. It’s going to take eight seconds, right?”
That eight-second ride turned into something much more serious. As the elevator started moving, the lights suddenly went out. The operator informed everyone that the west side of the building had lost power. Another elevator reportedly experienced the same problem, confirming that it was not an isolated issue.
Herbstreit said the first minute and a half did not worry him too much because he expected the power to return. But after roughly two minutes, the situation started getting into his head.
“I’m breathing like that, trying not to let my son know I am in a bit of a pickle mentally right now,” Herbstreit recalled.
Another problem was that the crew was running out of time. Herbstreit explained that Kenley, who works with him on security and is a longtime friend, tried to open the elevator doors. Kenley, a former New York City police officer, eventually managed to pull open the first set of doors before working with another man to force open the steel doors.
By then, Herbstreit said sweat was dripping from his chin, and they were only minutes away from going live. The doors eventually opened enough for the group to escape, but there was another catch. The elevator had stopped between floors, leaving them several feet above the ground.
“You don’t see any space, you just see there’s no ground,” Herbstreit said. “Then you look down and see the ground, about four and a half, five feet below us.”
Kenley led the group out, and Herbstreit followed before the elevator doors immediately closed again. The timing made the incident even more intense because it happened just before ESPN covered the highly anticipated LSU-Ole Miss matchup.
Ole Miss eventually defeated No. 7 LSU 32-24 after the Tigers erased a 17-point halftime deficit before Trinidad Chambliss scored the go-ahead touchdown in the fourth quarter. Still, somehow, the elevator scare was not even Herbstreit’s only unusual moment during the broadcast.
Later in the game, Herbstreit audibly yelped while a replay was being shown. The culprit was a massive grasshopper that had apparently flown into the booth and struck his clipboard. Herbstreit said he initially thought it was a bat because of its size.
“I thought it was a bat flying in,” Herbstreit recalled. “This thing was massive.”
It turned out to be a grasshopper, giving viewers another unexpected Herbstreit moment during a game already packed with drama.
Before the broadcast even began, Herbstreit and his crew had already dealt with an elevator failure, a cramped space, a power outage, and an escape from between floors.