ESPN college football analyst and longtime radio host Paul Finebaum sent shockwaves through the sports world when he revealed that he was interested in potentially running for a United States Senate seat in his home state of Alabama. And while he hasn’t gotten a “complete and total endorsement” from Tommy Tuberville, Alabama’s current senator seems high on the idea.
Finebaum doesn’t have much time to decide whether he wants to leave his job with ESPN, where he is one of the featured college football voices both on the mothership and the SEC Network. Alabama’s qualifying deadline is in January right near the end of the college football season. The stunning revelation came just a week after Auburn basketball coach Bruce Pearl announced his sudden retirement from coaching. Even though Pearl had been strongly linked to a political run of his own, he has already ruled out a Senate bid.
Tuberville knows something about the Auburn to US Senate pipeline. The former coach was with the Tigers for 10 years where he won one SEC title. After two unimpressive stops at Texas Tech and Cincinnati, he ran for a Senate seat as a Republican and won in the deep red state. Now Tuberville is planning to run for Governor in 2026, which opens up a near lock for a legitimate Republican candidate to win as long as they aren’t the second coming of Roy Moore.
Could Paul Finebaum be that person? Tuberville thinks so. In an appearance on the War Room podcast of noted felon Steve Bannon, he said that Finebaum would have “a lot of big people behind him” in Alabama.
“Paul is smart. He loves the country,” Tuberville said. Again, been a friend of mine for a long time. I have not talked with him about it. I did an interview with him, 30 minutes, about 2 months ago face to face. It went well. I tell you, he’s got 100% name ID in Alabama. He’d have a lot of big people behind him. He would be a force in the race if he decided to get into it. But, again, I’m for people that come up here that don’t want to be in politics. They want to come up and help. I don’t support any of them. There’s no reason for me to get involved, but Paul is a good guy, a good friend.”
At the moment, Alabama representative Barry Moore and Attorney General Steve Marshall are the leading contenders to announce their candidacies. But if Finebaum decides to enter the race, he would do so with a huge head start on either politician in the name recognition department. If we’ve learned anything in the modern era of politics, that seems to be a big advantage – just ask Tuberville himself.
Finebaum has been an institution in Alabama for decades. If he decides to enter into the race, the deciding factor could come down to his loyalty and fealty to Donald Trump and his odds in a Republican primary. And early indications are that wouldn’t be an issue given that Finebaum has said he would definitively enter the race if Trump asked him to.
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