Desmond Howard goes at Paul Finebaum for Michigan takes: 'You can't take anything he says seriously'

If there is an outspoken voice in the college football world, it’s ESPN’s Paul Finebaum. No matter what he is discussing, Finebaum is not afraid to say what he really thinks. Recently, a lot of discussion around the sport has involved Michigan and its sign-stealing scandal.

Finebaum has been incredibly outspoken against the Wolverines and their head coach, Jim Harbaugh. Not everybody at ESPN has been a fan of his words, specifically Desmond Howard. When appearing on the Rich Eisen Show, Howard called out Finebaum and admitted he does not take him seriously.

“Paul Finebaum is a caricature of a caricature of Paul Finebaum,” Howard said. “That’s what he is right now. You can’t take anything he says seriously. You just can’t. It’s like — they march him out there, they pull the string in his back, and he just starts spewing negative things about Michigan.

“When a person does that repeatedly and you just know his shtick, you can’t take him seriously. You take him for what he is. And that’s how I look at Paul Finebaum.”

This is not the first time Howard has been critical of a colleague when it came to the Michigan sign-stealing scandal. He called out Pete Thamel for not being amongst the crowd at ESPN College GameDay when the crew was in Ann Arbor for The Game vs. Ohio State.

Thamel has been reporting on the matter and Howard accused him of being scared of facing Michigan fans in person.

“What are we, Week 13 now? Something like that. So we’ve been doing this 12, 13 weeks. Pete’s always been in the crowd doing his reports. I’m like, ‘What the hell is Pete in the stadium for?’” Howard said on ESPN College GameDay. “That kind of just threw me off, like put your big boy pants on and do it in the crowd like you normally do it. I was surprised by that. I thought he would be out here.”

Howard is likely going to defend Michigan no matter what, winning the Heisman Trophy there as a player in 1991. He and Finebaum will likely disagree on the upcoming Rose Bowl, where the top-ranked Wolverines will face off against Alabama for a spot in the College Football Playoff national championship.

But based on his recent comments, Howard will not be listening too much to what Finebaum has to say about the matchup.