Paul Finebaum Welcomed Back To ESPN By Stephen A. Smith: 'Missed You Last Week Buddy'

Paul Finebaum returned to ESPN's airwaves on Tuesday morning and got a very warm, perhaps not so subtle, welcome back from Stephen A. Smith on First Take.

"First of all, it's good to see you, I missed you last week buddy," Smith said to Finebaum, after the long-time SEC pundit missed his appearance last week.  

Finebaum's appearance was his second of the day on ESPN. He was on Get Up on Tuesday morning before returning less than an hour later for his chat with Smith and First Take co-host Shae Cornette. 

The pair of appearances on ESPN by Finebaum would otherwise be business as usual, if not for a report from OutKick on Monday that highlighted that the SEC Network host missed several of his regularly scheduled ESPN appearances last week. 

The absence came after OutKick released a lengthy interview between founder Clay Travis and Finebaum, during which Finebaum mentioned an interest in running for the U.S. Senate and told the story of how ESPN "killed" an interview with President Trump during his first term.

ESPN VP of Communication Bill Hofheimer told OutKick on Monday, "Finebaum was never banned. Any reporting on this is totally false." 

Sources told OutKick that Finebaum's absence was an ESPN reaction to that interview. ESPN insisted that wasn't the case, and it appears the company decided to wildly overcompensate. 

Avoiding The Same Guests

A source within ESPN told OutKick on Monday that part of the reason Finebaum missed some of his regularly scheduled appearances is because the company wants to avoid having the same person appear on multiple shows on the same day – specifically Get Up and First Take. 

Yet, less than 24 hours later, Finebaum did exactly that. OutKick reached back out to the ESPN source to ask why Finebaum appeared on both shows despite the company attempting to stop that from happening. The source said that the edict was a work-in-progress and sometimes a person would appear on the two programs on the same day. 

Paul Finebaum returned to ESPN's airwaves on Tuesday morning and got a very warm, perhaps not so subtle, welcome back from Stephen A. Smith on <i>First Take</i>.

(Getty Images)

On Monday, a source at ESPN told OutKick that the network wanted to try out different college football analysts so that if Finebaum decides to run for the Senate, it would be prepared to replace him. That was another reason given why Finebaum didn't make several appearances. 

On Tuesday, ESPN's Hofheimer made sure to post a video on social media showing Finebaum's appearance on Get Up. It was the first video of ESPN content posted on Hofheimer's X account in over a week.

Sending a Message?

So, the network wanted to try out other college football analysts, but decided that it needed Finebaum on both Get Up and First Take on Tuesday. Doesn't it seem like those would be good spots to try out some new college football analysts?

Unless the goal wasn't to try out different college football analysts, but rather was meant to send Finebaum a message about doing interviews with OutKick during which he talks politics and the inner workings of ESPN.

Then, after OutKick called out ESPN for clearly sidelining Finebaum, it panicked and tried to damage control by parading Finebaum out on as many shows as possible to refute our reporting. 

Except it had the opposite effect. It now seems more clear than ever that ESPN likely benched Finebaum, hoping no one would notice, then overreacted when someone did. 

What a mess that ESPN created, and they didn't even do a good job cleaning it up.