After Paul Finebaum revealed he’s considering a Senate run in Alabama, ESPN quietly removed him from its main shows. The network’s explanation for the move makes little sense — and its double standard is hard to ignore.

PublishedOctober 6, 2025 6:00 PM EDT•UpdatedOctober 6, 2025 9:24 PM EDT

Monday morning, Clay Travis reported that ESPN had removed Paul Finebaum from his regularly scheduled on-air appearances on the main channel after he told OutKick last week that he was considering running for Senate in Alabama as a Republican.

After the report, ESPN public relations manager Bill Hofheimer, a longtime cowardly liar, claimed Clay’s report was inaccurate. "This is not true at all. The below is TOTALLY FALSE," Hofheimer said in an X post.

OutKick then asked ESPN and Hofheimer why Finebaum had not appeared on the main channel since the interview, including missing his weekly spots on the Sunday morning SportsCenter, Get Up, and First Take.

It took the network more than an hour to address the specifics. Eventually, sources within ESPN started spreading a message to the media, including OutKick, claiming the company took Finebaum off the air to give other college football analysts an opportunity in case Finebaum runs for office.

Does that explanation make sense? Does it make sense that immediately after Finebaum’s surprise announcement—which sources say ESPN was unaware of before the interview—the network suddenly decided to test potential replacements?

Finebaum is under contract through at least the end of the college football season. The network has months to try out other analysts.

Also, why didn’t Hofheimer claim that initially? Why did it take ESPN until after we pointed out Finebaum’s specific missed appearances to explain why?

We could keep asking rhetorical questions. The point is clear: ESPN is lying. It first claimed it didn’t remove Finebaum and now claims it did, but not for the obvious reason.

Fortunately for ESPN, stooge-ish media reporters have repeated its message without scrutiny. Here’s Sports Business Journal’s Austin Karp:

"Sources confirm to @sbj that Paul Finebaum was never banned from ESPN airwaves and is scheduled for First Take tomorrow morning. Has been on the schedule for a while now," Karp said on X.

"Confirm," as in ESPN PR said so.

Speaking of Finebaum’s appearance on First Take Tuesday, sources tell OutKick that ESPN has still not informed Finebaum of that appearance as of publication.

It’s understandable that ESPN would be upset. Finebaum appeared on a site often critical of the network, said he voted for Donald Trump, and discussed possibly running for office as a Republican. The issue is that ESPN cannot justify punishing him for those comments when it didn’t remove Stephen A. Smith from television after he announced on various networks that he is considering running for President of the United States as a Democrat.

By the way, notice that ESPN never tested replacements for Stephen A. "in case he runs for office." Instead, ESPN expanded Smith’s role with new monthly appearances on Monday Night Football. 

With all due respect, Smith is far more visible across ESPN than Finebaum. If the network ever needed to prepare for someone’s potential departure, it would be Smith’s.

If Smith ever left, our money is on the Bald Girl. Her nickname, not ours.

In actuality, ESPN would be more respectable if it just admitted it holds employees to different standards based on political views and suspended Finebaum accordingly. Just look at what ESPN’s Mark Jones has said while under contract:

For the record, ESPN never took Mark Jones off the air. Just Finebaum.

The good news is that whether Finebaum runs for office or not, he likely won’t remain at ESPN much longer. And unless he signs an NDA, he will be free to share how ESPN treated him — just as several former ESPN employees with conservative beliefs have.

In recent months, former hosts Sage Steele, Sam Ponder, and Ashley Brewer have provided examples of how the network punished them for voicing conservative views while taking no such action against those who expressed liberal opinions on air.

We expect Finebaum’s account to be just as damning, and to confirm that ESPN and Bill Hofheimer are lying.