On the Paul Finebaum show yesterday, both Gene Stallings and Pat Dye took exception to comments made about them a week earlier as Finebaum interviewed former Texas Tech head coach and current loony bird, Mike Leach.
Leach insinuated that the two legendary coaches, both of which are either presently or are in the process of induction into the College Football Hall of Fame, were fired from Alabama and Auburn for breaking NCAA rules.
Leach’s sentiments came as a result of comments made by Stallings and Dye on the Finebaum show in reference to Leach’s repeated comments that Alabama may be a top ten team, but shouldn’t be in the top five. To date this season, Leach has picked Bama to lose three times. Alabama is currently 5-0, recording wins over three top 25 teams, two of which were in the top 10 at the time.
It is well-known that Leach is a volatile head case, a fact that drove Texas Tech to terminate him despite his success there. It also prevented him from getting opportunities at other schools, including Auburn. Leach also may carry a grudge against Alabama for their 13-10 win over Texas Tech in the 2006 Cotton Bowl (following the 2005 season), where Alabama’s defense embarrassed his high-octane offense on national television essentially in his own backyard. Following the game, Greg McElroy decommitted from Tech and committed to play football at the University of Alabama.
In Monday’s interview, Stallings contested that he wasn’t asked to resign in 1996, and that no one at the University other than the president and his family knew he was going to do it when he did. Dye offered a similar story on his departure from Auburn.
Stallings and Dye appear on the Paul Finebaum show weekly to talk about college football. The old rivals turned friends currently appear on the show each Monday sponsored by Craneworks, and at one point during Monday’s interview Dye asserted that Paul should see if Craneworks wanted to hire Mike Leach to take his place on the show.
The interview grew tense when Finebaum clammed up and stopped talking (like a 5 year old child), and at one point Dye had to ask if Paul was “still there.” It was obvious that Dye had completed his thought, but Finebaum made the juvenile claim that he didn’t know if Dye was through.
Here’s the deal. When you think Paul Finebaum, think Andy Kaufman. For those too young to remember, Kaufman was a comedic performer in the 1970s and early 1980s whose career thrived on attention gained for himself via gimmicks and antics that left audiences wondering if what they were witnessing was a hoax.
One such ongoing prank was Kaufman challenging Memphis area wrestling champion Jerry Lawler to a wrestling match. Not much bigger than Finebaum, Kaufman repeatedly taunted the gigantic man, then ran like a school girl when the wrestler got remotely close to him. The act included a fight on the David Letterman show in 1982, and ended with Lawler pile driving Kaufman into a wrestling mat, where Kaufman would later claim Lawler had broken his neck. Kaufman would wear a neck brace publicly until his death from lung cancer in 1983, though those closest to him would later contend that his neck injuries were no where near as severe as he claimed.
Here’s my point. Paul Finebaum will do anything to draw attention to himself, and what played out on his show yesterday was the stuff that has made him as rich as he is today. Guests like Mike Leach are just what the doctor ordered for sensational events and comments that are sure to follow.
But Pat Dye and Gene Stallings should not dignify the Paul Finebaum radio show with their presence. Finebaum showed both of the legendary coaches great disrespect, at one point contending to both of them on the air that what they were saying “according to his sources” was false.
Finebaum thrives on the same awkward discomfort that made Andy Kaufman famous. If you want to play a party to that as a sponsor of the show or just a listener, that is your choice.
But Gene Stallings and Pat Dye shouldn’t. In this writer’s opinion, they should bid the show arivaderchi.
28 thoughts on “Dye, Stallings should say bye-bye”
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I agree. That was the most awkward 30 minutes of radio I’ve heard in a long time. Paul came off like a complete asshole when both coaches tried to let him know that it basically hurt their feelings that he wouldn’t stick up for them when some jackass like Leach tried to call them out and they weren’t there to defend themselves.
They said something about Leach being crazy for not ranking Alabama. Leach got personal. It wasn’t funny and I agree that the coaches should jump ship before they get pulled in on something as dumb as Tammy’s trial. They deserve more respect than that.
