‘I think the guy’s a rat’

Todd McShay called Paul Finebaum “a rat” and “perfect to be a politician” this week, escalating a feud that’s been simmering since the 2023 NFL Draft.

The former ESPN draft analyst delivered on his promise to explain why he called Finebaum “one of the all-time cowards” last week. On his podcast, McShay detailed how his former ESPN colleague publicly undermined his reporting on Jalen Carter’s character concerns, then refused to acknowledge McShay may have had a point after Carter was charged in connection with a fatal crash.

“When I say he’s an all-time coward, that’s why I say it,” McShay said. “When I say he has no loyalty, that’s why I say it. And to be honest with you, I think the guy’s a rat. And so he’s perfect to be a politician.”

McShay worked with Finebaum at ESPN for about a decade. He didn’t love the guy, but he showed up when asked. When Finebaum’s show needed him, McShay was there. He brought Sean McDonough over to the set. He did the segments. He played the role of teammate, even though appearing on The Paul Finebaum Show didn’t significantly advance his career as an NFL Draft analyst.

“I respected what he did, even though it was completely different from what we do,” McShay said on his show. “They brought him in, not because he’s one of the guys, one of the crew. They brought him in because he’s got an audience down in the south, and people either love him or hate him. And the people who hate him probably listen and watch more than the people that love him.”

McShay had his issues with Finebaum over the years. Comments here and there. Things that rubbed him the wrong way. But nothing made him refuse to go on the show. In fact, during his final year at ESPN, McShay appeared on Finebaum’s show seven or eight times. He never said no, even when things happened that bothered him.

Then came the Jalen Carter situation.

In December 2022, months before the NFL Draft, McShay appeared on ESPN and raised concerns about Carter’s character. He called Carter the most talented player in the draft. Still, he noted concerns regarding his immaturity and practice habits, as well as questions about his ability to handle coaching.

McShay had two full pages of incidents from multiple sources, including people within Georgia’s program. He said he checked and double-checked his information before going public.

Georgia fans went after him. Carter’s teammates went after him. Walk-on Weston Wallace told reporters that anyone who thought Carter had character issues didn’t know the guy.

Then, in January 2023, just hours after Georgia celebrated its national championship with a parade through Athens, a crash killed offensive lineman Devin Willock and recruiting staff member Chandler LeCroy. Carter was charged in March with reckless driving and racing after police determined he was racing LeCroy’s SUV when she crashed. LeCroy had a blood alcohol concentration of .197 — more than twice the legal limit. Evidence showed the vehicles were traveling at about 104 mph shortly before the crash.

Carter left the NFL Combine when the arrest warrant was issued. He eventually entered a plea deal on the misdemeanor charges and was drafted ninth overall by the Philadelphia Eagles.

McShay’s reporting looked prescient. He’d called it months earlier, and here was a tragedy that validated every character concern he’d raised. Colin Cowherd later defended McShay on air, saying the media does a great job attacking other people in the media but never comes back to apologize when someone turns out to be right.

Paul Finebaum never apologized.

In fact, according to McShay, Finebaum doubled down. McShay was watching Finebaum’s show one day when a caller asked about McShay’s comments on Carter’s character.

“I watched him sit there and talk about me like he didn’t even know me,” McShay said. “‘Todd McShay had some disparaging comments about his character.’ He said, ‘I’ve talked to people in Athens. I’ve talked to people around college football. I’ve talked to people who would know. And they not only say they have no idea what he’s talking about, it’s erroneous, he should be reprimanded.’”

Finebaum went further. He said Carter had an impeccable reputation. He said people in the community loved him. He said he couldn’t find anyone to back up McShay’s reporting. He dismissed it entirely, on the air, without ever reaching out to McShay to ask about his sources or give him a chance to explain.

“Essentially, ‘Not only does Todd not know what he’s talking about, this guy’s a model citizen. This guy’s everything you want in a college football player. This guy should be the face of the Georgia program,’” McShay said, paraphrasing Finebaum’s comments.

Then came the arrest. The day after Carter was charged, Finebaum went back on the air. Instead of acknowledging that maybe McShay had been onto something, Finebaum brought McShay’s name up again.

“He goes and says, ‘I’ll say this about Jalen Carter, until yesterday, he had an impeccable reputation,’” McShay said. “‘There was a report that came out earlier this year by Todd McShay,’ so my name’s back in Paul Finebaum’s mouth, ‘that there were some character issues. I went to numerous people in Athens and around college football, and quite frankly, I cannot find anyone to corroborate that report.’”

McShay was furious. Here was his own teammate, someone who worked at the same company, someone whose show McShay had supported for years, piling on publicly without ever picking up the phone.

“Paul could’ve texted me. Paul’s producer could’ve texted me,” McShay said. “In fact, I was waiting for someone from that show to call me and say, ‘Hey, the show just ended. We realize this is a bigger thing. Can you go on the show tomorrow?’ And I probably would’ve gone on the show and blasted him, because what he did in a moment of virality, I wasn’t worried about what I said, but it didn’t feel good that all of Athens was after me, and that people around the media landscape were blasting me.”

McShay couldn’t give specifics about what his sources told him. Doing that would have burned those sources and, in a way, would have made things worse for Carter. If he’d read the two pages of notes people gave him, McShay said, it would’ve been “damning.”

“He didn’t call me directly to get background. He didn’t call for my comments. He didn’t have me on his show,” McShay said. “He did nothing but keep my name coming out of his mouth in a negative regard, without doing any work, or just asking the person who said the comments, who also works at the same company as you, who also was on your show dozens of times throughout the years.”

McShay texted and called ESPN executives. He was pissed. They talked him off the ledge, told him that’s just Paul, told him to move on. So he did. He took the beating from Georgia fans and SEC Twitter and moved forward.

“I have a loyalty thing, and so when someone on your own team does this, and they have your number, they have your email, and they can reach out or have one of their people reach out, and they don’t, and they feel so comfortable sitting there and piling on, now it’s not just people in Athens, it’s the whole south,” McShay added. “It’s an SEC thing. So that pissed me off.”

McShay left ESPN in June 2023, just a few months after the Carter situation. His contract officially expired recently, which is why he finally told the full story on his podcast.

And he clearly has no regrets about doing so.