{"id":1132,"date":"2025-10-09T15:25:24","date_gmt":"2025-10-09T15:25:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/podcasts\/?p=1132"},"modified":"2025-10-09T15:25:24","modified_gmt":"2025-10-09T15:25:24","slug":"finebaum-returns-to-espn-after-absence-amid-senate-run-speculation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/podcasts\/finebaum-returns-to-espn-after-absence-amid-senate-run-speculation\/","title":{"rendered":"Finebaum Returns To ESPN After Absence Amid Senate Run Speculation"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>ESPN\/SEC Network personality Paul Finebaum returned to ESPN\u2019s airwaves on Tuesday morning after a week-long absence from the network\u2019s main channel, following his <a  href=\"https:\/\/www.outkick.com\/sports\/paul-finebaum-espn-us-senate-outkick-exclusive\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">OutKick.com interview<\/a> with Clay Travis. In that interview, Finebaum expressed interest in running for a U.S. Senate seat in Alabama and criticized ESPN for preventing him from interviewing President Donald Trump in 2019.<\/p>\n<h2>Controversial Host Paul Finebaum Off ESPN Last Week<\/h2>\n<h3>Finebaum Returned starting Tuesday<\/h3>\n<p>Finebaum reappeared on the &#8220;Get Up&#8221; morning show with Mike Greenberg, where he took aim at Penn State and Texas, both of which suffered their second losses of the season over the weekend. The Nittany Lions and Longhorns, preseason top-3 teams in most polls, now stand at 3-2 just one week into October.<\/p>\n<p>On Monday, Clay Travis and other media outlets reported that Finebaum was not allowed to appear on ESPN\u2019s main channel for several days following his OutKick remarks\/interview with them. However, Finebaum continued to host his daily SEC Network\/ESPN Radio simulcast show and appeared in his regular role on <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/podcasts\/big-12-sec-breakdown-chad-withrow-previews-week-3\/\" target=\"_self\">the &#8220;SEC Nation&#8221; pregame show<\/a> on Saturday.<\/p>\n<p>Hear T.J. Rives and Tyler Jones debate Finebaum&#8217;s absence and ESPN&#8217;s seemingly lame response on our <a href=\"http:\/\/www.lastwordonsports.com\/podcasts\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">&#8220;Last Word on Sports Media&#8221; podcast<\/a> by clicking play below,<\/p>\n<p><iframe style=\"width: 100%; max-width: 660px; overflow: hidden; border-radius: 10px;\" src=\"https:\/\/embed.podcasts.apple.com\/us\/podcast\/mark-sanchez-bizarre-fight-stabbing-arrest-paul-finebaum\/id1549396526?i=1000730717657\" height=\"175\" frameborder=\"0\" sandbox=\"allow-forms allow-popups allow-same-origin allow-scripts allow-storage-access-by-user-activation allow-top-navigation-by-user-activation\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<h3>ESPN Made &#8220;Hollow Claim&#8221; About Finebaum&#8217;s Absence<\/h3>\n<p>ESPN public relations manager Bill Hofheimer refuted Travis\u2019s report, calling it \u201cTOTALLY FALSE\u201d in an X post. However, according to OutKick\u2019s Bobby Burack, when pressed for clarification on Finebaum\u2019s absence from shows like SportsCenter, &#8220;Get Up&#8221; and &#8220;First Take,&#8221; ESPN stated that the network was providing opportunities to other college football analysts in case Finebaum pursues a Senate campaign run.<\/p>\n<p>Finebaum also returned to &#8220;First Take&#8221; on Tuesday, where host Stephen A. Smith welcomed him warmly, saying, \u201cIt\u2019s good to see you. I missed you last week, buddy.\u201d Notably, Smith, who has openly discussed a potential presidential run, faced no similar restrictions and recently, signed a new five-year, $100 million-plus contract with ESPN.<\/p>\n<p>Finebaum\u2019s situation adds to ongoing scrutiny of ESPN\u2019s handling of conservative voices. Former hosts Sage Steele, Samantha Ponder, and Ashley Brewer have claimed the network disciplined them or eventually ended their employment for expressing conservative views. This, while taking no comparable actions against those voicing leftist\/liberal opinions on air.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>ESPN\/SEC Network personality Paul Finebaum returned to ESPN\u2019s airwaves on Tuesday morning after a week-long absence from the network\u2019s main channel, following his OutKick.com interview with Clay Travis. In that interview, Finebaum expressed interest in running for a U.S. Senate seat in Alabama and criticized ESPN for preventing him from interviewing President Donald Trump in [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4448,"featured_media":1136,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[132,31,62,265],"class_list":["post-1132","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-espn","tag-featured","tag-sec","tag-sec-network"],"modified_by":"TJ Rives","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/podcasts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1132","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/podcasts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/podcasts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/podcasts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4448"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/podcasts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1132"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/podcasts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1132\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1139,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/podcasts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1132\/revisions\/1139"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/podcasts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1136"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/podcasts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1132"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/podcasts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1132"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/podcasts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1132"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}