ESPN accused of pulling Paul Finebaum after he revealed Republican political aspirations

Two sports media figures are accusing ESPN of sidelining a top college football analyst after he revealed his own Republican political aspirations.

OutKick.com's Clay Travis and On3's Pete Nakos both claim the network pulled on-air veteran Paul Finebaum from his regular ESPN appearances after he publicly expressed interest in running for U.S. Senate in Alabama.

'ESPN has canceled all network appearances on all shows, including some that have occurred for a decade plus,' Travis claimed online.

However, ESPN Vice President of Communications Bill Hofheimer has slammed this report, describing it on X as 'TOTALLY FALSE.'

Travis has since responded to Hofheimer, claiming the ESPN executive is wrong about the network's decision.

'LOL,' Travis wrote. 'This decision is above your pay grade, Bill. Why wasn't [Paul Finebaum] on Sunday AM SportsCenter yesterday? Or First Take this morning? For the first time in over a decade? Reacting to one of the biggest college football weekends of the year? I stand by my sources.'

In an emailed response to Daily Mail, ESPN spokespeople denied banning Finebaum and said he is scheduled to appear on Tuesday's episode of First Take, which has been on the calendar for some time. He will also appear on SportsCenter this weekend, Daily Mail is told.

Network spokespeople also stressed that on-air appearances typically vary from week to week, adding that the ESPN is trying to get reps for other analysts in the event he does choose to run for office.

ESPN is additionally trying to prevent analysts from appearing on both Get Up and First Take, two of the network's most popular daytime talk shows. And as an ESPN spokesperson told Daily Mail, Finebaum has been impacted by this strategy.

Finally, the 70-year-old's role on the SEC Network and his own show remain unchanged, Daily Mail is told.

Still, Travis isn't buying it ESPN's story.

'As of the present moment, per sources, @finebaum has still not been asked to appear on First Take tomorrow morning. @espn is a complete dumpster fire. You guys even lie like s*** @bhofheimer_espn @RobertIger. Just admit what you did and stop telling bad lies.'

Finebaum recently broke the news about his political aspirations to Travis, saying he is weighing up a run for the senate seat expected to be vacated by former Auburn football coach, Tommy Tuberville, who is expected to run for Governor.

Finebaum specifically cited the murder of 31-year-old conservative activist Charlie Kirk as a reason he could jump into politics.

'It's hard to describe, not being involved in politics, how that affected me and affected tens of millions of people all over this country,' Finebaum said. 'And it was an awakening.'

Finebaum also admitted that he felt 'empty' doing his four-hour daily show in the wake of Kirk's death.

'I spent four hours numb talking about things that didn't matter to me. And it kept building throughout that weekend,' he said.

While ESPN personalities are generally discouraged from talking about politics publicly, Finebaum confirmed during the interview that he was a registered Republican and voted for Donald Trump.

And while he's yet to make a final decision on his future, he admitted it would be tough to tell the President 'no' if he was approached by him to run for the Senate seat.

'Impossible to tell him no. There's no way I could. I would tell him yes,' Finebaum said.

Nonetheless, Finebaum revealed that 'one or two people in Washington' had reached out to him to broach his interest in running for politics.

'I ended up talking to someone… who made it clear that there was a desire for me to be involved. And this person… was compelling and compassionate in the approach to me, and I started thinking about this,' Finebaum said.

Former Auburn basketball coach Bruce Pearl has also been mentioned as a potential candidate, but he told reporters following his recent retirement that he has no plans to run.