Brian Kelly has managed to become the kind of name that draws a reaction before he even says a word, and Paul Finebaum made sure that reaction stayed ugly.
At Barrett Media’s Audio Summit earlier this month, Finebaum was asked how he balances criticizing coaches while still having them on his show every week. He started with Nick Saban, then moved to the arrangement LSU wanted after Saban began appearing regularly. The Tigers asked Finebaum to do the same with Brian Kelly, and he agreed.
That meant Kelly spent three years on Finebaum’s show every Monday for 20 minutes. Finebaum sounded more than ready for that chapter to be over after LSU fired Kelly, and he made it clear he would not be eager to revive it if Kelly ever got another head coaching job.
“ I think I would rather have a colonoscopy on the stage right now without anesthesia,” Finebaum said. “It’s that painful.”
The line landed because of how far Finebaum went with it. He did not just say he disliked the interviews.
He said he would choose a colonoscopy, on stage, without anesthesia, over sitting through another one with Kelly. That is about as blunt as it gets.
Kelly’s reputation has taken plenty of hits along the way. He was once viewed as one of the better coaches in the sport after lifting Cincinnati to new heights and then taking Notre Dame to levels the Irish had not reached since Lou Holtz. But the public image never really softened much, and by the time he got to LSU, the criticism had only grown louder.
Since his firing by the Bayou Bengals, the jokes have kept coming, including plenty aimed at the Cajun accent he put on when he first arrived in Baton Rouge. Finebaum’s comments, though, cut deeper because they came from someone who had to deal with Kelly up close every week.
It is also why Kelly’s next move is already drawing attention. CBS is putting him in front of television cameras as an analyst this coming season, which is an interesting choice given the way people around the sport seem to feel about him. And if the conferences he is covering do not exactly command huge audiences, that may only make the assignment feel even stranger.
Kelly, for his part, keeps putting himself back in the spotlight. He is a multi-millionaire and could walk away, but instead he keeps giving people new chances to pile on. At this point, he looks less like a coach trying to reinvent himself and more like someone who is determined to keep inviting the punishment.
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