E429 Dave Portnoy
Episode Stats
Length
1 hour and 45 minutes
Words per Minute
203.10957
Summary
Dave Portnoy is the founder of Barstool Sports, a media legend, and a pioneer in the world of sports broadcasting. He also happens to be legally blind. In this episode, Dave tells the story of how he got to where he is today.
Transcript
00:00:00.000
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00:00:32.460
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00:01:05.460
And June 30th and July 2nd, Las Vegas at the Encore Theater.
00:01:11.760
I just can't even believe that we're getting to do all this.
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If you're elsewhere, that's out of our control.
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00:01:40.520
And I hope to get to see you if you can come out.
00:01:44.060
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00:01:52.240
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00:01:59.740
Today's guest is the founder of Barstool and Barstool Sports.
00:02:14.740
He's kind of a dang Paul Revere for a lot of people.
00:02:51.480
We hired, I mean, I hired a guy strictly because he's legally blind.
00:03:02.260
But it was like, yeah, it was like in the, like he interviewed, you know, it was a, it was a wallpaper.
00:03:10.780
He's like, I have one thing that may sway you like in my favor.
00:03:15.940
I'm like, well, like, can I make fun of you for it?
00:03:21.940
He's still like, so he's still with us in a way.
00:03:25.480
Like to the point we thought he was faking it because like he knew that would get me.
00:03:30.180
So one day we just, and a bunch of people thought he was faking it.
00:03:36.120
I'm like, I'm just going to like toss my wallet to him to see if he were actually, smacked him right in the face.
00:03:44.860
But he'd sit at his computer, like what you were saying, with this huge magnifying glass.
00:03:48.300
You tell him to do something, it took him four hours.
00:03:52.280
It was kind of a gimmick, but not the most productive guy to ever come down the street.
00:03:56.400
Yeah, we interviewed a blind woman one time, and it was pretty fascinating.
00:04:01.440
She said she almost feels like a computer sometimes, like how she would remember the way she would walk to school and stuff like that.
00:04:10.300
Yeah, she had some sight when she was young, and it wasn't a lot, and then she lost it completely.
00:04:15.440
And so then she had to like, she said she started to feel like a computer.
00:04:18.500
And the only animal she didn't like, she said, was a snake.
00:04:23.420
She's like, it just feels like, just like a piece of Satan, I guess.
00:04:31.840
Like, would you rather, like, if you were blind, would you rather have been able to see or never been able to see?
00:04:40.300
I think I would like to, if I'm going to be blind, I'm going all in.
00:04:44.400
Right, because then you don't know what you're missing.
00:04:48.020
You could use like, I don't want to say slurs, but you could probably say things that are, other people are going to be like, oh, he shouldn't say anything.
00:05:00.700
But we don't know each other that great, you know?
00:05:08.580
I mean, we just met recently, really, for the first time.
00:05:17.640
And then we saw each other a couple times after that.
00:05:21.240
We're kind of like, just sort of getting to know each other.
00:05:35.160
But does Boston always have such a chip on their shoulder about New York?
00:05:38.080
It's almost like, it almost seems like, um, there's more like, it seemed like New York, but with more like kind of spousal abuse, kind of a little bit low-key, you know?
00:05:54.100
I don't know if it stems from like spousal abuse, but it's the, uh, you know, New York.
00:05:58.720
So I grew up in Boston and everybody in New York is always like, Boston is a little town.
00:06:05.160
You know, you, as a Boston guy, you kind of take offense to that.
00:06:08.100
Then we moved to New York and New York's, it is compared to Boston.
00:06:13.440
The sports rivalry reminds me, I was in Milwaukee, right?
00:06:16.780
And I, uh, did a pizza review, which I do in a, and I thought I was in Milwaukee.
00:06:22.200
The Racine Bells from, um, League of Their Own.
00:06:24.860
I was actually, I didn't realize it until after and I was mad.
00:06:27.400
I didn't know that I would have worked it in, but Racine people were very upset that I was calling it Milwaukee.
00:06:37.300
When you were growing up, what kind of like school did you go to?
00:06:39.800
Like, what was it like when you were growing up?
00:06:41.560
Like traditional, I was middle class, went to all public, like Swampscott.
00:06:46.220
Uh, just, I grew, the town I grew up was called Swampscott.
