Paul Finebaum recalls early SEC Media Days memories, run-ins with Phil Fulmer, Steve Spurrier

Paul Finebaum has seen a lot at SEC Media Days during his career. He was at some of the first media days, and it made for some interesting stories.

One of them came from the early 1990s when Steve Spurrier was at Florida. As it turns out, SEC Media Days weren’t just press conferences and reuniting with other reporters before the start of football season.

For starters, it involved a golf tournament.

“To show you how crazy this event was, I think it was ’90, I guess,” Finebaum said on Always College Football with Greg McElroy. “Steve Spurrier’s first year. They used to have a golf tournament on Wednesday or Thursday in the morning. Spurrier came the night before and it was at Bent Brook, which is a really good public course, and Spurrier played in the golf tournament. Can you imagine here, one of these guys coming in the night before and then going to a golf tournament and hanging out [for] five hours with a bunch of sports writers?”

Finebaum said reporters used to have more casual access to coaches at past media days. In fact, he had a conversation with former Tennessee coach Phil Fulmer one time about former Alabama coach Mike DuBose. The comments made their way to Ronnie Cottrell, an Alabama assistant, and Finebaum found himself dealing with legal troubles.

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“It used to be you could grab a coach and maybe go get some coffee,” Finebaum said. “I remember talking to Phil Fulmer once off-camera about how much of a cheater he thought Mike DuBose was. … I called Spurrier because Spurrier had called DeBose out and he said the guy you need to talk to is Phil.

“It was such a good meeting at Media Days that I started talking about it, and Ronnie Cottrell — who was Mike DuBose’s recruiting coordinator — only sued me over it. Fortunately, he dropped the suit in exchange for some testimony that I gave. Ugly transaction.”

But as 2022 SEC Media Days wrapped up, Finebaum looked back on how far the vent has come, especially as far as attire goes. He didn’t sound like he missed the old days, though.

“It’s a great event,” Finebaum said. “Don’t misunderstand me. And I’m not one of these guys, ‘Oh, no, it’s much better the way it used to be.’ It wasn’t. It was a bunch of overweight sports writers smoking cigars, hungover. Some had showered, some hadn’t. And here we are. This is a button-down event.”