EAST LANSING, MI - OCTOBER 29: Head coach Jim Harbaugh of the Michigan Wolverines looks on during warm ups prior to playing the Michigan State Spartans at Spartan Stadium on October 29, 2016 in East Lansing, Michigan. (Photo by Gregory Shamus/Getty Images)
Jim Harbaugh took to Twitter on Thursday to bash ESPN/SEC Network analyst Paul Finebaum, and couldn’t even bother to get his name right.
Finebaum appeared on Outside the Lines to discuss Harbaugh’s hiring of Michael Johnson, whose son is a top 2019 quarterback recruit.
Jim Harbaugh's latest tactic.. pic.twitter.com/Qm9Ir1vIrT
— Outside The Lines (@OTLonESPN) February 15, 2017
Finebaum’s full rant, in which he calls Harbaugh an “evil genius” and intimates that hiring Johnson is cheating, via the Detroit Free Press:
“He is an evil genius. I think he‘s one of the smartest people I’ve run into in a long time. Most of what he has done is exactly that, genius. He’s going to Rome, I think that’s a wonderful thing to do. What it has to do with football, I’m not sure. But his players get something out of it. But this is wrong. It may not be illegal by NCAA standards and bylaws as of this moment but to me it’s cheating. It’s blatantly disregarding the spirit of the NCAA rule. We all know why he’s doing it. This is the same person who last year accused Nick Saban of cheating, he accused Hugh Freeze of cheating and in my mind, and I know you can’t prove it and he won’t be penalized for it, he’s cheating. Why don’t we just face up to it? There’s no other reason why he would hire this man. It’s been done in the past. … But it’s still wrong. I don’t know why the media celebrates Jim Harbaugh for disregarding the NCAA rule book and doing things in my mind are unethical.”
Harbaugh responded by calling “Pete Finebaum” an “SEC water carrier,” and dropped the essential 2017 hashtag of #alternativefacts.
Pete Finebaum, the unabashed SEC water carrier, really needs to get his facts straight. #AlternativeFacts
— Coach Harbaugh (@CoachJim4UM) February 17, 2017
Finebaum certainly carries the water for the SEC often, and has had it out for Michigan for a good year now. While you can certainly argue that Harbaugh’s tactics are unsavory, hiring parents goes way beyond just Michigan football, though it isn’t the first time that he’s done it since taking over the Wolverines. Coaches at all levels have been doing similar things for years.
