College football analyst Paul Finebaum came really close to getting fired by ESPN before the SEC Network’s launch in 2014. ESPN is under immense scrutiny following the layoffs of several big names recently, including Ryan Clark and Cam Newton.
On his latest appearance on “That SEC Podcast,” Finebaum revealed how one incident immediately after joining ESPN in 2013 was the closest he ever came to being fired by the network.
In the months leading up to the launch of SEC Network (August 2014), Finebaum was asked to move to Charlotte and do the radio show there. At the time, when former first overall pick Jadeveon Clowney missed a couple of practices for South Carolina, Finebaum criticized him on air. He shared what Steve Spurrier allegedly told him about Clowney’s work ethic.
“He called me and said, ‘This guy is one of the worst players I’ve ever had. He doesn’t come to practice. He doesn’t do anything right. He doesn’t listen to anything. He’s driving me crazy. I don’t know how much longer he’s going to be on the team,'” Finebaum said.
Later, one day after Clowney went first overall, Finebaum called the defensive end “the biggest joke in college football,” since he heard the same from Spurrier. Next time, when Finebaum was on “College GameDay” from the University of Washington, Ray Tanner joined the show. Tanner, who was South Carolina’s athletic director at the time, “ripped” the college football analyst.
“He said, ‘This guy is a disgrace. He shouldn’t be on the SEC Network,’ and so on,” Finebaum said.
Moreover, Spurrier also said Finebaum was lying and that he had said no such thing, which left the analyst shocked.
“I’m sitting there thinking, ‘Whoa,'” Finebaum said. “Then it got to Mike Slive the following Monday. They were having a presidents’ meeting, and the president of South Carolina complained about me. Slive had no idea what had happened. He called me and said, ‘That’s outrageous,’ and then started chewing me out. You can’t really explain your way out of that. You can’t blame it all on Steve Spurrier, even though he was the one who had called his own player a joke.”
Finebaum revealed it was the closest he ever came to getting fired by ESPN and compared it to Urban Meyer’s stint with the Jacksonville Jaguars. Meyer, who was hired by the Jaguars on Jan. 14, 2021, was fired in less than a year after the head coach led Jacksonville to a dismal 2-11 record in his first season.
“My wife had already quit her job,” Finebaum added. “We’d already moved to Charlotte. I thought, ‘This might be the shortest run ever. This might be an even worse gig than Urban Meyer with the Jaguars.'”
Paul Finebaum Reveals SEC Coach on Hot Seat
We’re still a couple of months away from the regular season start, but Paul Finebaum already knows which SEC head coach will be on the hot seat.
Known for his sharp takes, Finebaum predicted that South Carolina Gamecocks head coach Shane Beamer might be the first one to get fired in the conference.
“Do I really have to say, Shane Beamer?” Finebaum said during an interview with Film Guy Networks’ Brooks Austin on Thursday.
Beamer led South Carolina to a 4-8 record last season. After winning only one game in the conference last year, another bad start could be bad for Beamer, who was appointed as head coach in 2020.
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