SEC football icon Paul Finebaum faces GOP criticism amid talk of Senate bid

Legendary college football broadcaster Paul Finebaum is being accused of being a weak Republican who “hates Trump,” amid widespread rumors that he is considering a run for U.S. Senate in Alabama.

The 70-year-old ESPN host, best known as the foremost authority on SEC football, has yet to announce an official candidacy. However, he revealed that he was intrigued by the idea of ​​such a race and admitted in an interview with Kick to “constantly think about it”.

For some Alabama Republicans, that was enough to raise alarms about why they think Finebaum would be a poor choice for a Senate candidate.

Dale Jackson, a prominent Alabama radio political talk show host, told Fox News Digital that although “Finebaum is a radio legend and a fixture in the South…no one knows what he believes.”

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ESPN radio and television personality Paul Finebaum prepares to speak on television near activities outside the Superdome before the College Football Playoff national championship game in New Orleans on Monday, Jan. 13, 2020. (Ken Ruinard / staff via Imagn Content Services, LLC)

“This guy is a legend,” Jackson continued. “(But) I’ve been doing radio and talking radio for almost 20 years in Alabama, and I couldn’t tell you what Paul Finebaum knows or believes about anything political.”

“As soon as he starts talking about what he believes, it’s going to be taken apart, and I don’t know if he’s necessarily ready to understand what that means,” Jackson said.

Finebaum’s record on policy positions is mixed. In 2016, he said, “this country doesn’t oppress black people,” but later apologized on ESPN, saying his “eyes are wider open,” according to RealClearPolitics.

In 2017, he remarked that President Donald Trump “behaves like a child,” according to FanBuzz.

In 2020, Finebaum praised a video in which Nick Saban encouraged social distancing and masking from COVID-19, according to 247Sports. He also praised Saban’s decision to lead an athletes’ social justice march during which many players wore Black Lives Matter jerseys, according to a local media outlet. Bham now.

Finebaum told the outlet that “Nick Saban leading that march was one of his greatest moments.”

“The video was very powerful. There was a lot of blowback. Alabama fans called me and told me they would never support the team again. We all hear the same arguments about Black Lives Matter,” Finebaum continued. “I say that because he did it without making a political statement. He didn’t overdo it, he did it quietly. He supported his players, and to me that’s the most important thing. That’s what a coach is supposed to do, and I think, to me, that speaks very well of him. In a state like Alabama, it’s not the same as if he did it at Michigan, but he didn’t let it affect him.”

Still, Finebaum told OutKick that he voted for Trump in 2024 and that it was the murder of Charlie Kirk that motivated him to seriously consider running for Senate.

“It’s hard to describe, not being involved in politics, how it affected me and affected tens of millions of people all over this country. And it was a wake-up call,” Finebaum said of Kirk’s assassination.

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Sen. Tommy Tuberville, R-Alabama, arrives for a Senate Republican Caucus luncheon at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, DC, April 2, 2025. (Nathan Posner/Anadolu via Getty Images)

Finebaum also said in the interview that if Trump told him, “Paul, you’re my man,” he would find it “impossible to say no to him.”

“I can’t do it. I would tell him yes,” he said.

If he enters the race, Finebaum would be running to replace another football star, Sen. Tommy Tuberville, best known for leading Auburn University to an undefeated season capped by an SEC championship in 2004. Tuberville, who has been an outspoken conservative voice in the Senate since his election in 2021, is running for governor of Alabama in 2026.

Other candidates already declared in the Alabama Senate race include state Attorney General Steve Marshall and Alabama Republican Rep. Barry Moore.

Jackson said that although Tuberville had taken political positions before, he considered Finebaum an “unknown entity.”

“Finebaum, it’s basically like I’m famous. I’m a big radio guy, people like me. Why can’t I be a senator? And it’s just a pretty strange thing,” Jackson said.

When reached for comment, Finebaum told Fox News Digital, “I’ll come back when I have something substantive to say.”

For his part, Tuberville praised Finebaum.

“Paul is intelligent. He loves the country,” Tuberville told the show “War Room” podcast. “Again, I’ve been a friend for a long time. I haven’t talked to him about it. I did an interview with him, 30 minutes, about two months ago, face to face. It went well.”

“I tell you, he has 100 percent Alabama identity. He would have a lot of important people behind him. He would be a force in the race if he decided to go for it. … Paul is a good guy, a good friend.”

Some voices, for their part, were much more critical of the possibility of a Finebaum campaign. A Republican national strategist who works on U.S. Senate elections told Fox News Digital, “You can’t hate President Trump and Republican voters and win a Republican primary. »

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Paul Finebaum and Tim Tebow take a selfie on the SEC Nation set before the game between the Mississippi State Bulldogs and the Arkansas Razorbacks on October 8, 2022 at Wade Davis Stadium in Starkville, Mississippi. (Michael Wade/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)

“Paul Finebaum trashed President Trump, encouraged tyrannical masking during COVID, and proclaimed his support for Black Lives Matter,” the strategist said, adding, “Finebaum’s experience as a sports analyst apparently doesn’t translate to analyzing his own political prospects. This Trump-hating RINO (Republican in name only) has virtually no chance of winning a GOP primary in Alabama.”

Former state Rep. Ed Henry, who was co-chairman of Donald Trump’s 2016 Alabama campaign, told Fox News Digital that when he heard Finebaum was considering a run for Senate, “I laughed, because I thought, ‘Oh great, we have another person in this race who caves every time we put pressure on him.'”

“I think he’s a great guy; he’s said some good things. But when the pressure is on, he breaks, he collapses, he distorts, and that’s not what we need,” Henry added.

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The former representative said what Alabama needs is “someone who has been through fire, who has been tested, who has been found true to their word.”