Paul Finebaum uses Pat McAfee as defense for cursing, delivers dagger to Miami over CFP hopes

The Paul Finebaum Show always leads to some interesting back-and-forth with callers, and the show’s host fired a shot across the bow of Miami ahead of tonight’s College Football Playoff rankings reveal.

The barb came after a back-and-forth over Kalen DeBoer dropping a curse word in a speech to his team.

“Did you hear DeBeor cuss today?” asked Johnny B., a caller on the Finebaum Show.

Finebaum hadn’t yet heard the clip, so Johnny B. launched into a brief explanation of the moment, which caught the ear of many Alabama fans in the middle of the week.

“They show the practice before your show came on and that was pretty disappointing to watch,” Johnny B. said. “By the way, he may just be a cold-weather coach, if that Ohio State thing opens up, that may be right up his alley. But he said y’all are ‘so damned resilient.’ Half of them had to turn around and ask what resilient meant.”

Finebaum wasn’t sold on the cursing part.

“Listen, is that a curse word?” Finebaum asked.

The two went back and forth a touch before Finebaum revealed he’d very much like to start cursing on his own program.

“You know, if he curses I may start cursing,” Finebaum said. “I have always wanted to curse on this show, like some other talk show hosts. I’m not going to just use like that word and the other word, I mean I’m going to go full bore.”

Johnny B. didn’t miss a beat, quipping right back.

“You might as well get fined and get you some time off,” he said.

So Finebaum immediately went on the defensive, invoking Pat McAfee and his show as a defense of sorts. Then he delivered the dagger to Miami.

“Listen, we’ve got a guy on ESPN that does all that,” Finebaum said. “Nobody’s said anything to him. You don’t think they’re going to say something to me, do you?

“I’ll tell you what, if Miami gets in (the College Football Playoff field) tonight you better put me on the camera because I may violate that code.”