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College football commentator Ryan Leaf blasted his former ESPN colleagues Kirk Herbstreit and Pat McAfee, calling them “narcissists” in an interview this week.
Leaf worked for ESPN from 2019 until he was fired in the middle of last year’s season.
His firing came not too long after he took issue with College GameDay host Lee Corso calling a game between his alma mater Washington State and Oregon State the “no one wants us Bowl.”
And @CollegeGameDay is supposed to be a celebration of #CFB. Instead, they choose to make it a big joke, and everyone on the panel enables it. Just a bunch of wind socks. #CougsvsEverybody https://t.co/pp8XtZCUoy
— Ryan D Leaf (@RyanDLeaf) September 24, 2023
Corso’s College GameDay co-hosts Kirk Herbstreit and Pat McAfee would later fire back at Leaf.
Earlier this week, Wazzu head coach Jake Dickert and former QB Ryan Leaf criticized College GameDay for turning Oregon State-Washington State into a joke.
Pat McAfee appeared to respond this morning. And then some. pic.twitter.com/3ia6Ze7gko
— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) September 30, 2023
“Huh? Is this a real tweet??? You must have been hacked Ryan,” Herbstreit responded. “Lee’s point OBVIOUSLY was-it is 2 teams that have been left out-that haven’t found a home yet-NOT the ‘no one watches Bowl’. Know you’re excited your boys won but DAMN!”
This week, on Hot Mic with Jonathan Hutton and Chad Withrow, Ryan Leaf talked about the bizarre beef between him the two College GameDay hosts.
“So, like, in my situation, the coordinating producer who and I had an incredible relationship with, came and said, ‘Hey, you know, I think we’re going to pull you off games the rest of the season,'” Leaf said. “And I’m like, you know, you told me week in and week out, ‘I’m your number one guy.'”
Leaf then made it clear he believes it was Herbstreit and McAfee who got him fired from ESPN.
“Herbstreit and McAfee are the most, you know, overly sensitive people I’ve ever met for guys who live in this high platform. They get criticized all the time, but boy, God, are they overly sensitive. Narcissists.”
WATCH: "Protect our daughters." is NOT controversial.
What about that statement does @ESPN disagree with? @danorlovsky7 says it doesn't match up with the company's values. @RyanDLeaf had a similar situation with @KirkHerbstreit and @PatMcAfeeShow 🔥🎙⤵ pic.twitter.com/GG9YQARXvt— OutKick Hot Mic (@Outkick360) August 20, 2024
“So, the coordinating producer calls me and I said, ‘Well, you’re not making this decision. Who’s making this decision?’ And he said, ‘Well, someone above my pay grade.’ And I said, ‘Well, you need to have the someone above your pay grade call me.’
“And so they did and by that time I had confirmed people on why it happened. So when I got them on the phone, I was just like, ‘Yeah, I think this is about right. I think you and I, we don’t have shared values and so I think this is probably the proper decision.’
“I get it, I get it. You got $85 million people scaring you, you got to fall in line. And so I understand that, on my end of things.”