Paul Finebaum for U.S. Senate?
You know what? Sure. Why not? We’ve entered the final days of the American experiment, so what does it really matter at this point? Let’s give the guy who talks about sports a shot.
Maybe there are people who have served in government at various levels—public servants who understand policy and social issues and the various machinations of government. Maybe there are people who have been in elected positions, led a city or a state, or hell, just led a city council or county commission.
But pfft. Who needs ‘em?
We’ve got a coach running to be the anointed governor that no one on the Republican side of things will even challenge. We tried desperately to get a college basketball coach to run for Senate. We’ve previously talked about a former NBA great from this state running for governor. We have a former college and NFL quarterback telling folks he’s going to run for something (and will likely immediately become the frontrunner for that something).
So, why not Finebaum?
In case you missed it, Finebaum told Clay Travis—another sports world figure and former Democrat who realized there’s a lot of money to be made suckering the MAGA goobers out of their hard-earned cash—that he is seriously considering hopping in the race for Alabama’s open U.S. Senate seat.
Finebaum said he came to this conclusion after being encouraged to do so by a very influential person in Alabama political circles, and also some phony nonsense about Charlie Kirk’s death. The reality is no serious person from either side of the aisle wants Steve Marshall or Barry Moore and they’ve been desperately searching for any viable alternative. It started with Bruce Pearl. It’s now moved on to Finebaum.
And honestly, that’s fine. Finebaum isn’t a moron. He can talk. His brain function seems fine. As far as I know, he hasn’t sexually assaulted anyone or stolen anything, and I’m pretty sure he actually lives in the state. That’s pretty much the bar at this point.
It’s just odd to me that we in Alabama continue to delve into the world of sports to find our political leaders—because, I suppose, sports is the one thing we do well around here, so we idolize those successful sports figures more than we should—and yet, we seem unable to grasp the reasons why we’re so successful in sports and then apply those things to governance.
I want you to think about these absolute, stone cold facts for a few minutes: Every day in Alabama, thousands of impoverished children—many of them very intelligent—slip through the cracks, fail to receive a decent education, walk out of schools forever without a diploma, get in trouble with the law, make incredibly idiotic decisions and forever become a drain on the social safety net of this state and country. But let any one of those children run a 4.2-second 40-yard dash and have great hands; or give him a 36-inch vertical and a solid outside shot. And all of a sudden those children’s odds of achieving a college degree, a good-paying job and forever becoming a productive member of society increase exponentially.
Not because those children changed. But because the resources we devote to those children become endless.
They get tutors. They get access to broadband. They get speech training. They get doctor’s visits. They get access to the best medical care. They get numerous people serving as mentors who monitor their actions, steer them from trouble, care about them, and most importantly of all, place expectations upon them.
Sure, some still screw up. But it’s a minuscule number.
Same kids. Same living situations. Drastically different outcomes. All because the resources and devotion of the community around them increased.
There is absolutely no denying any of this, and you know it. If you put in the effort, you get the results.
And that’s true whether we’re talking about educational outcomes or healthcare services or job creation or mental health services or curtailing violence or building better infrastructure. Sports teach us from a very early age that we get out of things whatever we put in. Coaches scream it at players from Little League to the major leagues, from Pop Warner to the NFL.
But for some reason, in Alabama, we like to pretend that the same principles don’t apply to governance and the many problems facing this state. Instead, we think we can half-ass it, take care of just a select group of people, forget the rest of the team, leave some of our teammates working with inferior equipment (or no equipment at all). And worst of all, we then try to blame those teammates we gave inferior resources for not achieving at the same level as the rest.
We do it over and over and over again.
It’s fine to reach into the sports world for leaders. Some of the coaches and players around this state are incredibly intelligent, caring, motivated people. We could use people like them in leadership around Alabama. We could use the lessons taught by sports to guide our lawmaking and decision-making.
So, yeah, if you want to dip into the sports world for our lawmakers, that’s fine. Just bring the rest with them.
