Columbus sports talk radio host says Desmond Howard should "get fired or die"; Kirk Herbstreit rebuts strongly

UPDATE: With Torgerson seemingly suspended, his co-host, Mike "The Common Man" Ricordati addressed the elephant in the room during the duo's afternoon show. Ricordati stated that "the Torg is resting; he'll be back soon" and went on to not so transparently return fire on Herbstreit:

"Before we hit the rundown. Real quick. We all have things that drive us crazy. Something that drives me crazy. And you can draw any conclusion that you want to this. It's fake Buckeyes. You know? Fake. They like to use their Buckeye affiliation to their advantage when it benefits them. But most of the time, they don't have the community nor the school's best interest at heart. That's all I'll say."

Over the weekend of the Indiana game, Columbus sports talk station 97.1 The Fan's afternoon host Scott "The Torg" Torgerson of the program "The Common Man & The Torg" took to Twitter with some colorful thoughts about ESPN College Gameday co-host (and former Michigan Wolverine) Desmond Howard. While the original tweet (and Torgerson's entire Twitter account for that matter) have since been deleted, this individual retweeted the statement in question, adding some commentary in the process while preserving its original context and spirit:

I see some unannounced torg day off coming RT @myguythetorg: I wish Desmond Howard would get fired or die so I can watch Gameday again

— Christian Kearney (@_ck1_) October 14, 2012

Yeah, that's probably not going to go over too well in most circles.

Interestingly former Ohio State captain and current colleague of Desmond Howard on College Gameday Kirk Herbstreit hosts a weekly program on the same ESPN radio affiliate and addressed the controversy Monday afternoon going no-holds-barred in the process (transcript below and skip ahead to 34:31 for the beginning of the soliloquy):

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And, there is one thing before we go to another break that I struggled to bring up but I feel like I owe it to somebody to bring up, who's just a friend of mine, and I don't mean to pull you into this Anthony, but I'm going to just address this publicly because I think what Desmond Howard had to deal with over the weekend is disgusting and very sad.

To think that because, I don't know what, I don't know the reason behind it, but the tweet from an individual that works at the radio station was above and beyond I think what was acceptable, and is another example with Twitter of how things can be said, and things can be, "Oh I was just kidding, I was just laughing."

Meanwhile you have a guy who's you know not real sure what to think about that in Desmond and you have his family's concerned about him and just some things that should not be tolerated and are just sickening. And there's so much more I wish I could say about that but I'll choose not to.

Believe it or not, people that have a hard time understanding this, this would probably keep you up at night, but, former Ohio State players and Michigan players are actually friends. I know that's a crazy notion to think about it. But Desmond Howard is a very good friend of mine. And I can look past the fact that he had the "audacity" to wear a Michigan uniform. And he's a good man, and a great father, and a great husband, and does not deserve what he received with that tweet and what came along with it.

I just apologize to Desmond and his family that he had to endure that. And I'm really more embarrassed more than anything to think that somebody who works at an ESPN affiliate and works at our station has a forum to say such asinine comments. What the individual lacks in credibility to me he makes up for by just throwing arrows and rocks at people, and that's his thing. And to me he crossed a line and that's just totally unacceptable.

And to think that Torgersen and co. just interviewed President Obama a few weeks back.

It's not clear immediately what disciplinary measures Torgersen will face but as mentioned, regardless of how you feel about him, his act, and his program, it seems to be a difficult situation for everyone involved.