Barstool Sports

Wednesday

Josh Kaplan

Dave Portnoy, Mohammed Khan and the anti-Jewish horseshoe

Some dumb people made a dumb decision at a bar in Philadelphia this weekend. In a booth at the Barstool Sports-owned Sansom street, a group of guys paid a waitress to hold up a sign that said "Fuck the Jews." In their pisswater beer-soaked joy, they giggled and filmed it and put it on Instagram. In the hours after, professional doxxers StopAntisemitism located the video, identified the young men and blasted their name all over X. Enter Barstool founder Dave Portnoy. Dave, for those unaware of his antics, is what could best be described as a professional beefer. He fights anyone, usually on Twitter, and has threatened to “skullfuck” his adversaries with tweets on multiple occasions. He also happens to be Jewish.

dave portnoy

Friday

Ben Domenech

How the legacy media became powerless

It was nearly 2 a.m. on the East Coast in the middle of election night when CNN’s Jake Tapper stood across from professional virtual-map operator John King and asked a simple question: “Are there any places where Kamala Harris overperformed from where Biden did?” Tapping away from a view of Bucks County, Pennsylvania, King zoomed out to a view of the entire United States and hit a key to show a comparison to the 2020 election. The map instantly turned a solid dark gray, without a single county highlighted. “Holy smokes,” Tapper gasped. “Literally nothing? Literally not one county?” “Literally nothing,” was King’s somber reply. The video, shared widely and instantly on X, has been viewed more than 13 million times.

media

Thursday

Ben Domenech

Will the Barstool Bros undo Kamala’s rise?

Welcome to Thunderdome. The month of Kamala Harris’s rise has been marked by a few major factors, but none has been more significant than the total buy-in of the decrepit husks of media organizations desperate after so many years to find someone, anyone, to elevate in opposition to Donald Trump. They love to love this candidate, who is in almost no sense of traditional terminology a candidate — no platform, positions thoroughly malleable, an operation in branding and vibes at a moment when branding is dying and vibes are utterly out of step with the demands of the moment — she is more machine now than woman, and this embarrassingly inadequate media is loving every minute of it.

Friday

Cockburn

Barstool Sports’s Billy Football runs for Santos’s old seat

There’s something in the water in New York’s 3rd district, which continues to pump out interesting candidates for Congress. Of course, we had George Santos. Enough said there. Then after the colorful Santos was expelled from Congress in a historic vote, Republicans nominated Mazi Pilip, an IDF veteran and Ethiopian immigrant, who lost in a special election to Democrat Tom Suozzi, who is... vastly less interesting than his GOP counterparts. But now, Suozzi could face another colorful Republican — Bill Cotter, formerly known as Barstool Sports’s Billy Football, who joined the race a few weeks ago, and has been gathering the requisite number of signatures to appear on the primary ballot in June.

billy football bill cotter barstool sports

Friday

Mary Katharine Ham

The case against the Thanksgiving dinner fight

As we come upon the treacherous holiday season before a presidential election, there will be plenty of people in media who tell you it is your moral responsibility to ruin food and fellowship with political confrontations. Armed with the emotional IQ of one of those idiots tossing perfectly good soup on the Mona Lisa — an ineffectual waste of vittles and dignity — these columnists insist that you must not let Aunt Margie’s incorrect opinions stand, lest democracy die in the darkness of her benighted worldview. You must serve countervailing takes as hot as the mashed potatoes, no matter the cost to family comity. It doesn’t have to be this way. There was a time, not too long ago, when we didn’t have to turn every breaking of bread into a struggle session.

family

Friday

Cockburn

The MAGA mugshot cash-in

It’s finally here: the Donald Trump mugshot, already one of the most iconic images of the twenty-first century. Trump scowls into the camera at the Fulton County Sheriff’s Office, clad in his trademark navy suit and red tie, eyes brimming with contempt. And his campaign is well aware of the image’s power. “If you are a campaign, PAC , scammer and you try raising money off the mugshot of  @realDonaldTrump and you have not received prior permission …WE ARE COMING AFTER YOU    you will NOT SCAM DONORS,” Trump 2024 senior advisor Chris LaCivita posted on X Thursday.

Trump mugshot composition

Thursday

Ben Domenech

What does ‘Barstool conservative’ even mean?

Welcome to Thunderdome: have you placed a bet yet on if Chris Christie actually shows up to the debate with a pair of brass knuckles? It certainly would be entertaining to see the New York and New Jersey guys just ignore the rest of the field and tangle — it’d be enough to justify having the debate itself. But Trump might skip it, which makes the prospect of a DeSantis/Newsom debate the most interesting possibility on the horizon — and presents a make-or-break chance for the Florida governor. Meanwhile, Republicans struggle with how to aim their message in a time where culture war is the dominant narrative but perhaps not the most salient one.

dave portnoy

Wednesday

Rich Cromwell

Dave Portnoy’s inevitable return to owning Barstool Sports

Dave Portnoy is back as the sole chieftain of Barstool Sports. Penn Entertainment, which bought 36 percent of the company in 2020 and increased its stake to 100 percent in February 2023, sold the company back to its founder Tuesday, “in exchange for certain non-competes and other restrictive covenants.” In other words: Penn basically gave the company back to Portnoy for free. Rarely does buyer’s remorse work out so well.   Founded in Boston in 2003 as a print publication dedicated to fantasy sports and gambling, and initially completely produced by Portnoy, Barstool Sports quickly became a juggernaut in the sports and culture landscape.

