Screengrab: ‘The Paul Finebaum Show’

Notorious for his candor, Paul Finebaum isn’t holding back when it comes to sports media’s handling of Brian Kelly’s NIL comments. Finebaum, one of ESPN’s lead college football personalities, was particularly critical of how those comments were perceived, fueling misinterpretations about the use of NIL inside Kelly’s program.

Kelly’s comments about prioritizing development and team culture over simply “buying players” saw those in sports media claim LSU’s commitment — or lack thereof — to NIL alongside player growth and success.

During an appearance on McElroy and Cubelic in the Morning on Monday, Finebaum took issue with the media’s aggregation of Kelly’s comments, calling it a symptom of how modern say sports media has lost the public’s trust.

“What happened last week was a major indictment of the sports media today and why, in many ways, it is not to be believed,” said Finebaum. “I say that coming from a position where I’m often criticized, as you guys are, for how we handle certain stories. It was media malpractice. It was absolutely disgraceful – the way so many people took that and ran with it without having any idea of what Brian Kelly said.

“By the way, you don’t have to listen to 20 minutes. All you need to do is listen to two minutes of his specific answer to Jacques Doucet’s question. It made perfect sense, but by the time we get a chance to listen to it nowadays in the media, guys, everybody has already disseminated their hot takes and their kill shots. It’s very hard to put the genie back in the bottle.”

The genie Finebaum is referring to is the perception that LSU’s program under Kelly is not in the business of using NIL to attract players to come to Baton Rouge. That’s not necessarily true, nor is it what the LSU head coach was implying. Instead, when having a recent conversation about not landing certain defensive linemen in the transfer portal this offseason, Kelly said that his program is not in the market for buying players. Some guys are looking to “be bought,” but that isn’t what Kelly and LSU are reportedly prioritizing.

That’s not to say that NIL isn’t part of their program — it is — but it’s not LSU’s main selling point.

With that, there became a perception that Kelly had adopted the same feeling as Clemson head coach Dabo Swinney, who has only used the transfer portal to bring in quarterback depth—one of those players having previously played at Clemson.

“It was completely and totally unfair for Brian Kelly,” Finebaum added. “Even after we said what we did and after intelligent people and responsible people in the media have said what they did, it’s almost too late because most people right now who just kind of drive by and listen to things in quick, hot-take time probably believe Brian Kelly is against NIL and is Dabo Swinney 2.0 – when we all know that he’s not.”

It remains to be seen whether Kelly can shake that perception. In any event, it’ll probably lead to coaches becoming increasingly more careful when discussing Name, Image, and Likeness on public platforms.

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About Sam Neumann

Since the beginning of 2023, Sam has been a staff writer for Awful Announcing and The Comeback. A 2021 graduate of Temple University, Sam is a Charlotte native, who currently calls Greenville, South Carolina his home. He also has a love/hate relationship with the New York Mets and Jets.