Tag: Paul Finebaum

SEC Shorts means appointment viewing for me

A Mike Gundy-like OSU character was welcomed to SEC Shorts this week.

There was a time in my life when watching Saturday Night Live was one of my most important weekly routines. Sadly, age and the long ago retirement of the Not Ready for Prime Time Players greatly diminished my SNL viewing.

Now I click on weekly SNL highlights posted on Twitter/X to watch individual skits. Saves me time and allows me to go to bed hours earlier on Saturday nights.

However, I’ve adopted a new viewing routine in 2025. It’s a weekly show posted online every Monday during football season called “SEC Shorts.”

You should be watching, too, if you are a college football fan.

SEC Shorts is a weekly, fast-paced 5 to 8-minute show that satirizes the immediate past weekend results from Southeast Conference football games. The writers/producers/actors are comic geniuses, in my view, because each episode is not only hilarious, but right on target with its send-ups.

I discovered SEC Shorts during the 2024 season, so I’ve only watched a dozen or so episodes from last year and into the start of this season. And in my limited view, this week’s episode towers over all the others.

Why? I’ll just say that this week’s short centers on a farmer and his “Going for Two Second Chance Farm.” No spoilers, except to say that OSU and Clemson are both welcomed into the SEC Shorts family.

You can watch the episode below.

My friend Ed Godfrey also watched the latest episode and declared it “Oscar worthy.” Another friend, Steve Buck, declared them “masters” after last week’s episode. Their videos attract millions of viewers, according to the SEC Shorts website.

Here’s something astounding about SEC Shorts.

College football games are played on Saturdays, and a fresh SEC Shorts episode is posted the following Monday morning. That means the SEC Shorts producers have to create the concept, write the script, access props and film the entire thing in one day.

Since I knew so little about SEC Shorts background or how it got started, I found its website to catch up on who these guys are.

Turns out, the show was created by a couple of Alabama guys — Robert Clay and Josh Snead — back in 2014. They filmed their first episode and submitted it to the Paul Finebaum simulcast radio/TV show in September of that year, and the rest is history, as their website says.

Today, there’s a cast of 5, including Robert and Josh, who write, act and film each episode, with additional support from a few others as needed. The website also offers a ‘behind the scenes’ photo gallery of some of their productions in progress.

Here’s the lead paragraph from the “Our Story” section of their website:

“Who doesn’t want to see themselves on TV? It was this noble motivation that launched SEC Shorts in the fall of 2014. Robert Clay and Josh Snead were wasting away in the basement of a medical publishing company, where they spent all day editing gross medical lectures that would make even the most seasoned surgeons gag. As they sat across from each other in the Inverness Dairy Queen, eating their fourth chocolate dip cone of the week, they realized there had to be a better way.”

It’s obvious they don’t take themselves too seriously, unlike, say, fans who hail from Alabama, Georgia or several other SEC destinations.

If you are tired of hearing “SEC! SEC!” chanted during broadcasts of SEC teams, remember there’s a small crew of comic geniuses just waiting to poke a little fun at their Saturday heroes when the games are over.

Watching a fresh SEC Shorts episode each week certainly brightens my Mondays. It should be on your schedule, too.

BONUS CONTENT: Read the Frequently Asked Questions section from the SEC Shorts website below.

Screenshot

Why I’m all in now on Sellout Crowd

Sellout crowd video
Berry Tramel joined Sellout Crowd colleagues Bob Stoops (right) and Sam Mayes in a broadcast during the new venture’s Launch Party at The Joinery in Bricktown.

Berry Tramel told a story to a boisterous group of roughly 150 people earlier this week at The Joinery restaurant in Bricktown. Berry tells great stories.

He recalled a phone call a few years ago from a former colleague at The Oklahoman newspaper who sought his interest in joining a new, online only sports reporting venture.

Berry said he was interested. As long as his fellow Oklahoman columnist Jenni Carlson came along, he was ready to go.

Turns out, the timing wasn’t right for Mike Koehler’s brainstorm. The deal didn’t happen. Berry and Jenni continued to carry The Oklahoman as its lead sports columnists as they had for the past two decades-plus.

Then Berry got another call from Koehler in 2023. This time, Koehler had financial backing for his project and he had a name. Sellout Crowd.

Was Berry still interested? Berry replied that as long as Jenni was still part of the plan, yes he was.

The next thing you know, “Berry Tramel is a Sellout” billboards started appearing across the OKC metro, teasing the launch of Sellout Crowd.

Sellout

That’s the story that Berry told at the Sellout Crowd’s Bricktown launch party, where he was joined by Koehler, Jenni Carlson, Mike Sherman and a host of other Sellout Crowd content “creators” and backers.

All of those folks I just named are former colleagues of mine at The Oklahoman.

The Launch Party also featured Toby Keith and Bob Stoops, celebrity investors in the venture. There was Kris Murray, Koehler’s business partner and son of long-time OKC broadcaster Ed Murray.

And there was a lineup of other content creators that included former Tulsa World columnist Guerin Emig, Brett Dawson, Jon Hamm, Todd Lisenbee, Sam Mayes, brothers Ben and Sam Hutchens, Ed Murray, Bob Stoops and Eli Lederman. The team also includes a couple of other former Oklahoman colleagues of mine, Jay Spears and Jacquelyn Musgrove, both of whom provide technical expertise.

I’m spending time daily on the site and have figured out that I get most of the same type content from Berry and Jenni that I found in the newspaper. There is heavy coverage of OU, OSU and the OKC Thunder.

And video. Lots and lots of video blogs, I guess you call them.

This morning I watched Tramel’s awesome interview with sports radio broadcast star Paul Finebaum.

So, you get the drift of the type of coverage the Sellout Crowd is bringing readers/viewers, and the content is not behind any sort of pay wall. In fact, it appears a number of advertisers have jumped on board, as well.

As I talked to some of the folks who showed up at the Launch Party, one guy said Sellout Crowd reminded him of The Ringer, which is the sports and culture site launched about a decade ago by Bill Simmons. I can see the resemblance, but glad Sellout Crowd has an Oklahoma focus.

Sellout Crowd itself is well put together in my opinion. You can see that lots of thought was put into making each article/post look professional in its presentation.

The Launch Party concluded with a series of remarks from Berry, Koehler and Kris Murray. Koehler also has another thriving business known as Smirk New Media.

Anyway, Koehler made some heartfelt comments, tearfully thanking those who supported his vision and those who have come on board.

Sellout crowd Koehler couple
Sellout Crowd founder Mike Koehler and his wife, Gaylee

“We want to honor the people for the great work they do,” Koehler told the crowd about Sellout Crowd’s presentation of its content creators. “And we got the cream of the crop.”

So, while I was pleading “say it ain’t so” a couple of months ago in a blog post, I’m all in on Sellout Crowd today. It has my favorite writers and focuses on topics in which I’m interested.

Which doesn’t mean I’ve abandoned my first love, the newspaper. I’m still a subscriber and a reader of The Oklahoman every day.

There is room for both.

Sellout crowd jerseys
Special Sellout Crowd jerseys were presented to investors and backers during the venture’s Launch Party