Our website use cookies to improve and personalize your experience and to display advertisements(if any). Our website may also include cookies from third parties like Google Adsense, Google Analytics, Youtube. By using the website, you consent to the use of cookies. We have updated our Privacy Policy. Please click on the button to check our Privacy Policy.
Ok, I Agree
International

Ben’s Life: Meet Kirk Herbstreit’s Jet-Setting Golden Retriever

Avatar photoJames Brown
Ben’s Life: Meet Kirk Herbstreit’s Jet-Setting Golden Retriever


Ryan Miller hears those rumors every weekend on college campuses across the country.

There’s Ben.

Is it Ben?

That’s Ben!

Miller is usually behind the scenes, handling logistics and working with ESPN talent as a production coordinator on “College GameDay,” but Ben the golden retriever draws attention when they go for a walk every Saturday.

“It’s becoming kind of a national phenomenon right now,” Miller said.

Ben is Ben Herbstreit, the furry companion of Kirk Herbstreit, an analyst for ESPN and Amazon Prime. To those outside of the college football fandom, Ben may look like your average golden retriever, one of the most popular family pet breeds in the United States. He will turn 10 on Friday and is well-groomed, with floppy ears, a perpetual smile and a tail that moves back and forth like a lazy but reliable sprinkler.

But since Ben began appearing regularly in Herbstreit’s social media posts while accompanying him on trips over the past two months for the weekly college football pregame show or the games Herbstreit calls, he’s becoming a star. budding fans with enthusiastic fans. During a recent trip to Atlanta for the SEC Championship Game, Ben had a high-profile encounter with the University of Georgia mascot, Ugaperhaps the most famous bulldog in the country, and stopped by the Atlanta Convention Center to participate in the “GameDay” festivities.

“He walks through a back door and people say, ‘Oh my God, look! It’s Ben! Ben is here! It’s the most fun to see people’s reactions,” Herbstreit said.

Ben first joined Herbstreit on “College GameDay” in November 2021, when the program traveled to the University of Cincinnati for the Bearcats’ game against Tulsa. The Herbstreits live in Cincinnati, so Ben went to work with Dad that day. He first hit the road for a work trip in October, when Herbstreit took him to Seattle. Herbstreit said his family had been through difficult times, including the hospitalization of his 20-year-old son, Zak, due to heart disease. Zak, a tight end from Ohio State, joined the team but is not practicing and has said he continues to receive treatment.

Ben provided comfort to Herbstreit while he was away. The family’s two other goldens, Theo and Mitch, from the same breeder in New Jersey, stayed home.

“We happily fit our lives around Ben and everything he needs,” Herbstreit said. “I report to Ben, that’s how it works. “Everyone else reports to my wife and I, and we report to Ben.”

At home, that means getting up at 6:30 a.m. to serve Ben and his four-legged siblings breakfast and take them for a walk. The trio then rest in Herbstreit’s head office while he works until 2 pm “on the dot,” when Ben leaves to make sure lunch is ready.

“It’s hard not to give in to his eyes and how cute he is,” Herbstreit said. “And how demanding it is.”

Along the way, Ben is a certified emotional support animal for Herbstreit. He obtained his ESA license and official red vest in early November, allowing him to join Herbstreit in more places, including hotels that typically don’t allow pets.

“What I do is people just think, ‘Well, you fly private, no problem!’ But you are away from your family, you work and you love what you do, but it is difficult. So being able to bring him in was huge for me,” Herbstreit said. “People say he’s man’s best friend, but actually (it sounds weird) he is. He is my boy”.


Kirk Herbstreit went through the process to certify Ben as an emotional support animal. (Courtesy of Ryan Miller)

Now Ben goes everywhere. and “Where’s Ben?” is something Herbstreit hears often.

He gets it from his co-workers at ESPN. She sees strangers asking about Ben on social media. Some of the college students who come to the set on Saturdays hold signs that say, “We love you, Kirk, but we love Ben more!” or “Kirk, can I pet Ben?”