00:06:48.620
So I just went to the normal high school, normal, normal middle school, normal everything.
00:06:52.020
Like my friends that I grew up with are still like really my best friends.
00:06:58.360
Like, was your dad pretty cool or what was he like?
00:07:02.280
No, he's definitely, I went to, cool is not the word.
00:07:05.540
I would ever describe my dad as he's like, my parents are like the Seinfelds.
00:07:11.320
That's a better way to like Morty, you know, Morty.
00:07:14.540
And he takes, by the way, great offense to that.
00:07:18.000
He, if you're like, you're like Morty Seinfeld, when Morty Seinfeld does something weird on
00:07:25.760
They're kind of maybe the traditional, like overprotective, like Jewish, like family parents
00:07:46.820
You got to battle, you know, I, I, I, like Jews, you know, there's more, everyone celebrates
00:07:56.020
So like in the early days of Barstool, we had this guy, Kevin Clancy gets the big ass tree,
00:08:00.900
you know, it's like, well, if we're going to do a big ass tree, I'm going to get a big
00:08:06.540
It had to be like put together in the office just so we weren't getting like short shifted
00:08:11.080
But, uh, yeah, no, I don't, I don't really give a fuck.
00:08:16.760
I mean, you know, I'll stick up for Jews if we're getting like, if Kanye is like, you
00:08:21.020
know, Hitler wasn't that bad of a dude, I'll be able to hold on there.
00:08:29.320
I'm like, yeah, but you know, he used it wrong.
00:08:33.300
So I don't know that one plus one equals two or whatever.
00:08:35.680
So, but I'm not, you know, I'm not overly, but like shit like that, I will get involved.
00:08:40.380
Like when people are defending him, it's like the guy's out here, like basically pro Hitler,
00:08:46.440
So that shit I'll speak up on, but I'm not, you know, I'm not overly like a lot of the
00:08:56.240
That's always one or like probably half of my closest friends are Jewish, especially once
00:09:00.440
you get to like LA or New York, you meet a lot more Jewish people.
00:09:02.980
They didn't have like a lot of Jewish people when I was growing up.
00:09:09.080
I mean, yeah, I don't, I mean, there's so many Jewish people that work in the media.
00:09:17.000
You know, it's like, I don't know who's, I don't know who's, if somebody's really running
00:09:23.300
Well, I mean, it's like anything you can look, I run Barstool Sports.
00:09:27.640
I mean, whatever it, listen, there's bad people or scumbags in every race, religion,
00:09:33.260
creed, whatever, Jews get a bad rap, but a lot of people get bad rap.
00:09:40.340
Like, does it feel, I wonder if it feels different being Jewish?
00:09:51.440
I guess I just, I guess sometimes wonder what it feels like.
00:09:55.040
The thing about it though, which I've always said.
00:10:01.700
Well, I think it's kind of like a family thing.
00:10:03.780
Like, they're very, very education, very hardworking, and put a premium on that.
00:10:10.100
But the thing about being Jewish, which I have always pointed out that we're getting deep,
00:10:13.780
but it's like, people say, you'll hear this a lot.
00:10:21.680
But Jewish, like, if I wanted to change being Jewish tomorrow, I could.
00:10:27.720
If someone wants to be Catholic, they can choose it in a second.
00:10:35.820
So Jewish, it's kind of one of those things over time, I think it's probably out of prejudice.
00:10:43.000
It's like, it's your religion that somewhere along the way somebody chose to believe.
00:10:54.260
And we don't, in my family, to be honest, we don't talk, like, I don't even know that
00:11:00.140
Like, most people don't leave their country just because.
00:11:10.500
I knew this one Russian girl and she was so sexy, man.
00:11:13.620
And God, she invited me over one time and, like, she was sick or something.
00:11:18.160
I brought her some soup and she, like, was so aggressively trying to fuck that I got so
00:11:24.940
And so that, I was like, oh, what do you do here?
00:11:30.400
I would, I'd be like, not, like, you got to get healthy.
00:11:35.040
There's, like, you know, I kept trying to lead her back to the soup and she kept coming
00:11:39.940
And, uh, and I got so scared because she was sick, but she was so, like, aggressive and
00:11:50.180
I remember she hit me up, like, years later to come testify for her in something and I
00:11:59.100
Like, if you're being asked to testify and you're like, sorry, I slept in.
