Your take is pretty spot on. I was living in Birmingham in the early 90's. I had met Finebaum, when he was on the Mark and Brian show and he was better known as a writer for the Post Herald. In 84 he was famous for pissing off Bama fans and hating on Ray Perkins. A high school friend of mine who became a sports writer for the Huntsville Times, knew Bill Lumpkin and invited me to lunch. Finebaum joined us and he seemed very feminine to me. I was talking to him about Coach Dye and he said he liked him, but that he thought Ray Perkins was a much better coach. He had written an article the week before, when Bama had an open date, he picked open to win by 3. (This was Bama's 5-6 season when they lost to Vandy) I was under the impression he hated Perkins. But he spoke very highly of him that day. The very next day he was in the paper criticizing him. I got the impression that he knew that was what sold papers. Later in 1990 my brother owned a construction/ Glass company and he had contracts with many apartment complexes. Andy Kennedy lived in an apartment complex on Valley Ave and I was working for my brother doing some tile work in his apartment. Paul was there with coach Bartow,I got to talking to him and got the impression he wasn't really a sports guy. he just like to stir things up. If I can admire him for anything, it is he knew how to market himself. I stopped listening years ago. Whenever I see him on tv as "College football expert" I just shake my head. I know that Matt Coulter and John Pruitt absolutely hated him and thought he was what's wrong with journalism. He just sensationalized crap whenever he could. He made a nice career for himself, good for him. But I do not like him at all.
(He did however know a lot about politics. I had never heard of Bill Clinton in those days but Paul said I should read about him. He said he might be President one day.)