Tom I Hate Finebaum

The Companion Book of Feral Fans and Fantastic Fixes
1. Auflage 2014
ISBN: 978-1-4835-3431-2
Verlag: BookBaby
Format: EPUB
Kopierschutz: Adobe DRM (»Systemvoraussetzungen)

E-Book, Englisch, 69 Seiten

Major Tom takes on Finebaum who has been given a pass by the local media, and that is just the vehicle to drive home his proposals to improve sports and society. Major Tom offers the solution for cleaning up college sports without paying or unionizing athletes, while giving al the power to the athlete by giving him a choice he has never had before.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Tom, Major

Leseproben

Finebaum’s Book is a Disingenuous Crock of Elephant Dung There are some people who look at an issue from only one direction which creates within those people shadows that create suspicions of just what is concealed in those shadows. Think of a single object in the middle of a room with a couple of lights casting shadows, and how with just one view what features about that object would be missed. To those with only one view, their imaginations of exactly what those shadows reveal about the issue cause them to invent story lines that fit their predetermined attitude and then accept these story lines as facts. This wasted mental exercise which often produces a false deduction could be avoided by shifting positions and acquiring a different view of the issue. Many times the result will reveal that there really wasn’t anything in the shadows, therefore, it is preferable to take that second view of the issue before making false assumptions. If you don’t have the time to take an in depth, 360 view of the object at least a second view gives you more valid information to base your opinion. I have looked at Finebaum from as many sides as I could over the years. Many times over the years I’ve listened to him, he has cast many darts at Alabama, and there were many times he ripped Auburn for good reason. But it was around the time that Logan Young started making headlines that Finebaum started casting scary shadows. Curiosity into why that was, motivated me to see what was in those shadows. For many years, I was able to view Finebaum from many different views and, for who he is on the radio, I have taken as broad a view as possible, along with putting him under a magnifying glass. In support of my claim that I have evaluated Finebaum from more than one angle, I offer for evidence my 8 proposals. Be they big or be they bogus, these proposals were conceived by daring to look at things differently and with the desire to improve some things that need improving. I feel the need to defend my opinions of Finebaum because Finebaum and his backers will dismiss my opinions merely because I graduated from Auburn University. Yes, looking at things from an Auburn point of view is different and it casts different shadows, but I know that and I made sure I viewed him beyond that one point of view. Titled “My Conference Can Beat Your Conference: Why the SEC Rules College Football” Finebaum is trying to appear to be a fan of all the SEC schools. Don’t take that bait. The only reason he is doing that now is that Finebaum is going to be a part of the SEC Network and he needs to reinvent himself as a neutral commentator. That is not true and the evidence proves it. Anyone who has listened to Finebaum over the years knows Alabama is his favorite team and he has a man crush on Saban. Unless SEC stands for Saban’s Entitlement Conference then Finebaum has never been a top to bottom supporterIt is revealing that Finebaum would travel from Birmingham to Tuscaloosa to have his book cover picture shoot in Bryant-Denny stadium. Finebaum said the 2013 season results would carry a major impact on how they would complete the book, and “Expectations were Alabama would win their third BCS championship in a row and the book would be a coronation. When Alabama lost there was some angst. The narrative changed fairly dramatically, but I also think it gave the book more texture and tapestry in terms of being a more complete story, that the SEC is not only about one school. It is not only about one coach.” Clearly everyone can see his book was going to be about Saban and Alabama until Auburn beat the Tide and caused Finebaum to rewrite his book and include, as an after thought, the other thirteen schools in the Conference. A fair and honest commentator would not be pulling for one team over another, and certainly would not feel “angst” because one SEC team upsets another. Many listeners to the Finebaum show are new because of the expansion of the show’s footprint. Make up your own mind. Count the times your school is mentioned favorably during a show or if it is ever mentioned. See for yourself if the show is about the SEC or just about one school like his statement implied. Finebaum has created a slew of callers who call his show to agree with positions Finebaum has advocated. Finebaum is so one sided that anytime a negative point against Alabama is made by a caller, Finebaum totally dismisses the veracity of the fact, whereupon numerous Alabama fans would be allowed to trash the caller