00:12:03.560
You must not have really been that close with her to skip the, you know, skip the trial
00:12:13.520
I guess, I guess my question is like, I, does it feel, do you feel a lot of pressure being
00:12:22.220
No, I don't feel pressure to be successful at all, but no, nothing to do with, if anything,
00:12:27.860
like, I feel like there, no, there's a lot of successful Jews.
00:12:31.380
My parents weren't like, hey, you're Jewish, you better be successful now.
00:12:35.640
Maybe I have a lot of friends, a lot of my Jewish friends are successful, you know?
00:12:38.540
And so it's like, yeah, I guess I wonder, do I feel like that there's a pressure?
00:12:43.300
And then all my Jewish friends are always saying that their moms are always driving
00:12:50.600
She's coming to the Super Bowl with me just to like, probably get away from my dad for a
00:12:54.640
But my mother's the type of woman, and again, this is a typical, like, I go home, I'll go
00:13:01.700
back to wherever I'm going, and, you know, I open my, like, suitcase, and they'll be like,
00:13:06.100
jeez, it's hidden in there, and, like, all sorts of gadgets.
00:13:12.240
Like, she doesn't, anything I say, I don't want that, don't do this, she'll do it.
00:13:16.280
Like, she's always, you know, if I could walk around a giant bubble, like, that's what
00:13:21.020
Like, my grandmother, I remember one time, I was looking at colleges, and there was a
00:13:26.760
And she called, worried, she's like, the plane crash, you all right?
00:13:31.980
She's like, well, the plane could have landed on you.
00:13:34.020
Like, that's the type of, like, thing, you know, just a little bit overly protective.
00:13:41.900
I mean, I originally wanted to be, like, a gym teacher.
00:13:45.920
Like, that was what I graduated, actually, college with, and they would have been fine with
00:13:49.680
But they've been supportive, no pressure at all.
00:13:51.920
They're just, I think the Jewish thing, from my perspective, it's just most, it's just super
00:13:59.780
Like, if you were fucking off on school, my parents would be like, what are you doing?
00:14:04.600
And I did fuck off a little bit at school, but that, they'd be in your grill about that.
00:14:09.480
Were you, yeah, because I'm just curious, you know, I'm just curious.
00:14:13.060
And so, do you, like, did, in high school, were you, like, kind of, like, a funny guy?
00:14:18.320
Were you, like, kind of, like, the guy who was, like, the student council leader?
00:14:23.220
Like, what kind of, like, what was some of your vibe in high school?
00:14:25.680
So, yeah, I played sports, hung out with, like...
00:14:29.120
Or your riz, actually, which I learned what it means from you and your TikTok.
00:14:35.680
You put those fucking kids up on game, fuck them.
00:14:40.960
So, this should give you an insight into, like, I, and this is, again, my parents being, like,
00:14:47.420
you got to get your resume right for, like, going to college.
00:14:50.260
So, I was the vice president of my class, and that was, like, calculated because I didn't
00:14:55.840
So, I was, like, I'm not going to run for president because then you got to do shit.
00:14:58.720
Vice president, kind of skate, but put it on the resume.
00:15:01.500
So, that's what I did, and then I played sports.
00:15:04.100
So, I was just, again, I'd say I ran in, like, the popular crowd, but I was friends with everybody.
00:15:11.240
You know, I couldn't get by on looks, so if you don't go looks, you go funny.
00:15:17.540
I've always been kind of, like, an eight, and you got to fucking, you got to...
00:15:43.480
I mean, look, the kid you work with, Josh Richards.
00:15:52.420
I'm sorry, he actually turned 21 yesterday, but he's, like, the Calvin Klein's model.
00:16:08.500
When I walked in with that original TikTok crew, he's definitely a good-looking guy.
00:16:13.740
There's a good picture of you guys together right there impersonating each other.
00:16:24.500
You probably do know this guy because he knows fucking everybody.
00:16:33.560
That's surprising because I feel like this dude knows everybody.
00:16:42.720
So, basically, I was on Twitter one day, and Dixie DeMello, yeah, she broke up with her
00:16:54.200
Yeah, so she was, like, the original kind of it girl on TikTok.
00:16:59.960
And they broke up, and everyone was talking about Twitter, and I was like, who the fuck
00:17:04.600
Gruen, who is Josh Richards' manager, reached out.
