It appears that a criteria for entering politics in Alabama is that you must have have a connection to SEC sports, and Monday’s news of ESPN college football analyst and radio host Paul Finebaum possibly entering the state’s political arena is further proof of that.
During an interview with Outkick, the long-time college football personality disclosed that he was mulling a run for the US Senate seat to be vacated by current senator and former Auburn football coach, Tommy Tuberville, who is planning to run for Alabama governor next year.
Finebaum, a registered Republican in North Carolina, disclosed that he voted for Tr**p in 2024 and, after recently moving back to Alabama where he hosted radio shows for almost three decades, said he would re-register in the state.
That’s probably not much of a surprise but to reveal it while still working for ESPN, which has taken an overt pivot away from politics, raises eyebrows.
The 70-year-old college football pundit has until January 26th, 2026 to officially enter the race and if he decides to do so, he would most likely have to give up his job at ESPN.
He admitted that while he had never given much thought to running for office, the assassination of Charlie Kirk was an “awakening” for him and the impetus for him to give politics more serious consideration.
“[It was] something I never thought about before,” Finebaum said in the interview.
“I spent four hours numb talking about things that didn’t matter to me. And it kept building throughout that weekend,” Finebaum continued. “I felt very empty doing what I was doing that day.”
While many have been moved in some fashion by Kirk’s death, Finebaum feels the incident is a testament on the direction of the country, one which he’s not happy with.
“The biggest issue is the direction of ‘Where are we going [as a country]?’ And I don’t like some of that,” he said. “When I watch a newscast, I know how biased it is because I do this for a living. And that’s incredibly disturbing. But I keep all this to myself. I feel this is a cathartic conversation for me because I’m saying some things that I really did not intend to say when I walked in this room.”
Finebaum obviously felt a sense of relief that he could finally reveal his politics, and that’s not an issue.
What is disturbing and hypocritical is that while Finebaum is distraught by Kirk’s death and wants to change the direction the country is traveling, the hateful rhetoric Kirk was spreading before his death didn’t inspire him to do something about what was happening in the country.
The degrading of educated, successful Black women like Michelle Obama, Ketanji Brown Jackson and Joy Reid.
The hate spewed towards Islam.
The targeting of college professors through an academic hit list and the list goes on and on.
So why didn’t those hateful comments and actions spur Finebaum into action?
Finebaum, a University of Tennessee alum, has spent decades covering a sport in the south dominated by Black athletes, yet the hate directed by a person (and his followers) at the very individuals he made a career by covering wasn’t horrid enough for him to think that the country was headed down the wrong path?
Apparently the hate was ok to listen to and accept until the person who spewed the venom was no longer around to continue spreading it. Only then was it a moment to reflect on the direction of the country.
That’s what makes his decision to possibly run for public office feel so hypocritical.
He didn’t want to defend those who were being attacked but after a tragedy involving the perpetrator of those attacks it’s time to take a stand? Not before or while the hate was being spread though?
Finebaum can run for office or stay at ESPN- it’s his choice.
It’s his choice to take action that will hopefully unify and stop the hate resonating loudly across the country before more lives are lost.
I just wish that his choice was made based on the hate that was being imposed on those who looked like the players he covers every Saturday instead of the death of the one imposing that very hate.
