Ryan Leaf Blames ‘Overly Sensitive’ Kirk Herbstreit, Pat McAfee for ESPN Exit

Ryan Leaf has endured challenges, professionally and personally. His short, disappointing NFL career and long, arduous recovery from struggles with mental health and substance abuse are well-chronicled.

The 1998 NFL Draft No. 2 overall pick from Washington State found his sports calling in broadcasting. Hired in 2019 by ESPN, Leaf worked as a college football analyst, and he continued to cover games for the network until last year, when he was abruptly let go in the middle of the season.

The departure came after a very public feud between Leaf and two co-hosts of ESPN’s “College GameDay,” Kirk Herbstreit and Pat McAfee.

A joke by Lee Corso on “GameDay” about Washington State playing Oregon State in a “no one watches Bowl” offended Leaf, who took to X to label “everyone on the panel” a “bunch of windsocks” for perpetuating the disrespect of the two teams left behind by the Pac-12’s breakup. Both Herbstreit and McAfee fired back at Leaf.

On Tuesday, Leaf appeared on OutKick’s “Hot Mic with Jonathan Hutton and Chad Withrow” to detail what he thought led to his departure from ESPN. He believes a decision above his coordinating producer’s “pay grade” was made to cut him loose, and he pointed a finger squarely at Herbstreit and McAfee for his demise.

“Herbstreit and McAfee are the most overly sensitive people I’ve ever met,” Leaf said. “For guys who live in this high platform, they get criticized all the time, but oh my God, are they overly sensitive, narcissist.”

“I get it. I get it. You got $85 million people scaring you, and you got to fall in line,” Leaf said of McAfee’s five-year, $85 million contract with ESPN. “I understand that, on my end of things.”

“I had some good texts with Kirk and Pat after that,” he added. “They tried to play it off like, ‘I don’t know what you’re talking about.’ It’s just silly, silly stuff.”

The subject of Leaf’s ESPN exit occurred while the Outkick hosts asked him about the company’s social media policy for employees stemming from a controversy involving NFL analyst Dan Orlovsky.

Orlovsky deleted his “protect our daughters” tweet when the Paris Olympics firestorm over Algerian boxer Imane Khelif’s gender eligibility began. The International Olympic Committee confirmed the gender of Khelif, who went on to win gold behind the support of women in France.

Herbstreit also got caught up in the commotion over Khelif. It ended up becoming a tipping point for the usually reserved Herbstreit, who told Outkick’s Dan Dakich that he doesn’t “give a s—” about what people might say if he discusses “race, religion or politics.”

Outkick founder Clay Travis has been embroiled in a long-standing Twitter feud with ESPN’s Mina Kimes. The two launched salvos at each other on X over the weekend to further inflame their ongoing disagreements.