00:17:24.620
Like, Snapchat just wasn't where I wanted to be.
00:17:28.780
It's like, I'm sure you view the world at times.
00:17:34.340
Because Barstool had been around for a while, but nobody knew us on TikTok.
00:17:38.780
So, to me, partnering with him, who was big on TikTok, was like, all right, that's going
00:17:43.380
to get me, Barstool, maybe this new audience, and that's where it came from.
00:17:46.860
He wanted to get maybe a little more credible with, like, an older crowd who had been around.
00:17:51.400
I wanted to get the TikTok crowd to know who we were, and that's where it came from.
00:18:06.900
When I first met him, no joke to Gruen, the first thing I said to him was he was the most
00:18:14.920
He grew on me, but he can come across as sandpaper when you meet him.
00:18:23.900
And, yeah, I would like to maybe meet that guy.
00:18:27.680
But then, yeah, it's interesting if people kind of get on your nerves, you know.
00:18:33.320
I had this dude that used to kind of, would always kind of bite the air a little bit.
00:18:37.380
He had a little bit of a, just a little hitch in him, you know.
00:18:45.040
Like he was eating a berry off a tree or something, you know.
00:18:51.220
But after about that 50th berry, you got to fucking shut him down or you got to leave the room.
00:18:55.600
Do you know the part I'm talking about with Iceman and Top Gun?
00:19:14.120
So, obviously, you knew that you could kind of relate to everybody then a little bit?
00:19:17.120
Because sometimes as you get a little, you start to learn just some of your skills.
00:19:20.560
You're like, oh, I kind of can fit in wherever.
00:19:31.340
I didn't really do great with the girls at all in high school.
00:19:38.480
Like, do you remember like the first date you ever went on or anything like that?
00:19:44.760
I mean, I remember obviously going to like proms.
00:19:46.980
I know who I went to proms with and shit like that.
00:19:51.500
I had very little, if any, success in high school.
00:20:06.700
But I mean, I'm getting back to it because I'm getting old.
00:20:11.820
You always hear like, you know, good looking people be like, no, I didn't do anything.
00:20:25.800
Like, no, I really didn't do well in high school.
00:20:28.580
Yeah, I have to wear like an 80 gauge underpants just to hold them up.
00:20:36.800
Do you remember like, even just like, what about your first kiss in high school?
00:21:02.600
Some people, I remember, locked us in this room and they had this girl and she had like
00:21:07.660
She had that kind of, that Lloyd Christmas on her, you know?
00:21:13.900
Like, were you playing, like, spinning the ball?
00:21:15.360
You locked in a room or you just locked in the room?
00:21:16.800
No, some just angry, like kind of pervy older kids are like, you better get in there
00:21:26.020
And so, but she had that Lloyd Christmas, or at least she had the, she had like that
00:21:30.580
It was like a less of a chip, but she had that thing.
00:21:33.760
And I remember, God, she was also, she was like the first girl I ever remember really
00:21:39.280
And she was, her name was Chrissy and she was beautiful.
00:21:44.740
And so we had to sit next to each other and just kiss.
00:21:56.960
It's still probably not fucking great, you know?
00:22:15.140
Uh, no, it, it was actually at, so it, it was at my house.
00:22:27.500
I, I love, like, I love thinking about like those kind of like just like times when we're
00:22:32.360
young and stuff like, yeah, there was nothing like that time getting ready for college.
00:22:36.700
And then I almost feel like that was a time you feel like you had to like, you had to get
00:22:43.240
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00:25:45.020
Yeah, dude, I ended up, the first time I ever hooked up was actually behind a bowling alley in our town.
00:25:49.820
Yeah, mine was, sounds more romantic than that.
00:25:56.760
Mine, people were throwing rocks at us, dude, and it was like, yeah, it was like trying to fuck on the Gaza Strip or something.
00:26:02.760
I mean, people were fucking, there was like, it was hard.
00:26:04.840
So were people like watching if they're throwing rocks at you?
00:26:07.280
I wouldn't say they were watching, but they were checking in a lot.
00:26:15.920
Yeah, dude, I remember one time I got so nervous.
00:26:18.340
Some girl and I tried to have sex and I just couldn't, I just like, I remember just, I ended up ejaculating and, and then she left and she was embarrassed.
00:26:29.460
She climbed out of my window in my room too, I remember.
