Paul Finebaum, ESPN come through, gets Auburn fan to Pasadena
By Mike Dyce
In late October, ESPN radio’s Paul Finebaum made an outlandish promise to an Auburn fan inquiring about their BCS National Championship hopes. The fan, identified as Joshua Smitherman, asked if Auburn ran the table, if they’d be able to get into the game with one-loss even if it meant leap-frogging an undefeated team.
Finebaum said he didn’t think they could leap-frog Oregon, maybe Ohio State, but that they needed to worry about running the table first. Then Finebaum made a bold promise to demonstrate his confidence in his interpretation of the hypothetical scenario.
“I’ll make you this promise Josh, and I shouldn’t be doing this. If Auburn does all that, and gets into the National Championship game I’ll take you to Pasadena,” Finebaum said.
While Auburn didn’t need to leap an undefeated team, they made it to the BCS National Championship game. On December 16th, Smitherman called into the show to remind Finebaum of the promise and Finebuam said they’d work on something to stay in touch.
After 11 days of hearing nothing from the show, Smiterman was worried that nothing was going to happen and they were backing out. He posted on his Facebook wall asking for advice and it got some media attention. The following day he was given two tickets by Finebaum on-air who again reiterated that they work together behind the scenes on travel.
As of the following Monday right before New Year’s Eve, travel arrangements had still not been worked out and over the following two days multiple calls from Smitherman to the show went unanswered. Smitherman was concerned that the travel arrangements would not be worked out.
When FanSided reached out to Finebaum and talked to him on New Year’s Day, he maintained that he was still working on the situation. On the Friday before the game we learned that Finebaum made his own Auburn miracle this season, and has come through with travel arrangements for Smitherman.
Smitherman couldn’t give any more additional details than what was posted on his Facebook wall. It is a generic message that says “everything worked out.” We’re assuming ESPN and Finebaum were involved though we can’t confirm, and we think Mr. Finebaum deserves credit for coming through and getting Josh to the BCS National Championship game.