Kirk Herbstreit’s fall schedule is unlike anyone else in sports broadcasting. The 54-year-old football analyst works for both ESPN and Amazon, doing College GameDay and color commentary for ESPN’s top college football broadcast in addition to Thursday Night Football.
That makes things busy. Especially when the Saturday night game is not at the same location as the morning broadcast like it is this weekend.
Herbstreit has an incredibly taxing travel schedule that begins in Nashville, his place of residence, on Thursday. From there, he will travel to Thursday Night Football, his son’s football game, College GameDay, ESPN’s prime time game, and back home.
Now let’s break it down.
Here is what Kirk Herbstreit’s week looks like in terms of distance:
- Thursday: Nashville to Philadelphia
- 638 miles
- Friday: Philadelphia to Dayton
- 478 miles
- Friday night after his son’s game: Dayton to Boulder
- 1,115 miles
- Saturday afternoon after College GameDay: Boulder to Gainesville
- 1,479 miles
- Saturday night after the Florida game: Gainesville to Nashville
- 518 miles
From Thursday morning to early Sunday morning, Herbstreit will take five different flights and cover 4,228 miles. That is nearly the distance of a round-trip between Los Angeles and New York.
Herbstreit will make those trips in the span of less than 72 hours while also calling two football games from the booth and anchoring the GameDay desk. His only downtime is when he will be at his son’s game, which might be even more stressful than his professional obligations.
Fortunately, Herbstreit is being paid a king’s ransom to serve in both ESPN and Amazon roles during the same season. That will certainly help to take some of the dread out of the entire process. It also helps that he will be flying private all weekend.
Still, though, his travel schedule is bananas.
Nashville to Philly to Dayton to Boulder to Gainesville to Nashville. Sheesh!