This USA Today story about what Finebaum’s audience has been doing with itself while he’s been off the air is every bit the classic you might expect, but this quote is the topper:
“Paul has got the best persona out of anyone I’ve ever seen, including Rush Limbaugh, and you can quote me on that,” said Jim from Tuscaloosa, a longtime Finebaum caller who asked that his last name not be used because of past run-ins with other listeners. “He’s outstanding. Has gravitas.”
Gravitas? Jim from Tuscaloosa, that word… I do not think it means what you think it means. But thanks for the knee-slapper!
Get The Picture 
Jim thinks gravitas is Latin for having your lips superglued to the seat of Saban’s pants.
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Gravitas – A Roman Virtue..A certain substance of depth of personality. How did that hee haw even get close to a word like gravitas.
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“A certrain substance of depth….” I guess it depends on what that “substance” is.
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I wonder how long those Yankees will put up with his “substance”. Substance of constant drivel and praise for SABAN & ALABAMA. He would not be there if ALABAMA was not the CFNC.
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bulls**t is a substance. . .right? He defintely has that in considerable depth.
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+1
I think Finebaum and most of his callers are at least knee-deep in that so-called ‘substance’!
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How long before the media attaches Paul F-bomb to the tea party and by doing so joining all SEC disciples as tea partiers or whatever the new liberal conservative…huh? Anyways, he is our spokesperson now unfortunately.
/ThanksDisney!
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I think the reporter misquoted him; Jim pronounced it grayveetoss.
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My thoughts exactly. In his world, “Grayvee-Toss” means something or someone that can be ladled onto something else to improve the original
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My pre-season life has been decidedly more pleasant since FBomb and his group pf lunatics were removed from their air. I hadn’t listened in a long time but now I don’t have to re-aim the satellite beam at 3:00 when trapped in the car late afternoon. I can’t imagine how an executive at ESPN (or Sirius) ever felt that was programming that had wide appeal. It will be easy to avoid ESPN while he is on, not so easy to get CFB news on another channel in the car. Thanks to all involved in the decision to get him relocated.
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All those years I lived in B’ham and his ugly face was in the Sports Section spouting his opinion and no real facts. Everybody I associated with hated him. They were Alabama alumni and the Georgia Bulldog Club members that hosted parties where Vince and others would attend. He always showed up at the parties and we could could only guess he had a press pass and they allowed him in.
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As with so many seemingly worthwhile human qualities, the bar for “gravitas” in Alabama is set almost impossibly low. It’s kind of the hyper Canadian currency of class: the ability to speak in short declarative sentences is nothing special in civilized America, but in Alabama, it makes you the love child of Edward R. Murrow and Julius Caesar. In the rest of the country, Finebaum is more like the love child of Foghorn Leghorn and Mr. Burns from The Simpsons.
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I say I say Boy, what you doing with that rifle
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I will not listen to/ watch Finebomb.
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If you support him or not, the loonies that call his show will be what the rest of the country thinks we are like in this corner of the country. It will confirm what they’ve thought all along.
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My sentiments exactly. Only, you said it better.
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I’m betting Jim was introduced to that word when Dick Cheney was announced as Bush’s VP (it was used incessantly at the time), and given how effectively Cheney trolled his political opposition… I can see how Jim got there. Finebaum. Like Dick Cheney, who once had gravitas.
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According to Rush, once upon a time gravitas was beaucoup
http://www.rushlimbaugh.com/daily/2007/11/30/gravitas_montage_explains_it_all
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Perfect humblebrag: “Being on the air isn’t that important to me, but I do miss the interaction,” Finebaum said.
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A better persona than Rush Limbaugh….high praise indeed.
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A uT grad with a huge following from Alabama. Very interesting.
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Unlike the failed operations of Lane and SOD, Butch Jones has a Plan to make Pawwwlll RTR turn his diploma to the wall for six months
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I thought Junior was “the master planner”. All the hillbillys thought so, swallowed that hook, line, and sjnker (although many told me later it left a bad taste in their mouth.)
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“left a bad taste in their mouth” which was one of master planner’s Lane’s many broken promises and occurred frequently when he said he only had two beers
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Think he meant hubris. But he doesn’t understand what it is, he just thinks its a dip made of chickpeas.
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It’s all Greek to me. 😉
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