Paul Finebaum just elevated his longstanding feud with Jim Harbaugh to new levels during Friday’s First Take on ESPN. The SEC Network host flatly declared the former Michigan head coach “stole a national championship” after the NCAA levied significant penalties stemming from its two-year investigation into the Connor Stalions sign-stealing scheme. Finebaum compared Harbaugh escaping […]
Paul Finebaum just elevated his longstanding feud with Jim Harbaugh to new levels during Friday’s First Take on ESPN. The SEC Network host flatly declared the former Michigan head coach “stole a national championship” after the NCAA levied significant penalties stemming from its two-year investigation into the Connor Stalions sign-stealing scheme.
Finebaum compared Harbaugh escaping to the NFL as the head coach of the Los Angeles Chargers after leading the Wolverines to the 2023 College Football Playoff national championship as “highway robbery,” due to the fact that the 61-year-old Harbaugh is unlikely to ever have to serve a second of his unprecedented 10-year show-cause order levied for his involvement in the sign-stealing scandal that cast a shadow over Michigan’s championship season.
“What Jim Harbaugh has done is highway robbery. He stole a national championship, it’s simple as that. He used Connor Stalions, and then he lied and obfuscated, he misled, it’s truly beyond hypocrisy,” Finebaum said during Friday’s First Take. “This is the same guy that shot arrows at everybody a couple of years earlier, he accused Nick Saban of cheating, he accused Kirby Smart. He just blanketly accused everyone, and now look at him holding up a banner. And as soon as he gets the (national championship) bonus, he hightails it out of town with no penalty. Now, do I expect anyone at the Chargers or the NFL offices to do anything? Of course not. But it would be nice if somebody acknowledged it. It’d be nice if Harbaugh even addressed the situation, which of course he has not and will not.”
Finebaum was discussing former Ohio State coach Urban Meyer‘s recent comments seemingly suggesting the NFL could discipline Harbaugh much the same way ex-Buckeyes coach-turned-Ohio Lt. Gov. Jim Tressel was suspended six games in the 2011 season when he was hired by the Indianapolis Colts as a replay consultant due to NCAA violations stemming from the infamous “Tattoogate” scandal in 2010.
Finebaum, for his part, later acknowledged he has no expectation of any further discipline coming from the NFL, and also made it clear he was being superfluous by suggesting Harbaugh “stole” the national championship trophy. Still, Finebaum doubled-down on his belief Harbaugh’s involvement or knowledge of Stalions’ sign-stealing scheme certainly casts Michigan’s 2023 championship season in a dubious light.
“Listen, this whole thing stinks, and I realize nothing is going to happen, because that’s the world we live in. But … you act like Michigan has suffered here. They haven’t suffered, they wrote a check. But so what? This is a very wealthy university, and if you don’t believe me, just ask any Michigan graduate anywhere in the country. They’ll tell you how great they are,” Finebaum continued. “And this is not a school that wins a lot of national championships either. They’ve won 2 ½ national championships in 70 years. I think Alabama won that many just walking down the street yesterday.
“The point is, no they really didn’t steal it. They didn’t go into a bank and steal the national championship. But it feels like they did something tawdry. They did something against a bunch of no-name schools that they didn’t need to do. But that’s who Jim Harbaugh is.”
Category: Football