00:26:32.040
She was afraid to even like leave through the living room, I think.
00:26:45.560
I think it was just the whole thing was a lot for everybody.
00:26:48.180
I think everybody was kind of, didn't know their way around the world right after it.
00:26:51.820
It was just, it was like, we planned on it, we were excited.
00:26:54.920
And then I just, and so then you're sitting there with all, and you literally have your shame is right there like in a liquid.
00:27:00.420
You know, it's like, Hey, here's the, you know, you're talking, if you, if you bust, you're not fast.
00:27:08.460
And it was like, that's scientifically means you're like a good, right?
00:27:15.820
If we were like in the jungle days or something, we would be.
00:27:26.440
Um, but yeah, I think at that point, everybody was so just confused.
00:27:34.640
Um, actually, if you pull up, look up a bowling alley, bowling in St. Tammany parish.
00:27:44.540
This place looks like it's the fucking bowling capital of the world.
00:27:50.880
If you look on that one, Tiffany Lane's at 3.4 stars.
00:27:56.720
If you, oh man, there's a review somewhere and somebody wrote.
00:28:07.080
It says like, sometimes there's like, oh, there you go.
00:28:15.540
I'm here because of, oh, the Ovan became a man behind this building.
00:28:22.000
One of my friends said, hey, I was looking for a place to bowl locally.
00:28:25.880
And the top thing says that the Ovan became a man.
00:28:35.720
I was just kind of wondering like what maybe you were like when you were younger, you know?
00:28:45.780
Probably a lot of, a lot of, a lot of people like me.
00:28:47.900
Normal, normal grown, played sports, ran with like the, the popular crowd in school, but just one of the guys.
00:29:06.940
Like before I started Barstool, I was trying, I wanted to get into that industry.
00:29:10.940
I flew out to Vegas, tried to do all this stuff.
00:29:15.200
I'm probably like one of the few guys who's made money through gambling.
00:29:19.500
Um, so yeah, no, I'm a big sports fan and obviously it's been a core part of what we do.
00:29:24.460
So it makes me like, I'm not, uh, maybe I'm not getting arrested and going to jail.
00:29:30.300
If we're not doing Barstool, I'm not like that crazy.
00:29:39.060
Um, do you think that they should have legal gambling like everywhere?
00:29:43.480
Cause I know you guys work with your gambling site is.
00:29:50.160
Like I was in Baton Rouge and they have like a Barstool sports book bar.
00:29:54.960
Because so we were bought by a company called Penn and they have a LaBerge.
00:30:00.600
So we're actually getting one here in Nashville.
00:30:04.720
It's where like the old, uh, Joe's crab shack used to be.
00:30:08.480
Um, so I think it will eventually go most States, but it, it, it, so gambling became
00:30:16.260
legal to bet on sports outside of Vegas, maybe two years ago, two and a half, something like
00:30:20.960
They repealed some federal law and now it's up to the States.
00:30:25.380
So I think we're live in like maybe 11 or 12 States.
00:30:30.540
Or are you just, that's just let the world do that.
00:30:33.060
Our parent company lobbies for it and all the different companies that are involved in
00:30:40.920
So I have nothing to do with it, but yeah, there's a lot of politicking going around with
00:30:45.320
Do you get more joy out of making like a big wager on one thing or hitting like a crazy
00:31:01.840
Like, do you feel like that that's just like a thing you'd like to do just with sports
00:31:04.840
or even like kind of with everything, like you kind of like to go kind of like the alternate
00:31:10.480
It's, I definitely, even barstool, like I think being an entrepreneur kind of is like
00:31:15.820
gambling different, different respect, but I saw our barstool with nothing really.
00:31:19.820
And everything we made, we put back into it for the most part work, but you know, we did
00:31:25.220
I thought we were going out of business at one point because I put all our money into
00:31:28.080
like a concert tour and it kind of, who was it like third eye blind or something?
00:31:34.620
It, it, we had never left downtown Boston ever.
00:31:37.220
And, and I was like, all right, we got to see if we're big outside of Boston.
00:31:41.360
And we had liquor sponsors at the time and they were like, well, you know, we can't sponsor
00:31:47.980
And we're like, well, what if we make it a music tour?
00:31:52.920
Um, it kind of blew up and he's got some big songs.