Dye doesn’t give a rip. He gives it as much as he takes it. But for Finebaum to do that to Stallings was low. Stallings is a man of integrety and didn;t deserve that crap.
Mike Leach is just pathetic at this point. He basically tortured one of his players. He is obviously mentally unbalanced. Not to worry though. People like this have a long history of doing themselves in. In the meantime Bama will be winning another championship. PLEASE everyone stop listening to Finebaum. He is just a low class sensationalist riding on the coat tails of greater men.
What’s sad is that the rest of the country is being subjected to his B.S. They, unlike us , are eating it up becasue they haven’t heard a sports radio show like his before. It will take them 10 years before they get sick of it.
I have listened to Finebaum for years, and I literally had to turn the interview with the coaches off due to how uncomfortable it made me. I heard the replay of it this morning on the Opening Drive and it was just as offensive as it was yesterday.
I was embarrassed for Finebaum, and shocked that he reacted the way he did. He basically did the same thing he accused Derek Dooley of doing at the end of the LSU-UT game. To just sit there like a two year old and not say anything after he stirred all of this up was unbelievably unprofessional and truly embarrassing.
If the guy at Craneworks will abide two of the most beloved coaches in the history of our state being treated that rudely and with such disregard for what they mean to the fans of their respective schools, then he has nothing I need from his business.
Finebaum thrives on controversy, if there isn’t any, well he will make one. His show is for people that like comic books, but don’t know how to read. He likes to keep half of his audience hating the other half, and he has been successful at it for years. I just can’t take him seriously. He has been playing Bama and Auburn fans for years. I can’t stand to hear his voice, so I never listen.
People love/hate P.F.- but they do it daily by the droves and by all accounts he’s gaining Arbitron points at a pretty good clip.Why ? Living in Atlanta I can tell you the one thing the 2 spots channels don’t let you do is talk.You get maybe a sentence in and they cut you off.Paul lets you ramble.
And it caters to College Football Yahoos like you and me.You might or hate P.F.,but you’ll love doing it either way.
A contradiction for some……A Fall Favorite Release for others….Year round.
Yeah well one day Pig Fart will carry it a step too far. He’s phucking with two very radical and sometimes violent fan bases. One episode too many and we’ll be saying arivaderchi to his ass once and for all. If Gene had stayed we may never have had any sembalance of a west coast offense, but we damn sure wouldn’t have had 10 years of probation either. His only problems in that regard was Langham meeting with an agent – a la Darius; and the frabricated bullshite about Jelks. I don’t blame him for leaving. He couldn’t control the Good Ol’ Boys, Hootie was a dumbass, the fan base was screaming for an offense equal to Florida’s, FSU’s and Miami’s and the system was infested with Rogue Supporters hell bent on behavior that would get us curb stomped by the NCAA. His fantasy job had turned into a nightmare. Anyway, phuck Pig Fart and Bood Leach. They don’t rate sniffing Gene’s dirty underwear. RTR!
Mike Leach=Looney tunes
mike leach will never coach a d1 team again
leach – bad week to be a whack job with les miles taking the headlines
I won’t repeat what has already been said so I’ll just comment on the article itself.Jerry Lawler wasn’t in the WWF at that time but he was a champion.
At that time he wrestled for the USWA in Memphis and the AWA up in Minnesota.Anyway good article.
ok. paul was wrong on two counts.
(1.) he was running back and forth between dye, stallings and leach instigating a fight.
(2.) when confronted by stallings about it, he fought back in a no-win situation for him.
he knows that now and has apologized to his audience and will apologize to stallings.
now for the other side. stallings is supposed to be on that show to comment on the weekend’s games. last year he was bad, this year worse.
the honest truth is coach is getting old and senile and it’s showing. bad.
now for some historical correction.
gene stallings threw ncaa investigators out of his office, not paul finebaum.
gene stallings threw antonio langham under the bus, not paul finebaum.
gene stallings stood back and watched hootie ingram fall on his sword while he took no responsibility for what happened, not paul finebaum.
that probation and the subsequent problems were a result of the stubborn, proud-to-a-fault gene stallings.
what happened in that investigation left the ncaa with a mad-on and they got their revenge in the next probation.
paul and gene would be well served to wash their hands of each other.
