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ESPN star pulled off TV days after declaring he’s joining GOP?

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Longtime ESPN personality and SEC Network host Paul Finebaum hasn’t appeared on ESPN since he sat down last week for an interview with OutKick’s Clay Travis.

During their interview, Finebaum said he is considering run for the U.S. Senate on the Republican ticket following the shooting death of conservative activist Charlie Kirk, and disclosing that the powerful sports network nixed the idea a potential interview with President Trump.

However, since the interview with Travis dropped, Finebaum has not been seen on camera.

Finebaum, who appears on a wide array of ESPN programming on a weekly basis throughout the college football season, has not made several of his regularly scheduled appearances since the interview aired last week.

Now in an explosive turn of events, Travis posted on X that he has sources that have told him that Finebaum has been “cancelled” since the interview.

“Disney/ESPN has removed Finebaum from appearing on ESPN since his OutKick interview expressing interest in running as a Republican for senate in Alabama,” Travis tweeted.

“ESPN has canceled all network appearances on all shows, including some that have occurred for a decade plus.”

Travis’ tweet prompted a fiery response from ESPN’s Vice President of Communications, Bill Hofheimer, who posted on his social media that Travis’ report was “totally false.”

Hofheimer also sent a statement directly to OutKick saying: “Finebaum was never banned. Any reporting on this is totally false.”

However, Travis stood by his claim and reporting regarding Finebaum’s departure:

With conflicting reports of Finebaum’s absence surfacing since yesterday, ESPN finally responded today, indicating that Finebaum WOULD return to his regular programming, without giving an explanation as to why he was not on television since last week.

During the interview that led to Finebaum’s suspicious absence from the network, Finebaum expressed a desire to run for the United States Senate as a Republican in Alabama.

Ironically, ESPN star Stephen A. Smith has expressed multiple times the idea of a presidential run as a Democrat, while still maintaining his regular TV schedule.

Finebaum also accused ESPN of killing a potential interview at the White House with President Donald Trump in 2019. Finebaum, who lined up the interview prior to the LSU-Alabama showdown six years ago, said he let executives at ESPN know that he had an opportunity to interview the president.

“I called my boss, and they killed it. I was devastated. They told me that we were not allowed to mix politics with sports… It was a turning point for me,” Finebaum said of ESPN’s decision to deny him the opportunity to interview the president.

“It was just about the idea of going to the White House to interview the President of the United States. It wasn’t about politics; it was about the game that he was going to attend, the biggest game of the year in college football. I never exactly knew where the kill button came from, but it didn’t happen.”

Take a listen to Finebaum’s whole interview —

About the Author

Cory Templeman is an experienced writer and researcher who has worked with some of the biggest names in the publishing business. Cory lives in South Carolina with his wife and three kids.