Paul Finebaum isn’t going to run for the U.S. Senate, but he got a good taste of what it would be like if he had.
In September, the ESPN SEC analyst threw his hat into the political ring seemingly out of nowhere, telling conservative radio host Clay Travis that he was considering a run for the US Senate because he was moved after the assassination of podcast host Charlie Kirk. However, just as quickly as it seemed like Finebaum was moving into politics, he opted out.
Last week, he told CBS News that he ultimately decided against running because of what he was told by political consultants and insiders over how he’d have to run his campaign.
“Ultimately, the reason I couldn’t do it was the political operatives. I know this sounds like I’m blaming something on other people, but I’m not. I’m just telling you the reality that you already know. They told me the clearest and cleanest path to victory, I was running as a Republican in Alabama, was to run, and I’m just going to paraphrase the political operatives’ words, ‘you need to run against woke Disney,’ and I could not do it. I could not burn down the place I had worked for the last 13 years that had given me an opportunity as a Birmingham talk show host and use whatever you may think of Disney, and plenty of people have opinions, Disney owns ESPN for those of you who don’t know, I couldn’t do it,” Finebaum said. “I had several prominent people including two senators, sitting senators, tell me that’s your path. There were many other paths obviously to win a primary in Alabama, but they thought that was the cleanest path.”
Finebaum expanded on what he’d been told behind the scenes in an interview with AL.com’s Kyle Whitmire, sharing the specific things he’d been told he would have to answer for.
“I really don’t know how you do it, but somebody had gone through years of radio and it came down to just a handful of comments that I’ve made, which is pretty amazing,” he says.
He had once called President Donald Trump infantile. He had complimented Nick Saban for promoting masking and social distancing during the pandemic. And the one thing that would bite him soonest — he lauded the Alabama coach for marching with his team in a Black Lives Matter demonstration after the death of George Floyd.
He stands by the BLM comment, by the way.
“I complimented him because I thought as a football coach, it was the right thing to do,” Finebaum says. “Ed Orgeron had not done it and it had caused a lot of consternation and ended up really probably costing him his job because he lost the locker room at LSU.”
The current Vice President of the United States once referred to Donald Trump as “America’s Hitler,” so we’re not sure his “infantile” comment would be too worrisome. However, they were correct on the BLM front as conservative activist Laura Loomer did go after Finebaum over it.
Finebaum added that he didn’t personally think his being Jewish would be an issue, “although it came up frequently, among his consultants and others he spoke with.”
The whole experience appeared to offer the SEC talking head a sobering reality check about the political world as well.
“I’ll never forget this as long as I live. They said, ‘Once we get to this number, you will become a United States Senator,’” he recalls. “It’s that simple. It was all about money.”
All of a sudden, the sports media world doesn’t seem so seedy after all.