Paul Finebaum rips Clemson's 'pettiness' after Tigers player said Notre Dame, not Alabama, was best team they faced
Clemson OG John Simpson got the attention of ACC fans, SEC fans and Paul Finebaum Wednesday when he told reporters that Notre Dame, not Alabama, was the best team the Tigers faced in the 2018 season.
Discussing the story during his Wednesday show from SEC Media Days in Hoover, Alabama, Finebaum unloaded on Simpson’s comment, saying it reflected the “pettiness” of the Clemson program. Here’s what Finebaum said on his SEC Network show:
“I’m not in the business of criticizing college players,” Finebaum said, “but that is easily one of the stupidest comments I have ever heard. Alabama was a phenomenal football team last year. Notre Dame was good, but they were not as good as Alabama. Alabama would’ve destroyed Notre Dame, and what you get there in John Simpson’s comments is just the pettiness of a program that is unaccustomed to being at the epicenter of this sport.
“And Clemson has won two championships, and they deserve them. (Dabo Swinney) I think is a phenomenal coach. It’s a great program. But when faces of a program like that say stupid things like that, it’s demeaning to what the program has accomplished. And I’ve said this couple of times, I’m gonna say it again, Clemson just doesn’t know how to win yet. Maybe they will at some point, but not yet. And I hope that they can learn to deal with being No. 1 and being in the spotlight. Because so far, a lot of their comments and their behavior, both the last time two years ago and today, have been really embarrassing.”
Simpson’s comments appeared to be in direct response to Alabama LB Dylan Moses declining to call Clemson the better team in the national championship game (the Tigers beat the Crimson Tide 44-16) and calling Georgia the hardest team he faced in UA’s 2018 campaign. It’s unclear if Finebaum was aware that Simpson’s comments came after Moses’ comments made headlines.
LOTS of questions here at Media Day about the Alabama remarks about Clemson/Clemson not getting its credit. John Simpson says Notre Dame -not Bama- was the best team Clemson played.
— Grace Raynor (@gmraynor) July 17, 2019
[H/T 247Sports]
Man people are sure making a lot out of nothing on all this….
That’s why they call it the talking season.
Alabama was way better than Notre Dame but geez Fienbaum can you quit coddling Saban’s balls once in a while? What a homer.
I don’t understand the homer label on Finebaum when it comes to Saban/Bama. Finebaum has, just in the past few months, suggested that Bama’s dynasty is over due to coaching turnover, and he also stated that Clemson/Dabo have surpassed Bama to become the new dominant power in college football. Doesn’t sound like things a homer would say.
He also famously got into a verbal altercation with Saban during Media days over the Cam Robinson legal issues because Paul thought Saban was handling it poorly.
I’m not a big Finebaum fan, but I don’t think he plays the homer role that folks like to label him with. I think you’re just seeing it that way because Bama has ruled the world for so long that if he acknowledges that from time to time then he must be a homer.
LOL, you serious? Finebaum is the biggest SEC/Bama homer there is.
Paul sounds dumber than ever here. Clemson has won two of the last three NC’s. They clearly know how to win. Paul says nothing of Moses comments. He’s just a homer.
Clomson winning the natty is like the guy that wins the lottery and instead of first getting a financial advisor they go out and buy a 350K Ferrari. In other words he (clemson) is totally not use to have money(winning) and do not know how to handle it. This is what happens when your program has been mediocre for a long time and you finally strike gold.
It’s not like that at all. Are you saying they won two lotteries? Your take is ridiculous.
Dude just keep in mind 8-0 in the last 8 games against LSU. Until LSU can even be competitive against Bama it’s difficult to take comments from LSU fans seriously
Sure. That’s as dumb as your previous comment. Only an idiot thinks he gets smarter when his team wins.
Finebaum has zero place to speak for a player. He has no experience having played one snap of football. He is being petty. If you aren’t building a monument to Alabama then you must be talking bad about them. Think about this from a players point of view. Maybe ND players hit harder. Maybe the line couldn’t be penetrated that day. Maybe the speed seemed greater. The scoreboard is one thing but the games I remember best are the ones that made me hurt for two days after. I don’t even remember the scores. We won. But they kicked our ass on every play. Finebaum. Got over the bromance you have with Alabama and remember this. Alabama sucked not that long ago and it will come around again. Will you be in love then? I’m waiting to see and I’ll remind you just how much of a bandwagon fan you are.
We will all find out how good ND is on Sept 21 in Athens.
@ LSUSMC . Yep, about as DUMB as an LSU fan having anything to say about Bama which literally owns LSU. LSU is not taken seriously anymore. CBS decided not to pick up the Bama vs LSU game this year and you want to know why because LSU is not seen as a threat to Bama anymore. For this reason the smart LSU fan would stick to LSU blogs and avoid Bama blogs because like your team you are now IRRELEVANT!
RollTide!!!
Anyone having to read your comments is now dumber, grats. You beating LSU has absolutely nothing to do with how stupid you are.
Jaysus Kuhriste…I think I like the LeghumperU version of King NEGAN better than this water downed TrunksnorterU version…