Paul just stirs up the **** pile and tries to see how many flies buzz around it. Neither of those coaches should dignify Paul’s show by coming on. Paul doesn’t know a thing about football and makes a living by lighting the stick of dynamite and watching everyone react. I think I’d rather listen up til 2pm and then turn of off FM94.5. Paul didn’t have to get a controversial figure like Leach on his show. It just shows how low his program will go to attempt to get ratings and was extremely poor judgment. The best thing that we can all do is quit listening to “F” baum.
Finebammer you don’t know what the hell you’re talking about. Point 1. You have no idea what conversation transpired in Stallings office, what threats the NCAA made over something as minor as the Langham incident, that would have pissed Stallings off enough to throw them out. Point 2. Langham should have been thrown under the bus. He knew better. He damn near cost us and Stallings a National Championship. He started all this shit. Point 3. The Langham incident did not stir the NCAA. We took their stupid ass sanctions over Langham. What stirred their ass was the next incident which wasn’t an incident at all. It was a fabricated line of bullshit by Auburn boosters and Gene Jelks. The dumbass NCAA accepted the lies without one shred of evidence and that’s when Alabama said PHUCK YOU! That’s when our lawyers filed suit against the NCAA and whipped their asses in court and made them take back most of their sanctions. It was the first time in history that a university had fought back against the bastards, much less beat them. It pissed them off and scared them because they feared other schools would follow Bama’s example and they would lose control. That is why the phuckers decided to make an example out of Bama. They are just a bunch of low life SOB’s. Point 4. Hootie deserved to fall on his sword. Hell, I wish he’d fallen on my sword. Alabama would have been better if they had never known Hootie Ingram and Joab Thomas. The two biggest laughing stocks we’ve ever had. It was under their watch that all this bullshit happened and all the dumbass coaches with the exception of Stallings were hired. Them, the Good Ol’ Boys and the out of control boosters all did us in. And Gene got the hell out. Furthermore, Finebaum had no business even bringing it up on his classless show. Much less discussing it with an excentric phucking moron like Leach who was still sucking his mama’s tit when it happened and knows absolutely nothing about it. So lay off dissing Coach Stallings, who was actually a better person than Coach Bryant. RTR!
Brian, thank you for bringing that to my attention. I have corrected that bit of information in the article.
Paul is the little shite in junior high that yells “fight” but will never get in the middle of a fight. He likes to play people against one another to get things stirred up. Jim in Crestwood is a blabbbering fool, but he couldn’t be more right when he calls Paul a “parasite”.
so i don’t know what i’m talking about. this coming from someone who just posted as many factual inaccuracies as i think i’ve ever seen in one post.
where to begin?
(1.) the langham infraction was discovered DURING the jelks investigation.
(2.) “our” lawyers filed suit against whom exactly, e. g.??? the university filed suit against no one. the athletic dept. filed an appeal of the sanctions levied by the ncaa due to the fact the ncaa broke their own protocol when the enforcement division, who is only supposed to RULE on charges filed by the investigative branch, added an additional charge when the charges were presented to them. that breach of protocol is what the athletic dept. won a reduction of the penalties on.
a personal lawsuit was filed by dean tom jones to clear his name. the university had nothing to do with that suit. (mr. jones won the suit, by the way)
so hootie ingram hired all the dumbass coaches??? again, you have no clue what you’re talking about. ingram was hired to usher out bill curry and hire a new football coach. ingram made two major hires during his tenure as athletic director: gene stallings and david hobbs.
steve sloan was a. d. when curry was hired.
bockrath hired dubose.
