How Paul Finebaum Ended Up at ESPN (AUDIO)

It has been over four months since Paul Finebaum has been on local radio, but on Tuesday the legendary broadcaster checked into The Game in Tuscaloosa.

Finebaum had been off the air since January 21st when he left WJOX in Birmingham after the expiration of his contract. After months of speculation, Finebaum ended the silence in a report from the Wall Street Journal last week, announcing he would be moving to Charlotte, North Carolina to join ESPN and the soon to be launched SEC Network.

Finebaum took a moment during his appearance in the show to explain the series of events that led him to ESPN:

It started about a year ago at this point-to cut to the chase I received a call from, well I met, then received a call from Sirius XM. You know, we were on Sirius for many many years and during the summer I made two or three trips to New York to meet with Sirius.

They were very aggressive and they clearly wanted an exclusive relationship; it wasn't anything I could act on at the time because of contractual reasons, but I could certainly have conversations. About August I decided because of that to hire an agent from CAA in Beverly Hills and it so happens that CAA now represents Nick Saban, Jimmy Sexton went to work for them and he began talking to ESPN and part of that conversation involved the SEC network which as you know won't be until next year.

Most of that was kinda pushed to the side as the college football season ended and then in January, January 21st I left WJOX it wasn't easy to do but you start talking to all these people and they said to me if its best way to achieve what you want to achieve is unfortunately to walk away and wait 3 months so then you cant talk to anyone, you can go anywhere, you can do anything. During this process ESPN, I knew was out there but I didn't really know until recently that they wanted me, number one to be so prominent with the network and two, to move to Charlotte.

So this all started happening and to say the least it wasn't easy I had other conciterations; my wife has a very successful medical practice and I just laid out what the situation was and she said take it, which I did.

Audio comes courtesy of The Game airing weeknight on 99.1 WDGM. The show can also be heard on 991wdgm.com and via the Radio Pup application for Androids and Iphones. The entire interview can be heard below: