{"id":953404,"date":"2026-07-23T05:50:17","date_gmt":"2026-07-23T05:50:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/953404\/"},"modified":"2026-07-23T05:50:17","modified_gmt":"2026-07-23T05:50:17","slug":"longtime-paul-finebaum-show-caller-forcibly-removed-from-sec-media-days","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/953404\/","title":{"rendered":"Longtime ‘Paul Finebaum Show’ caller forcibly removed from SEC Media Days"},"content":{"rendered":"

The 2026 SEC Football Media Days are underway<\/a> in Tampa, Florida, ahead of the 2026-27 college football season. However, the conference has reportedly decreed that one of its most popular fans will not be participating in them.<\/p>\n

According to a report from AL.com,<\/a>\u00a0Gary \u201cLegend\u201d Wilson, who hosts a Saturday morning show on Birmingham\u2019s WJOX and regularly calls into The Paul Finebaum Show, was removed from the main floor by SEC staff and security.<\/p>\n

Legend, a diehard Crimson Tide fan who has never been shy about airing his grievances<\/a> on all things Alabama football via lengthy tirades, was not credentialed for the event. On Monday and early Tuesday morning, he conducted interviews on the second floor of the Tampa Marriott, where the media days are being held, and credentials are not required.<\/p>\n

Hotel guests and others without credentials were permitted to access and walk through the area on Monday and Tuesday, although they didn\u2019t conduct interviews. SEC director of communications Craig Pinkerton informed Wilson late Tuesday morning that he would have to leave, and after protesting, he was succinctly removed from the main floor, although he was permitted to remain in the hotel lobby.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere was like 30 people out there without credentials,\u201d Legend said of the incident. \u201cHe just came and singled me out and started yelling in my face.\u201d<\/p>\n

Wilson asserts that the SEC denied his application for credentials for the event.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey got every podcaster and basement-dweller in the country at this meeting with credentials, and he wants to come after the Legend,\u201d Wilson said. \u201cI\u2019m on TV. I\u2019m on radio. I think he\u2019s got a problem with the Legend personally, and I think this is discriminatory.\u201d<\/p>\n

Pinkerton declined to comment to AL.com on the incident, but Wilson was more than happy to speak on his perceived injustice.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe came out there yelling at me and screaming at me like I was some kind of hoodlum or criminal or something,\u201d he said. \u201cI\u2019m really ashamed of the way the SEC treat the fans, man. They just treat the fans like crap. I\u2019ve seen them run other people off, even getting close up there. It just seems disgraceful how the SEC treats the fans and screams at them and stuff.\u201d<\/p>\n

For his part, Finebaum expressed his disappointment in the situation, while crediting his show\u2019s frequent caller for finding a way to leave his mark.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was really looking forward to seeing Legend,\u201d the analyst said. \u201cWe had already invited him to be on our show Thursday. On Thursday we tend to focus a lot on the writers. We thought we\u2019d invite the newest member of the media, so I don\u2019t know what\u2019s going to happen now.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut I give Legend credit. With all the storylines going on, Legend is now the biggest story at SEC media days.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The 2026 SEC Football Media Days are underway in Tampa, Florida, ahead of the 2026-27 college football season.…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":953405,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[43],"tags":[383644,1318,1317,1315,1316,20975,2973,62,67,132,68],"class_list":["post-953404","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ncaa-football","tag-2026-sec-football-media-days","tag-football","tag-ncaa","tag-ncaa-football","tag-ncaafootball","tag-paul-finebaum","tag-sec","tag-sports","tag-united-states","tag-unitedstates","tag-us"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116967730520868634","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/953404","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=953404"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/953404\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/953405"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=953404"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=953404"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=953404"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}