mal moore hired the rest. look it up buddy.
the good ole boy who “did us in” was logan young.
now it will be much, much easier to name those in the athletic dept. who didn’t pal up to logan young than those who did. stallings certainly did and publicly stated on many occasions his affection for young. (and his money!)
langham made a mistake. (similar to marcell dareus. ready to throw marcell under the bus, e. g.???)
langham said he told stallings. stallings at first denied it then admitted he called his nfl connections to see if langham’s name was in the supplimental draft in early ’93.
now the ncaa rule for player contact with agents was clear. if you SUSPECT a player has had contact with an agent, pick up a phone.
it takes a willing suspension of disbelief to think stallings was calling his nfl contacts to check out langham’s situation and it not cross his mind he’d contacted an agent. (like langham SAID he told him)
when these investigators started looking into this matter, it started looking like a cover-up. (which in my opinion, it was) when stallings threw them out of his office, it was confirmed in their minds.
regardless of what was said in that meeting, those investigators were the controlling legal authority in the matter. stallings handling of the matter set the ball rolling out of control for a situation that realistically called for a two to three game suspension of langham.
the fact is stallings was a loose cannon.
he proved it again when the coaching search to replace him was going on.
bob bockrath wanted to hire frank beamer. beamer was ready to leave blacksburg. stallings was asked ON PAUL FINEBAUM’S SHOW (along with others) who he would recommend. he recommended woody mccorvey or mike dubose. the university was as about ready to hire a black head football coach then as they are now. mccorvey didn’t stand a snowball’s chance in hell and stallings knew it. after that recommendation, neither did beamer. that was when the infamous fax campaign to hire dubose overwhelmed bockrath. if he didn’t hire dubose, he’d have been canned on the spot.
so you can thank your hero for that hire truthfully.
but that will require you pull stallings’ dick out of your mouth first.
in closing, from this point on i would recommend that before you go bellowing of into the netherlands about someone not knowing what they’re talking about, you might demonstrate some semblance of credibility yourself.
(i would also remind you that coach bryant won SIX NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIPS in 25 years without a hint of ncaa trouble. so save the ridiculous comparisons to stallings)
I think P.F. Stirs this crap up but Coach Stallings said himself he had not heard the Leech interview. Maybe instead of getting into an on-air shouting match with P.F. he should have had P.F. arrange a 2nd interview with Leech and got into it with him instead.
Just my 2 cents
I’ll respond to that at a later date. I’m not in the mood at the moment to banter with someone who has nothing better to do with his time than spend the day searching computer archives and piecing them together to tell a story he wants. And if you believe verbatum what you read in legal documents, you are an idiot. Documents only tell the story that the lawyers and judges want told. And documents from the NCAA have no control over their content except what the NCAA wants. There is always another more accurate story which is silenced by lies, corruption and legalese. And I’m not motivated to get into it at the momment. RTR!
Well now. It is obvious as the Turd in the Punchbowl that Dye and Stallings – really have nothing more to say anymore. PFRN has some structural problems in that “paying commentators” via sponsorships like CraneWorks – You see – It does not matter if It’s Barbara or these two – it’s Revenue. Jox gets paid and the Coaches get paid – we get shitty Radio.
I am going to be honest and state I did not hear it . I am going to guess that Paul was desperate to juice up an moribund Interview and it backfired. Shit happens when you try and do 4 hours of Live Radio a day. It ain’t easy. You can script it all you want – you are going to run out of Gas. This is what I suspect happened to Paul. I will state again that I hate the National Format for PFRN and wish that it would go back Regional. It is a Fact. The XM audience cannot be measured and XM will not provide ratings either to PRRN or to the Public. Paul is trying to cater to an audience that is highly subjective and unable to count. It really is all Local in the end. Hell. Just Broadcast that and let all 500 ? Fans of the other Conferences deal with it or switch the damn channel.
