Desmond Howard calls Paul Finebaum ‘caricature’ of himself over Michigan hate

The fallout from the Michigan sign-stealing scandal has continued to cause a civil war in ESPN’s college football department.

Last month, former Wolverine great Desmond Howard admonished his ESPN colleague Pete Thamel, who has driven a lot of the reporting on the scandal, for doing his “College GameDay” report from inside Michigan Stadium as opposed to among the Wolverines fans before the rivalry game against Ohio State.

Tuesday, Howard joined the “Rich Eisen Show” and Eisen, also a Michigan grad, asked Howard if he was prepared for Paul Finebaum — who has been particularly emotional and sharply critical of head coach Jim Harbaugh during the sign-stealing saga — to say Michigan should have an asterisk if they win the national championship.

“Paul Finebaum is a caricature of a caricature of Paul Finebaum,” Howard said.

“That’s what he is right now. You can’t take anything he says seriously. You just can’t. It’s like they march him out there, they pull the string in his back, and he just starts spewing negative things about Michigan. When a person does that repeatedly and you just know his shtick, you can’t take him seriously.”

Howard said he wanted to confront Finebaum about Michigan on ESPN’s “Get Up” on Friday but that Finebaum was not on the air for a long enough segment as he was traveling that day.

Howard, who won the Heisman trophy in 1991 for an exceptional season with Michigan, has been the designated Wolverines defender on ESPN since it emerged that ex-Marine Connor Stalions had been accused of advance-scouting opponents for stealing signs and Harbaugh ultimately received a three-game suspension from the Big Ten.

Last month, when Howard took a shot at Thamel, he referenced the distinction between doing the report amongst the people versus in the Big House.

“What are we, Week 13 now? So we’ve been doing this 12, 13 weeks,” Howard said. “He’s always been in the crowd giving his reports. What the hell’s Pete in the stadium for? That kind of just threw me all off. Put your big boy pants on and do it in the crowd like you have been doing. I was surprised by that.”