If you follow Kirk Herbstreit on Twitter, you’re bound to see it happen.
The ESPN college football analyst will quote-retweet a troll — one who likely has called him “biased” or “an idiot” or some other mean-spirited comment — and add a witty retort, essentially putting said troll on blast in front of all of his nearly 843,000 followers.
Why does someone of Herbstreit’s stature bother with the trolls?
“It’s become a sport to me,” he told Newsday on Wednesday with a laugh. “I actually enjoy it. It sounds crazy.”
In an age where anybody can make an anonymous Twitter account and start spewing things at anyone, Herbstreit has found a way to deal with the nastier users while entertaining everyone else in the process.
His approach is straightforward and effective.
“I always kill them with kindness,” he said during a call to promote Allstate’s It’s Good Sweepstakes. “‘Hey, have a great Sunday! Nice to hear from ya! Take care!’ Like, I’ll deal them just a quick little backhanded compliment.”
A quick tap of the mute button later, it’s over — troll dispatched.
“No harm, no foul,” he said. “It’s good entertainment.”
It’s a far cry from Herbstreit’s early days on Twitter, when he tried to, as he put it, “reason with” those who had nothing nice to say. That didn’t work too well.
“What I learned very quickly was they’re just angry at life,” he said. “They’re not angry with me or you, they’re angry with everybody. If they’re not cursing me out, they’re on to the next guy cursing that person out. They’re just in a bad spot in life, or whatever it is.”
Read the rest of the article at Newsday where it was originally published