finebammer, despite our occasional conflicts I respect your adherence to facts. As I recall, Stalling semi-admitted that Langham informed him that he had improper contact with an agent and Stallings’ response was that he informed Hootie Ingram and felt that he had “fulfilled his responsibilities” at that point. I like and respect Stallings, but that’s a load of crap. Stallings knew the rules, and he knew that if Langham made a deal with an agent that he was ineligible. He didn’t need Hootie Ingram to tell him that.
the two things that bothered me while that story was developing was stallings standing before the cameras in a local interview claiming “i’m not a detective”. at that point he’s separating himself form his team to cover his ass.
two. when he hung langham out to dry. antonio langham helped him win games. bigtime. the interception against uf in the first championship game won the game for him. just to throw him to the wolves like that was wrong.
lots of folks respond by saying it’s “ancient history”. stallings is a good man.
i don’t doubt any of that. but he won’t go away. he just keeps coming back. and when i hear crap like i heard the other day and people just blindly blame one person, it pisses me off.
it pisses me off because I KNOW WHAT HAPPENED.
paul is playing the role of hootie ingram all over again.
and i’m not just gonna let folks get away with it without telling the truth.
it’s the best thing for alabama.
Ancient history. Glad that we have Saban now, and the football program is as strong as it ever was. Glad all of that is in the past and over with. Roll Tide!
Hey folks, LT here … while I’m sitting in club LT with an ice cold delicious Miller Lite at my palace off the snake, heaven forbid if a leak comes down on my free couch I got from Laughnis Furniture in Warrior, so I got all metal roofing from the guys at Weatherguard. You will have to pay for it but everybody at WJOX got it for free! I also don’t want to snap my neck and fall and die so C. Stewart of Gutter Capz gave me a free gutter system, call them today for a free estimate, again, you will have to pay for it but me and Mr. Hankey didn’t have to. And while I travel down the snake everyday, yes… I know people, I get in accidents, folks we’re talking about accident forgiveness, so call my buddy and good pal Jimmy Anthonee for accident forgiveness. Heaven knows I’ve bumped up my Infiniti time after time on the snake going to my job for 4 1/2hrs. that I got for free at Southeast Motor Auctions, but visit them today for the best in superior products, again you will pay but we all got something from them for free for giving them free airtime (Thanks Mr. Hankey!)
So when you see me, LT, in Alabama Crimson Tide gear, you’ll know that I DIDN’T sell out because USC went on probation and quit being the no. 1 team in the nation. I was spotted in Vestavia a couple of years ago sporting USC gear because they were “it” at the time and all of you know that I’m “from” L.A. and did a small acting role in Free Willy (you know, I play the guy swimming in the ocean in the background), so now I’m ALL ALABAMA now because they are on top! Plus people started to get mad at me because I was dissing them during the hard times and didn’t support them. Oh well, we can’t be perfect, but I really am! Oh yeah I forgot, Roll Tide!
Catch me blinging in my Infiniti down the snake getting drinks for free at the tilted killt!
Lmfao LT —
As far as the PFRN debacle with Coach Stallings — downright embarrassing. He’s trying to live up to this national spotlight by stirring EVEN MORE sh|t up. And it backfired on him big time. Sources say Craneworks were f’ing PISSED. And the half-assed apology that Paul gave on air 30 minutes into Tuesday’s program was pathetic — an obvious attempt at keeping revenue streaming into the station. Their personal relationship may be a little stern now and not so relaxed — but the bottom line is dollars. Craneworks put the cork on this bottle of wine.
Paul should be ashamed of himself. He claims through his sources that he AND Coach Stallings knows the REAL story. Well, OK. The man won Alabama a National Championship. He is royalty in this state. Paul really f’ed up and he knows it. If it were not for the University of Alabama – Paul wouldn’t have a f’ing job right now – and he KNOW’S it. He realized that if a certain line is crossed, he and his wife might as well pack it up from Shoal Creek. If he phucks with the Alabama Crimson Tide Gods — he is phucking with his career. You don’t see ESPN calling on him do you? There ya go.
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