An unexpected endorsement even came from legendary sportscaster Al Michaels, Herbstreit’s partner on NFL games for Amazon Prime, after Ben attended a production meeting with 35 people in a large hotel boardroom.

“He wasn’t tied up,” Herbstreit said. “We’re talking about serious business and he moves around the room greeting people. When he approached Al, I realized that Al didn’t like that very much. So I snapped my fingers to pull Ben closer to me and thought, ‘I better not do that again.'”

The following week, Michaels questioned Ben’s absence in a similar environment.

“I said, ‘I left it upstairs in the room. I just thought maybe it was better. I didn’t want him to interrupt or get in anyone’s way,’” Herbstreit said. “He says, ‘No, nonsense! ‘You have to bring Ben here!’”

It was obvious that Ben had completely won over Michaels when one night, after returning to his hotel after a game, Michaels wanted to check on Ben. Herbstreit assumed his dog would be waiting for him at the door, but when he entered his room, Ben was not there.

“He had gotten up on the couch in the hotel room and was fast asleep. I’m talking like deep sleep,” Herbstreit said. “So I walk out into the hallway and say, ‘Al, you have to come in here and see this.’ He walked into the room, looked around the corner and saw Ben on the couch fast asleep. He pulls out his phone and says, ‘Oh my God, I have to videotape this!’

“I get a video of Al recording Ben. He thought it was the funniest thing.”

Herbstreit’s other colleagues are also attracted to Ben and say that Ben gives them a lift throughout the set.

“The overall aura is much more positive when Ben is there,” Miller said. “He keeps all of our personalities fresh. When we are all missing home, it is impossible not to smile when he is around.”

Darren Gaul, a production and talent coordinator who works with Herbstreit, said: “He lets everyone pet him. He is not aggressive in any way. He welcomes everyone.”

Gaul added that Ben’s coat is “very gentle.”

Getting Ben from one place to another doesn’t require much effort, according to members of his travel team. He loves popcorn, long walks and watching a little TV, but Miller says he’s “really a low-maintenance dog.”

Ben usually walks freely and off-leash around stadiums, football fields, and stages unless other dogs are nearby. He has mastered air travel and navigates hotels with ease once he has been shown the way from the elevator to Herbstreit’s room.

“He’s become a traveler that as soon as we get out of the car, he runs to the plane,” Herbstreit said. “I’m still collecting my bags and he’s already on the plane.”

The main thing you need on every trip is your bed. Miller bought one at a pet store in Athens, Georgia, when “College GameDay” visited him for an Ole Miss-Georgia game last month. It’s a square of memory foam that’s so big it could fit one or two toddlers napping, and it travels from campus to campus on the program bus. “It’s just part of the show right now,” Miller said.

During the games, Ben often hangs out with Miller or Gaul on one of the luxury buses or in the makeshift offices the production team sets up on site. Sometimes, Gaul brings Ben into the booth, such as during the Washington-Oregon State game, when Ben made a cameo on television while at the feet of Herbstreit and Chris Fowler.

Once the show ends, Ben and Herbstreit take a plane to their next destination, sometimes another game, sometimes back home. With the college football season coming to a close, Ben’s schedule should relax, but fans can rest assured they’ll likely see him on the road, including the Patriots-Steelers game on Thursday in Pittsburgh and the Army-Navy game on Saturday in Foxboro, Mass.

And when they’re home, Herbstreit and Ben will soon have someone new to keep them busy. They’ll make a stop on the way back from the Army-Navy game to pick up a puppy. A rival for Herbstreit’s affections? Never.

“Ben’s going to say, ‘What? I have already raised two and you ask me at my age to raise another? You didn’t put me through this! What are you doing to me? “I think that might be our conversation while the puppy jumps on him on the plane,” Herbstreit said.

“He’ll look at me like, ‘I thought we were kids?’”

(Top photo courtesy of Jackson Collier/University of Florida)

By James Brown

Related Posts