Paul Finebaum is a very well known person in America. His four-hour simulcast radio show and television show center on college football and, specifically, the Southeastern Conference, and he has an audience in the millions, according to the SEC Network.
In fact, not only is Finebaum, 66, a household name in the South, but so are some of the people who call in to talk about their favorite team. To quote a 2012 New Yorker profile of him, “In Alabama, the saying goes, there are two types of people: those who admit they listen to Paul Finebaum, and liars.”
He’s so important to his fans that one of them called from the hospital after having a heart attack to say goodbye to Paul personally. And when one superfan of the show (and of Auburn football) died in a car accident in 2018, he went to her funeral.
But if you live outside of the South (or the realm of college football), you may have never heard of him. My editor hadn’t and neither did one of my other colleagues, who’s one of the smartest people I know.
