Rarely does a head coach directly blame a member of the sports media for getting them fired, but that’s just the relationship that Paul Finebaum and Lane Kiffin have.
Following a loss to Arizona State in 2013 by Kiffin and his USC Trojans, Finebaum took to the College GameDay airwaves for a colorful diatribe. Comparing the football wunderkind to Miley Cyrus, Finebaum said Kiffin had “very little talent” but was showy enough to get attention anyway.
Kiffin never stopped blaming his ouster from USC on Finebaum, until an apparent detente was struck earlier this year.
It’s no surprise that Kiffin would have hard feelings toward the ESPN host over the whole incident, even if he landed on his feet and is now in the middle of a six-year run at Ole Miss. But in a new profile of Finebaum at The Athletic, the host revealed that his colleagues at College GameDay were also quite incensed after Finebaum’s rant.
From Joe Rexrode’s profile at The Athletic:
Not only did that turn out to be a bad take on both insulted parties, Finebaum says it infuriated the “GameDay” crew, because everyone liked Kiffin and because Finebaum read his takedown off a notecard — a no-no on a show that prides itself on being unscripted.
By making the show about himself, Finebaum big-timed GameDay. Like on his infamous radio show, Finebaum made himself the story and rubbed everyone the wrong way.
“No one would speak to me,” Finebaum told The Athletic.
The incident was enough to inspire longtime ESPN writer and Finebaum confidante Gene Wojciechowski to reach out.
“I wasn’t angry or anything,” Wojciechowski told The Athletic. “I was just questioning his judgment.”
The profile charts multiple incidents in which Finebaum’s brand of hot takes and personal barbs clashed with ESPN and the high court of college football. It also highlights how Finebaum has become more of a softie over time, due to his wife’s influence and the relationships he has developed with his callers.
Both Paul Finebaum and Lane Kiffin are good sports about the USC scuffle, especially now that it’s a distant memory. But for Finebaum professionally, it nearly became a bigger problem for his future on ESPN’s signature college sports show.