- Paul Finebaum says he’s thinking about running for U.S. Senate seat in Alabama as a Republican.
- Finebaum, a college football media personality, earns attention for his hot takes, but he’s also a proven listener.
- Finebaum’s ability to make people feel heard could be a trump card in a political campaign.
Paul Finebaum’s hot takes are legendary, but they are not his super skill. Nor is it his quick-wittedness that could give Judge Judy a run for her money.
Finebaum’s ability to listen and make people feel heard helped him turn a Birmingham sports radio show into a national brand with a dedicated audience. With Finebaum’s devotees serving as the show’s life blood, Finebaum’s celebrity grew throughout Alabama and across the Southeast before finally his show became national TV on the SEC Network.
Finebaum’s craziest callers are like fable brought to life. One caller infamously admitted, live on air, to committing the felonious act of poisoning the Toomer’s Corner trees at Auburn. He was prosecuted for his crimes.
The epic calls, though, overshadow that Finebaum’s four-hour talk show, at its core, is a town hall where college football fans gather and say their piece. Callers opine and debate. They mourn and they yearn. They joke and they jab. And they do it all while talking to a host they know will listen. (And, sure, he might respond sarcastically, but he’ll listen first.)
So, I didn’t laugh or roll my eyes when Finebaum revealed this week to OutKick’s Clay Travis he’s considering entering the race for the U.S. Senate seat opening in Alabama.
We need more elected officials like Finebaum — who are just as capable at mediating and making people feel heard as they are at bloviating.
We’d be better served if our politicians spent a little more time listening and a little less time rehearsing their next takedown for social media, in hopes of farming engagement and pitting the audience against one another.
Paul Finebaum, the great unifier?
Seems so many of our politicians’ super skill is fomenting anger and divisiveness. Finebaum brings enemies — Alabama and Auburn fans — together on one show.
Finebaum would run as a Republican and join what’s already a crowded GOP primary. Tommy Tuberville’s Senate seat is opening, as Tuberville runs for governor. Finebaum told OutKick he’d like to decide within the next 45 days whether he’s going to run. At age 70, he’s almost old enough to be eligible for elected office. (That’s a joke.)
Finebaum’s adept at turning up the heat — Lane Kiffin still maintains Finebaum’s rebuke on “College GameDay” in 2013 got Kiffin fired at Southern California — but he also knows when to dial down the temperature and mediate conflict.
When COVID harpooned our sense of normalcy in 2020, Finebaum’s show became therapeutic for callers and listeners who were struggling, with the joy and distraction of sports removed and our way of life altered.
Throughout that tumultuous time, one sense of normalcy remained, at least: People could call and talk to Paul.
Paul Finebaum calls potential pivot into politics ‘very intriguing’
In the spirit of disclosure, I’m a regular guest on Finebaum’s show. I contacted him this week to see if he’d be willing to discuss this potential pivot into politics, but he declined.
Finebaum told OutKick, in a wide-ranging interview, he considers the Senate opportunity “very intriguing” and he’s “thinking about it constantly.”
Finebaum remains a smooth operator in the media space. Even as podcasts grow in popularity and show hosts operate in monologue form or steer alongside a co-host, Finebaum keeps giving listeners a voice. He’s a throwback, still taking phone call after phone call.
Finebaum could host his show and make his television appearances for several more years and ride off into the sunset, but I wonder if he’s maybe a little bored with sports and a bit weary of his circuit on the SEC Network and ESPN.
I mean, once you’ve climbed out of a casket during a pregame skit, what stunts are left to pull? How many times can he appear on ESPN to discuss the latest minutiae surrounding Arch Manning, before professional fatigue sets in?
Several years back, Finebaum talked with television executives about a potential sitcom based on his life as a sports media personality. COVID hit, and the show never materialized.
Finebaum grew up in Memphis and majored in political science at Tennessee, and he’s said throughout his career he’s more likely to be found watching news channels than sports shows. He’s a man of varied interests, the Jewish son of two liberal New Yorkers (his words). Perhaps, that made for an unlikely rise to the “Mouth of the South” pulpit, but Finebaum spoke the language of Southerners. Fire everybody!
Also, he listened. That’s a super skill for a talk show host, and a quality we need more of in Washington.
Blake Toppmeyer is the USA TODAY Network’s senior national college football columnist. Email him at BToppmeyer@gannett.com and follow him on X @btoppmeyer.