Paul Finebaum on Robert Griffin III firing from ESPN: ‘He was completely different’ than most analysts

Amid social media rumblings that he may have played a role in ESPN firing Robert Griffin III, Paul Finebaum commented on the ousting during his radio show.

Three weeks before the NFL season, ESPN stunned the sports media world by making the decision to fire Griffin and Sam Ponder. The Athletic attributed those moves to cost-cutting measures at the end of ESPN’s fiscal year.

With the NFL season looming, however, the timing of ESPN’s decision to fire Griffin and Ponder remains suspect. And that’s prompted some to question whether recent social media activity played a role in their departures. Ponder has used her personal social media account to express personal opinions on transgender athletes. Griffin’s unique social media personality, meanwhile, appeared to recently call out Finebaum for taking “cheap shots” at Florida State.

Earlier this week, Finebaum went on First Take and claimed FSU will finish the season unranked. Griffin then responded with a social media post blasting anyone “throwing shade” at FSU. Two days later, Griffin was fired. And shortly after he was fired, sports radio caller Colin from Alabama joined Finebaum’s show to ask about Griffin.

“It was a big surprise to nearly everyone,” Finebaum said after acknowledging the report that Griffin had been fired by ESPN.

“That’s a loss. That cat could do it, man,” Colin added. “He made it fun. You just never knew what he was going to say and it was always fresh. It was a fresh take and funny. And he brought joy to it…anyway, I know you don’t want to get into that.”

But Finebaum did get into it, briefly.

“Everybody always thinks that people that sit in chairs like this don’t ever want to comment on it. I mean, I’ve got strong opinions on a lot of people I work with, and some of them might blow you away,” Finebaum said. “The point being, I have no earthly idea. If I had some insight, I would be happy to share it with you. I know him. I know him pretty well and he was completely different than most of the paint-by-number analysts.”

We’d love to hear some of Finebaum’s opinions on colleagues that might blow us away. Calling Griffin “different than most” analysts fell a bit short of mind-blowing.

Finebaum holds a lot of clout as ESPN’s premier voice on college football. But if the Disney-owned sports brand decided to fire Griffin and pay him a seven-figure salary for two years to do nothing because he may have hurt Finebaum’s feelings on social media, that’s a different level of clout. The timing of Griffin’s firing is curious, but it’s difficult to imagine Finebaum was the cause.

[The Paul Finebaum Show]