“By the way, Will Howard taking shit from Ohio State fans,” Kirk Herbstreit said on The Pat McAfee Show on Thursday, “Again, it’s that vocal 10 to 12, 15-percent, A.J. (Hawk) knows what I’m talking about. They’re an embarrassment to the fanbase.”

While Herbie’s past rants about the “15 percenters” may have had at least some hints of truth to them, I’m actually genuinely confused by his claim of OSU fans’ supposed poor treatment of Will Howard. While this is admittedly anecdotal, I truly have not seen or heard anything even remotely close to that percentage giving “shit” to Howard about the Oregon game, whether it be in real life, on 11W and other forums, from podcasters or beat writers, even on the cesspool of X. I’m sure shitty takes exist somewhere, I just have not at all encountered a volume of toxic fan stuff towards Howard that would warrant this type of call-out. 

In my experience since Saturday, the overwhelming majority of the fan base acknowledges that while he had two costly plays, he played pretty damn good otherwise and they’re still behind him. And to pleasant surprise, far more than I expected have been forgiving about the final play. I’d think most would agree that Howard is not even close to the top of the list of people who are taking heat from fans for that game, imo. 

Maybe I’m wrong but to me, this seems to be a reaction to what Herbie assumes a lot of OSU fans are saying about Howard rather than what’s actually happening. Or he got pissy about a random X post or two, I don’t know. If he wants to bash fans based on reality, that’s fine, but I personally think he’s completely full of shit on this one. People will believe it because he said it, though, I’m sure. 

Link to article: https://www.on3.com/college/ohio-state-buckeyes/news/espn-kirk-herbstrei...