Why? Because Herbstreit is a “lifelong fan” of one of the teams playing in the contest.
Herbstreit grew up in Centerville, Ohio which is a suburb of Dayton and is located just over an hour away from Cincinnati. As such, Herbstreit grew up a Bengals fan and hasn’t hidden that during his time at ESPN.
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Over the years, Herbstreit hasn’t been afraid to offer commentary on his Bengals using his Twitter. In 2015, the 53-year-old took time to congratulate the then-Andy Dalton-led Bengals for starting the season 4-0.
While there were a handful of tweets like that over the years, Herbstreit became more vocal about the team during their run to Super Bowl 56. He followed the team’s playoff run closely and was quick to congratulate them after their win over the Raiders.
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And following the team’s win over the Chiefs in the AFC championship game, Herbstreit offered more encouraging words about the resilience of his favorite team.
Herbstreit was also called upon as an expert to discuss the Bengals in a pre-Super Bowl 56 appearance on The Pat McAfee Show. He explained how Ohioans might feel about the franchise’s rapid turnaround and showed deep historical knowledge of the team during the appearance.
“Everybody is excited in Ohio and I think anybody watching the NFL is excited with what the Bengals have done,” he said. “I’ve followed the Bengals since the late ’70s. I would argue after Paul Brown passed and Mike Brown took over, over the last 25 or 30 years the Bengals have been right in that discussion for one of the worst franchises in all of professional sports. It was a franchise that very few wanted to go to as a free agent. When you got drafted to that team, there was some angst and frustration.
“There was a lot of players fighting to get out of that organization. You’re gonna tell me in 2022 that they’re not only in the Super Bowl, but they’re a cool brand? Joe Burrow and Ja’Marr Chase, I think that’s more impressive than the fact they’re in the Super Bowl.”
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So, yes, Herbstreit is clearly a big Bengals fan. That could make it more challenging than usual for him to cover “Thursday Night Football” as Cincinnati plays Miami.
It’s worth noting that Herbstreit has called plenty of football games at his alma mater, Ohio State, over the years for ESPN. He has endured relatively few issues in that role, and his only notable “homerism” of late is a play during which he was openly rooting for a Buckeyes tight end to succeed.
Of course, that tight end was Herbstreit’s son, Zak, so it’s understandable that the analyst would be rooting for him to succeed.
As such, Herbstreit should be able to stay impartial as he watches the Bengals look to improve to 2-2 on the season. But if he sounds a bit more excited after Bengals scores compared to Dolphins scores, that could quickly draw the attention of astute NFL fans watching the game.
