Paul Finebaum Appears on ESPN — a Day After Reports That Network Benched Him Over OutKick Interview

A day after reports that ESPN had benched him in response to his political interview on OutKick, college football analyst Paul Finebaum was back in front of the camera.

On Monday, OutKick founder Clay Travis reported that Finebaum had been removed from a number of scheduled appearances on the network. Travis claimed sources told him the move was done as some sort of retribution for the interview in which Finebaum revealed he voted for Donald Trump and was considering running for a U.S. Senate seat in Alabama. Shortly after Travis’ report, a separate report from AL.com confirmed it.

ESPN, however, swiftly denied the claims. Public relations vice president Bill Hofheimer responded to Travis’ tweet by calling it “totally false.” In response to that, Travis stood by his reporting and challenged Hofheimer to explain Finebaum’s absence the previous weekend.

Later that day, a source told Mediaite that Finebaum was scheduled to appear on ESPN on Tuesday. Additionally, the source said the scheduling was done well in advance and was “in no way reactive” to Travis’ reporting.

On Tuesday, Finebaum was indeed back. He first appeared on Get Up to discuss Penn State’s upset loss to UCLA. He then did another hit on First Take. Stephen A. Smith even hinted at Finebaum’s absence, stating he “missed” him.

Watch above via ESPN.