dave portnoy barstool sports

Monday

Rich Cromwell

Dave Portnoy still believes in America

When the media gives coverage to Barstool Sports founder Dave Portnoy, it’s generally unfavorable. Business Insider attempted to smear "El Presidente" over his sexual predilections, then he brought the receipts. The New York Times outed him as being who he says he is — a degenerate sports gambler — only to reap the same results. What gets much less coverage is Portnoy’s love for America, American workers and American businesses. During the pandemic, when he used his stature to keep multiple small businesses afloat via the Barstool Fund, there were no glossy covers, despite the fund raising almost $42 million and supporting 443 businesses. In the mainstream press, only Fox News took note.

dave portnoy

Monday

Ben Domenech

Dave Portnoy is the degenerate gambling king

Why do people in the media keep trying to make a story out of Barstool Sports head honcho Dave Portnoy being exactly the person he claims to be? It just keeps happening. Most recently comes a pathetic attempt at a New York Times exposé that does little more than expose Portnoy for being everything his listeners, readers and fans know him to be: a mouthy, opinionated, over-the-top degenerate gambler and the court jester of a sports and gambling conglomerate that has become a dominating cultural force under his leadership. The Times apparently thinks their readership is unaware of all of this, and deems it noteworthy that he has had to climb out of the pit of gambling-fueled bankruptcy in the past. I'm only surprised that his losses were only $30,000, not ten times that.

dave portnoy

Wednesday

Rich Cromwell

You can’t kick Dave Portnoy out of a movement he was never a part of

Dave Portnoy, of Barstool Sports fame, became somewhat of a celebrity to the right during Covid thanks to the Barstool Fund, which helped small businesses stay afloat during lockdowns, and which he promoted through a number of Fox News appearances. Matthew Walther, writing at the Week, went so far as to proclaim him “the future of the conservative movement” in “Rise of the Barstool Conservatives.” While Walther’s piece correctly captured the Barstool conservatives’, and particularly Portnoy’s, views on abortion and other social matters — very bright lines in the sand between social conservatives and their Barstool brethren — that didn’t stop the idea from gaining steam. Portnoy even interviewed Trump ahead of the 2020 election.

dave portnoy

Friday

Karol Markowicz

There is no case against Dave Portnoy

#MeToo started with Harvey Weinstein, ‎Matt Lauer, R. Kelly. Big names who did very bad things. Masturbating in plants, desk buttons that locked doors, women being held against their will, rape. But now we’re on to chasing down every woman a famous man has slept with to get a couple of them to say they had a bad time. A piece in Business Insider last week accused Barstool Sports founder Dave Portnoy of just that. Two women accuse Portnoy of sex they didn’t enjoy. If the era of #MeToo was kicked off with Portnoy instead of Weinstein, it would have been a complete bust. #MeToo caught fire because the accusations against these famous men were so major. The accusations against Portnoy are not. Portnoy has taken the accusations very seriously and has aggressively responded.

portnoy

Friday

Cockburn

Portnoy 2024, anyone?

Barstool Sports founder Dave Portnoy has released his hotly anticipated interview with President Trump. Normally, in media, an interview with the president of the United States is considered a major score. But in 2020, in some circles, a non-hostile conversation with the Commander-in-Chief is a controversial act. https://twitter.com/stoolpresidente/status/1286726116594647049?s=20 https://twitter.com/stoolpresidente/status/1286729956500922373?s=20 https://twitter.com/stoolpresidente/status/1286733637698768896?s=20 In a way, it is shame. Barstool’s appeal has long been apolitical. The company’s edgy, comedic style resonates with college-aged Americans of all persuasions.

portnoy

Wednesday

Amber Duke

Daddy issues: how Barstool Sports’s top podcast backfired

All good things come to an end or, in this case, all trash must return to the trash heap. The raunchy, sex-obsessed podcast Call Her Daddy is likely ending for good after negotiations with Barstool Sports went south. Barstool, founded by Dave Portnoy aka El Presidente, currently owns the rights to the Call Her Daddy podcast, hosted by Alexandra Cooper, 27, and Sofia Franklyn, 26. The podcast mysteriously went dark for several weeks until Portnoy recorded his own episode titled ‘Daddy Speaks’ revealing that the women were shopping the show to other platforms despite being under a three-year exclusivity contract.

Call Her Daddy hosts Alexandra Cooper and Sofia Franklyn (Barstool Sports)

Tuesday

Cockburn

El Presidente vs. El Union Presidente: AOC and Barstool founder clash online

Let's get ready to rumble! Two viral sensations are squaring off on the Twitter. In the blue corner, from Massachusetts Bay, Barstool Sports president and whole pizza-eating aficionado David 'Davey Pageviews' Portnoy. And in the red corner, all the way from the Bronx, it's fiery congresswoman Alexandria 'The Red Scare' Ocasio-Cortez. The spat concerns the hottest new trend in New York media besides developing a substance abuse problem and getting fired: unionizing. Nothing offers comfort to an overcaffeinated 23-year-old fresh out of a liberal arts college quite like a big 'union' laptop sticker on a battered MacBook Air. Springsteen would be proud. The latest cluster of journavists to attempt this strategy hail from sports site The Ringer, a Barstool competitor.

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