ESPN analyst Paul Finebaum, who has spent a lot of his broadcast profession opining on Alabama soccer, mentioned he’s severely pondering a bid to fill the state’s U.S. Senate seat being vacated by Tommy Tuberville (R). Tuberville, the previous Auburn soccer coach, has launched a 2026 marketing campaign for governor.
Finebaum mentioned his resolution can be clinched if President Donald Trump requested him to do it.
“Impossible to tell him no,” Finebaum advised Clay Travis of the conservative OutKick web site on Monday. “There’s no way I could. I would tell him yes.”
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Within the interview, Finebaum principally got here out as a Republican who voted for Trump in 2024 regardless of saying that ESPN has advised him to maintain a lid on politics, together with his poll choice.
Finebaum is an Alabama establishment. He labored as a newspaper reporter in Birmingham and moved on to internet hosting a well-liked radio present that obtained ESPN to convey him aboard in 2013. He now hosts “The Paul Finebaum Show” on ESPN radio and seems on a number of platforms, together with the SEC Community, for the sports activities channel.
He mentioned the assassination of conservative activist Charlie Kirk would be the closing push he wanted to pursue one thing else.
“I spent four hours numb talking about things that didn’t matter to me. And it kept building throughout that weekend,” Finebaum mentioned. “I felt very empty doing what I was doing that day.”
In a video preview of the interview (watch it beneath), Finebaum acknowledged that somebody Travis described as “high up in the Alabama political universe” had talked to him concerning the Senate bid. The sportscaster described the strategy as “compelling.”
The sports activities community veteran moved from North Carolina again to Alabama final 12 months and re-registered to vote there, he mentioned. He mentioned he would decide in 30 to 45 days.
“I’ve been speaking to Alabamians for 35 years,” Finebaum defined. “I feel like I know who they are. I think they know who I am … you cannot hide when you’re on a radio show.”
