Kyle Hamilton delivers passionate response to Kirk Herbstreit's comments on bowl opt outs

College GameDay’s Desmond Howard and Kirk Herbstreit made some controversial comments Saturday when discussing players opting out of bowl games. Herbstreit went as far to say that he doesn’t think players in today’s game truly love football, leading to a strong reaction from Notre Dame safety Kyle Hamilton.

“Another sports broadcast offers you the opportunity to make ‘X’ amount of dollars that would help you and your family in ways you couldn’t in the past, but there’s a possibility that you don’t get the job if you film another College Gameday,” Hamilton said. “What would you do?”

As Hamilton said, players opt-out of bowl games to protect their future football careers. Players that are likely to be selected early in the NFL Draft often opt-out to avoid injuries that could hinder their draft stock. Ole Miss quarterback Matt Corral suffered an ankle injury on Saturday night after he didn’t opt out, showing why so many players opt to look out for their futures.

Herbstreit’s original comments that led to the response from Hamilton

The original comments from Herbstreit were clear. He slammed players for opting out of “meaningless” bowl games.

“What’s the difference as a player in saying these games are ‘meaningless’ when, Des, we played in quote-unquote ‘meaningless games,’” Herbstreit said. “I just don’t understand if you don’t make it to the playoff, how is it ‘meaningless’ to play football and compete? Isn’t that what we do as football players? We compete?

“So I don’t know if changing or expanding it is going to change anything. I really don’t. I think this era of players doesn’t love football.”

After receiving so much backlash on his original comments, Herbstreit tried to clear the air. But Herbstreit’s clarification is what led to the response from Hamilton, a likely top ten NFL Draft pick.

“Just wanted to clarify some of my comments from earlier today,” Herbstreit tweeted. “Of course some players love the game the same today as ever. But some don’t. I’ll always love the players of this game and sorry if people thought I generalized or lumped them all into one category.”