Kirk Herbstreit found himself in hot water this week after what seemed like an innocent social media post turned into a major controversy. The ESPN analyst had to issue a lengthy apology after a video and caption he posted with Joey Galloway appeared to dismiss one of the sport’s most sacred traditions, the Army-Navy game. The post went up just days after the service academies played their 126th meeting on December 13 at M&T Bank Stadium in Baltimore. On Tuesday, Kirk Herbstreit took to social media to address the backlash head-on.

“Just wanted to address a mistake that we made on my socials earlier this week related to last weekends CFB Saturday,” he wrote. “We posted a video where @Joey_Galloway and I were talking about how strange it was to be home and not traveling on a CFB weekend since end of August and how we felt like we didn’t know what to do with ourselves. We posted the video with a caption that was very misleading about ‘weird not having any CFB this weekend’. Some took that out of context and ran with it—that’s on me…my apologies for any disrespect (albeit unintentional) to the teams that played last weekend—especially @ArmyWP_Football and @NavyFB.

Not sure there is a game I personally look forward to more EVERY year than Army and Navy—they play for the love for each other and love for the game—and anybody who has ever watched me for the last 30 years on TV knows how I feel about that game,” he continued. 

He concluded by calling it “a simple case of miscommunication” and said he “just felt the need to address it.” The apology was genuine and direct. Herbstreit acknowledged that while the caption was his responsibility, the intent behind the conversation was completely different. But the Navy’s social media team didn’t let the slight go unnoticed. They called out Kirk Herbstreit for what looked like a glaring oversight.​ They posted a photo of their exciting 17-16 win over Army.

That game is considered the greatest single rivalry and weekend event in college football. The perceived dismissal didn’t sit well with fans or the Naval Academy itself. Kirk Herbstreit has built his career on attention to detail and deep respect for the traditions of college football. He clearly recognized the damage a careless caption could do. His quick and thorough apology showed that he understood that when it comes to Army-Navy, there’s no room for ambiguity. 

The confusing caption

The actual exchange between Herbstreit and Galloway didn’t actually say there was no college football happening that weekend. Galloway started, “This was a weird weekend, the first weekend being home, like what are you supposed to do?” 

Herbstreit agreed and said, “I completely agree. Because Friday I was here I called a game Thursday night down in Tampa ended up being a great game. Atlanta came back to win it. And then Friday, I’m like, man. I’m usually on a college campus with production meetings, taping, and SportsCenter, and getting ready for a big Saturday, and I’m with you. I was out of schedule. It felt like I was out of a rhythm.” 

The context was clear. They were talking about their personal travel schedules and being home for the first time since late August, not suggesting there was no football to watch.​

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But the caption on the social media post told a different story. It read, “Saturday not having college football, threw us for a loop” with a laughing emoji. This made it sound like they were completely ignoring Army-Navy and the other games that took place that weekend. But the apology was sincere, and it felt like the damage was controlled.