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Dave Portnoy and Barstool Sports have feuded with the NFL for years, famously selling T-shirts and hoodies with a drawing of commissioner Roger Goodell wearing a clown nose.
But in a surprising development, sources tell Front Office Sports the NFL likely blessed Fox’s deal with Barstool, first reported by Ryan Glasspiegel of FOS.
The nation’s richest, most powerful sports league has been known to punish media partners that incur its wrath. ESPN was in the NFL’s doghouse for years over its 2003 scripted drama, Playmakers, which the league believed painted NFL players in a bad light. The league also demands that networks only use their top talents on game telecasts.
The NFL is Fox’s most valuable sports property by far, with the network’s telecast of Super Bowl LIX in February ranking as the most-watched U.S. game broadcast of all time with 127.7 million viewers. The network is also very protective of its relationship with leagues. In other words, Fox wouldn’t make the deal if the NFL had a problem with it. It would be very surprising if Fox had not briefed the NFL in advance.
The Barstool-Fox alliance is also a signal of how times have changed. Just eight years ago, ESPN canceled Barstool Van Talk with Dan “Big Cat” Katz and PFT Commenter after only one episode. ESPN host Sam Ponder led an internal revolt against the network getting into bed with the controversial Barstool brand. “I erred in assuming we could distance our efforts from the Barstool site and its content,” said then-ESPN president John Skipper in a statement.
But that was then, this is now. Donald Trump is president. Comic Shane Gillis, who was fired from Saturday Night Live for jokes seen as racist and homophobic, just hosted the ESPY Awards. Cancel culture appears to be in retreat. And, like it or not, Portnoy and Barstool have gone mainstream.
Portnoy, self-styled as “El Presidente,” is a darling of the Murdoch media empire, appearing frequently on various Fox News shows. He helped rehabilitate his image by raising more than $40 million for hundreds of small businesses devastated by COVID-19 via The Barstool Fund. His “One Bite” Pizza reviews are so famous that Walmart sought him out to create a frozen pizza brand. Portnoy and his dog, Miss Peaches, just appeared on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon. His once-scrappy start-up has turned into a multimedia empire.
Katz and PFT Commenter’s Pardon My Take has ranked among the top sports podcasts for years, with 630,000 subscribers on YouTube alone. Portnoy, Katz & Co. host the Barstool College Football Show, which will join Big Noon Kickoff for select games this fall, according to Portnoy and Fox boss Eric Shanks. Barstool previously sponsored the Arizona Bowl for three seasons before splitting in 2024. Mainstream sports media personalities like Dianna Russini of The Athletic and Boomer Esiason of WFAN have joined underdog Frank “The Tank” Fleming for walks on his weight-loss journey.
The feud between Barstool and the NFL dates back to the Tom Brady Deflategate controversy in 2015. Portnoy, a rabid Patriots fan, led a sit-in at NFL headquarters in New York. He and three employees were arrested and taken away in handcuffs. Thereafter, Portnoy was reportedly banned from NFL events. In 2019, he was ejected from both Super Bowl Media Night and Super Bowl LIII itself.
In short, the NFL doesn’t play around. But it doesn’t stick its nose where it doesn’t belong. As long as Barstool doesn’t go out of its way to antagonize the league on Fox’s air, their renewed bond should hold.
Fox declined to comment on this story.
