What is Paul Finebaum's Problem with Coach Lane Kiffen?

At this point, it looks very personal and increasingly less about football.

Finebaum seems to be surrounded by a familiar media chorus, such as Ross Dellenger, John Talty, Pat Forde, Pete Thamel, Mike Bratton, and others who are ready to pile on Kiffin from every direction. I am not claiming they are secretly coordinating with one another. I am saying the pattern is hard to miss: (1) the same outrage, (2) the same personal shots, and (3) the same obsession with turning Lane Kiffin into the story instead of analyzing the damn football.

I have never seen a senior sports commentator appear this emotionally invested in tearing down one coach. Finebaum increasingly comes across less like an analyst and more like someone with a personal grievance he simply cannot let go.

Call Kiffin arrogant. Criticize his coaching. Challenge his decisions. Question his results. That is sports commentary.

But when the criticism becomes repetitive, personal, theatrical, and seemingly endless, it begins to look less like analysis and more like fixation.

Paul, at some point, put the pom-poms down, put whatever personal issue you appear to have with Lane Kiffin aside, and analyze the damn football. Stop behaving as though Kiffin personally did something to you. You are an experienced national commentator, not somebody arguing in the back corner of a sports bar. Show some professionalism. Show some class.

And here is another question: Finebaum is one of the most recognizable voices on SEC Network, yet where is the same intensity when SEC Commissioner Greg Sankey himself becomes the target of significant public criticism? ESPN describes Finebaum as a longtime SEC Network host and commentator, so criticism involving the conference itself is certainly within his normal territory.

LSU supporters were frustrated enough that a “FIRE SANKEY” billboard actually went up in Birmingham, reportedly near SEC headquarters. That is not speculation because the billboard was publicly reported on September 11.

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So where is the extended Finebaum monologue about that? Where is the outrage? Where is the obsession regarding Sankey's loss of institutional control in the SEC with other schools, not named LSU? You are a selective "BIAS Commenter," along with the SEC Office.

If you are going to be one of the loudest voices covering the SEC, then bring the same energy when the criticism points upward at the conference office that you bring when it points downward at Lane Kiffin.

Paul, analyze the football. Challenge everybody by the same standard. And stop making yourself part of the story.