Kirk Herbstreit is the proud father of four boys, and if you ask him, he has his gymnast wife to thank.
The ESPN college football analyst explained during a recent appearance on the “Bussin With the Boys” podcast that his wife, Alison Herbstreit, would do a handstand after sex to ensure the resulting baby was a male.
“My wife was a gymnast,” Kirk, 57, said on the Tuesday, August 25, episode. “So when we would get done … she heard the male sperm were faster. She would do a handstand. She would go up on the bed, and we’re four for four.”
Though there is no scientific evidence to suggest standing on one’s head helps determine the sex of a baby, it’s hard to argue with the results for the Herbstreit family. Kirk and Alison share twin sons Jake and Tye, 26, as well as Zak, 23, and Chase, 19. The two met at The Ohio State University, where Kirk played football and Alison was a cheerleader.
“Bussin With the Boys” cohost and former Tennessee Titans star Taylor Lewan revealed that he and his wife tried the same tactic.
“My second, we did the same thing,” he said. “My wife was not a gymnast, so I held her legs. And we’re both laughing about it, I’m like, ‘Sweetheart, we’re getting the boy this time!’”
Their approach was not as successful. Taylor, 35, and his wife, Taylin Lewan, share three daughters.
Former Philadelphia Eagles center Jason Kelce was just one of the fans who reacted to the unfiltered conversation, sharing the clip via X and tagging his wife, Kylie Kelce. Jason, 38, and Kylie, 34, have four daughters of their own.
Jason and Kylie welcomed their youngest, Finn, in March 2025, and even before she was born, fans began wondering whether the couple would try again for a boy.
“That’s not my decision. I’ve got the easy part, I’ll keep doing my part,” Jason said in a February 2025 appearance on TNT’s The Steam Room. “But, I think Kylie’s to the end of wanting to pop these things out. I think this pregnancy’s been a long one for her. This is our fourth girl. We’ll see.”
He added, “I don’t think it’s necessarily if we want to have a boy, because at the end of the day, we’re not shooting with good percentages. Do we want to have another child? And if we want to have another one, we’ll do that.”
Kylie, for her part, expressed her frustration with fans assuming she was pregnant again during a recent trip to Paris.
“I have so many kids that over the last week, I have had three different people forget that I had four kids and thought I had three,” she said on her “Not Gonna Lie” podcast in July. “I have so many kids that one’s getting forgotten along the way. … Stop trying to get me to have more. Stop it.”
She added that if she decides to have another baby, the decision would be “between me, my husband and my motherf***ing uterus.”