without refuting the actuality of the statement. The Finebaum Show is an echo chamber of all things Alabama, partly because Auburn fans have quit listening or have learned there is no point to call the show, because of the treatment they receive. Finebaum is balanced in that one side is weighted against Auburn and the other side is weighted for Alabama. One of his old headlines read, “Alabama Finishes Second in Track Event ” and the subhead said “Auburn Finishes Next to Last” It wasn’t until about the third paragraph that Finebaum finally wrote that Auburn had won the duel meet. I would like to see Finebaum change his stripes, but I doubt he can, so I urge new listeners to hold the SEC responsible and if Finebaum doesn’t provide fair coverage, demand a change. Finebaum says about his book, “We peel back the skin a little bit. I think you see the underbelly of not only the SEC but of our show and our callers. The callers play a really nice role in this book.” I call BS that his book will really show the true underbelly of anything without Finebaum airbrushing the warts he chooses. He will write that Updike was an isolated actor and he will make no mention of his role in creating the environment that spawned Updike and the Teabagger. The regular callers to the show are predictable and egregiously self-centered hot-aired hucksters. Finebaum plays to some and with others. Finebaum’s New York based publisher displayed a delusional belief when its promotional statement declared, “If the SEC is a religion, its deity is radio talk show host Paul Finebaum.” How utterly false and preposterous. Many fans of SEC schools outside of the state of Alabama have not had the opportunity to form deep opinions of Finebaum. The promotional hype must have been written when the book was going to feature Saban’s coronation, because Alabama is the only fan base to elevate Finebaum beyond a rabble-rouser. In fact, Auburn fans, who have endured his dogma for years, don’t even consider him decent, much less a deity.   Finebaum Corrupted the Legal System in Alabama After both Finebaum and his sidekick Cecil Hurt became silent stakeholders in two jury trials against the NCAA, they loudly and constantly spoke to and manipulated the jury pool and maybe tampered with the juries who returned two $30,000,000 verdicts. For months, Finebaum and Hurt extolled the plaintiffs and demonized the defendants in their roles as sportswriter and commentator. That’s the problem! Finebaum and Hurt have the freedom of speech to talk and write about whatever they want, but when they have a financial or personal interest in an issue they are required by ethics to disclose that relationship. Sportswriters and sport commentators are under an obligation to the public to disclose when they are too connected to an issue, because they become advocates for a side of an issue and they lose their objectivity, their impartiality, and their fairness and public accountability. Finebaum admitted his connection to the Cottrell Team when a $30,000,000 verdict was delivered against an individual named Tom Culpepper for three defamatory statements made against former Alabama assistant coach Ronnie Cottrell, when he declared, “We won.” Hurt was exposed in the second trial in Scottsboro, when phone records and a loan connected him to the plaintiff in that case, Ray Keller. This ugly chapter of Alabama football blew up when an assistant high school coach went public that his head coach sold his star player, Albert Means, to the highest bidder - Alabama, through Logan Young. Young was as closely connected to Alabama as anyone. He had been good friends with Coach Bryant and was good friends with Alabama Athletic director Mal Moore, who at times would stay at his house in Memphis and he held a special insider status at the University. Young was obsessed with recruiting and had close ties to recruiting coordinator Ronnie Cottrell, who he had given an improper loan and to Ivy Williams, who recruited the Memphis area and who he talked to over 200 times leading up to Means’ signing day. This was the low spot in the University of Alabama football program. During this time Head Coach Mike Dubose had an affair with a subordinate, called a press conference and lied to the press and Alabama was put on NCAA probation for Logan Young’s cheating, but Dubose still survived with his job until he went 3-8 and had to be fired, because Alabama can’t put up with that. On January 10, 2001, USA Today published the story of Means being sold by his head football coach Lynn Lang. That surprising development created a fury of activity. Less than two weeks later the FBI launched an investigation that resulted in indictments and eventual guilty pleas from Lang and the assistant. It also prompted an NCAA investigation that produced allegations against Alabama in September of the same year. With these bombs being dropped, Logan Young devised his defense. He would blame it all on a conspiracy. And he would be pro-active. After the NCAA punished Alabama and two of its coaches mentioned in the reports were fired, Young decided to use Williams and Cottrell and another dissociated...