The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
College season ‘slipping away by the day’
ESPN commentator not optimistic after COVID-19 surge.
To those who don’t follow college football closely, Paul Finebaum might seem to have had a meteoric rise through the sportscasting business.
Finebaum, 64, has lived in Charlotte, North Carolina, since 2013, when he moved to the Queen City to become the face of ESPN’s SEC Network. Finebaum now appears on a variety of ESPN’s programming while also anchoring his four-hour daily radio show that is simulcast on TV.
To those who do follow college football closely, Finebaum has been a star for decades. Originally a sportswriter, Finebaum made the switch to radio while living in Birmingham, Ala. There he became college football’s version of Howard Stern opinionated, acerbic and able to draw out interview subjects and callers in a way few can.
Two Finebaum facts you may not know: He is married to Linda Hudson, a doctor specializing in internal medicine who works for Atrium Health in Ballantyne. And there are now serious talks about a sitcom based on Finebaum’s life and early career.
This interview has been edited for clarity and brevity.
Q: Tell me your thoughts right now on the likelihood of college football in the fall.
A: I think the likelihood of college football is slipping away by the day. It’s remarkable to think from holiday to holiday — Memorial Day to the Fourth of July — what has happened. I would say on Memorial Day it was a slam dunk. It was going to happen. There could be some complications. As we hit the next big holiday of the year, which is the last holiday before Labor Day, it seems like everything has gone the wrong way.
And when I say that, it’s not even the complications within the sport, which are massive. It’s just the (COVID-19) spikes around the country are happening at probably the worst possible time to safely execute college football.
Q: What in your view is the best-case scenario at this point?
A: I think probably the best case is to put off any important decisions for three to four weeks . ... I think they’ll keep pushing, keep moving the invisible deadline to where, if the country is still in a free-fall in a couple of weeks, then I don’t think they’ll have much choice but to then say, ‘We can’t do it at all’ or ‘We’re going to pause here and give it a few more weeks and maybe start in mid-September or late September.’
If you’re the SEC, ACC, Big Ten — maybe you just play conference games. I think the nonconference games are in serious jeopardy.
Charlotte plays at Tennessee on opening weekend (Sept. 5). You would think Tennessee is looking at it going, ‘We’re going to spend $2 million to bring a team in?’ I mean, assuming they could even get the game? And then not have any fans, or have very few fans? I think economic decisions will start coming into play as well.
Q: You have spoken about the ‘‘delusion of hope’’ that colleges keep selling in terms of football being played on time. Are they continuing with that sales pitch as COVID-19 spikes around the country?
A: Almost all of the confidence has gone out the window . ... It could get better, but I don’t see how it can get better before the decisions have to be made. So that’s why I think the positivity train — it has run out of gas. You’re going to start hearing some stark reality now.
Q: Is there less than a 50% chance of having college football at all this year?
A: Yes. I’m not bullish any longer on the football season.
Q: What if they tried to play college football in the spring?
A: I’m not crazy about the idea. The complications are endless. First of all, the NFL is not going to adapt. The NFL, whether they play or not, they’re still having the draft on the final Thursday night in April. They don’t care.
So, if you’re (Clemson quarterback) Trevor Lawrence, are you going to be playing in March and April if you’re about to get drafted? There’s not a chance in the world that he’s going to do that. Whatever he says is fine, but I’m telling you he wouldn’t.
Q: Do you think the NFL is more or less likely to play than college football?
A: More likely than college football, because there is one person in charge.
Well, Roger Goodell theoretically is in charge. But the 32 billionaires that he reports to, they can more easily make a decision and a determination — and afford to deal with the consequences — then the chaos that is college football.
It’s far less complicated for the NFL. The NFL’s biggest issue, I think, is will the players deal with it? And by the way, a lot of these questions are going to be answered by the NBA and Major League Baseball (when they restart their seasons soon).
If those fail, then everything else will fail as a result. But if there is any success, then it would give the NFL more hope.
Q: I was a fan of Howard Cosell when I was young, and you remind me a bit of a modern-day Cosell. Where do you see as your niche in the sports and entertainment world?
A: Yeah, when I was a kid, Howard Cosell was one of my idols. Later Howard Stern became one of them. I don’t want to try to portray myself as a journalist doing what I’m doing. But I have the background in journalism (Finebaum spent many years writing a sports column, mostly for the Birmingham Post-Herald). I spent a long time understanding what it meant to be a journalist seeking the truth and not accepting convoluted answers, total B.S. and outright lies, which I think we get too often in our industry.
I have always looked at this show as a program for fans. I don’t start the program like Colin Cowherd — someone I’ve been friends with and admire, or Jim Rome, or Stephen A. Smith — and rant and rave. That’s never been my style. Even though I was a newspaper columnist, I’ve never really valued the sound of my own voice as much as some of my friends in the industry.
Being in Birmingham, Alabama, as long as I was, we didn’t have the ability to grab the ‘A-list’ guests that you can at ESPN. So we turned the callers into the stars . ... I really believe this is the one show that, on a regional or national level, still depends heavily on the fans of the sport.
Q: Did the radio show change much when you went to the TV simulcast or is the show the same?
A: I think the essence of the show is the same. It’s difficult. I mean, you can’t be on television and not fall victim to the mindset of television.
People that operate television programs think in terms of visual, and obviously radio is about the conversation, just like newspapers are about words.
And so you have to balance that. You’re always aware of the cameras on. But you just can’t let it overwhelm the conversation . ... However long I do it, I will resist the change that many of my bosses and colleagues believe — that we don’t need to listen to the caller. I think we absolutely have to.