Paul Finebaum Describes Interaction With Concerned Fan At Smoothie King During ESPN Layoffs
Paul Finebaum was just like all of us during last Friday's bloodletting at ESPN.
The longtime college football personality was constantly refreshing Twitter -- before Elon's rate limits, of course -- and praying he didn't see his name.
Obviously, he didn't. You wanna talk about a stunner, firing Paul Finebaum would've certainly been a wild choice.
But he survived, unlike several others, in what he called a surreal day while filling in on the Marchand and Ourand Sports Media Podcast this week.
“We’re tired of refreshing his Twitter feed to see if we’ll be around the next couple of years,” Finebaum said of the NY Post's Andrew Marchand. "Nobody knew Friday, especially those of us on the air, whether we’d be around at the end of the day."
Paul Finebaum avoids ESPN layoffs
Finebaum has been at ESPN for decades, and is most well known for pissing off SEC fans on his radio show.
Apparently, though, even that wasn't enough to give him some peace of mind while the bullets were flying at ESPN last Friday.
In fact, he even took a little trip to the Smoothie King during lunch and ran into a concerned fan.
“I went out to grab a smoothie for lunch — this was no day to be gone for long — and as I’m walking out of the Smoothie King a lady walked up to me and she said, ‘Are you Paul Finebaum?’” he explained.
“I said, ‘Yes ma’am.’ She said, ‘I watch your show.’ I said, ‘Well, thank you very much.’ And as I was getting into my car she said, ‘You haven’t been laid off yet.’ But that’s part of it. And I said, ‘not yet.’"
The obvious takeaway there is ... Smoothie King? Who the hell goes to Smoothie King? I'm not sure I've been in one in a solid 10 years. Maybe longer. Frankly, didn't even know they still existed.
Tropical Smoothie is the far superior smoothie place, for those wondering.
Anyway, it was a wild day last Friday up at ESPN HQ and it appears everyone was on alert. Glad Paul dodged the bullets -- for now.
Head on a swivel, big guy.