00:32:04.480
So we originally thought we're going like frats and you, we go to UMass and the actual school
00:32:09.300
calls are like, Hey, we're getting all these requests for tickets.
00:32:12.160
So we went from the frat to the actual like Mullen center, which is the gymnasium sold out in
00:32:20.500
It's like, Hey, if I can recreate this with like big talent, I may be onto something.
00:32:30.240
Do you remember like cooler than me at the time?
00:32:36.520
It was, uh, him while a, I had Mac Miller for 1500 bucks.
00:32:46.300
Uh, and nobody fucking, but well, people bought tickets, same amount as the first time we went
00:32:52.100
It turned out our crowd, they weren't coming necessarily for who we're booking.
00:33:07.540
And then we moved from that because it was kind of like, all right, if people are coming
00:33:12.420
for Barstool, not the talent, does it really matter?
00:33:25.280
So we were going, I was paying like, yeah, the big on that building, like a hundred grand
00:33:31.660
I thought I was going to have to pay the full thing.
00:33:38.380
And then we, we came up with something called the blackout tour, which essentially was a
00:33:49.680
Like to the point we had, I bought all our own production.
00:34:05.040
Like we had a whole crew driving around, setting up the lights, renting venues.
00:34:09.800
Um, I thought, I thought I was going to become so rich that I'd be like Bezos and retire.
00:34:19.980
So we're charging 50 bucks a ticket selling out literally.
00:34:25.880
So this crew, so you guys were just in Boston and this crew is now traveling, doing shows
00:34:30.620
Like, have you ever heard of, there's a festival like Bamboozle?
00:34:35.680
So the Bonnaroo Bamboozle is like one of those type things.
00:34:43.120
Like, we want you to close the last music they had was Bon Jovi.
00:34:47.780
They're like, we want you to come on after Bon Jovi and close it.
00:34:53.400
And before we could say anything, they're like, we know it's not a lot of money.
00:34:57.460
Um, but you'll introduce your music to so many new people.
00:35:01.020
And I was like, wait, wait, we don't have music.
00:35:04.100
There's no one to, like, what do you mean you have no music?
00:35:06.160
The only thing they saw was our ticket sales in their system.
00:35:09.740
Whenever we put tickets, they were gone in 10 seconds.
00:35:11.960
So we, like, did that, turned it into a foam thing.
00:35:14.580
But that was because of the barstool name again.
00:35:19.080
Yeah, dude, because where I'm from, if somebody showed up with damn two laser lights and a
00:35:22.500
fucking flood beam, dude, people would pay $50 and get out there.
00:35:29.260
Like, we had Avicii, like, playing our thing for, like, no money.
00:35:35.260
Okay, so you did actually have talent coming to the...
00:35:42.940
Like, it just, they, it was before the DJ boom.
00:35:46.560
Then the DJ boom started happening, and a couple things happened.
00:35:50.380
We had our name, and we're always sort of controversial, but if somebody OD'd at EDM
00:35:57.880
It'd be like, Barstool Blackout tour part of this, and people would be calling me.
00:36:02.040
Insurance went through the roof, and news crews were following, like, our production around,
00:36:09.100
So the whole thing, as quick as it came, it disappeared.
00:36:16.160
It went from there'd be one EDM show at a college a month to there were three a week, and we were
00:36:22.560
playing Avicii's music, and Avicii was going to be there tomorrow.
00:36:25.360
So a whole host of factors, and I was investing.
00:36:29.920
Every cent I made, I'm like, let's get the next biggest laser.
00:36:35.900
At the end of the day, we were probably net even.
00:36:40.780
When it comes to business, was that a tough thing to realize?
00:36:44.820
Like, even just as my own business and world has grown, like, it's tough sometimes to realize,
00:36:50.380
especially if you don't come from a lot, to reinvest in stuff.
00:36:54.220
I mean, obviously, in that instance, it kind of evened out.
00:36:59.160
Has that, like, been a tough thing for you to realize, or is that, like, what...
00:37:04.080
For me, that's been, like, that's just something I think that's in my, like, blood.
00:37:16.080
Not that I was, like, living, like, I could eat.
00:37:23.720
I'm always, like, pushing things into the middle.
00:37:31.860
Be like, if I thought there was a huge opportunity, I'm going to put everything back.
00:37:40.680
Because you kind of became, like, this guy who's, like, I'll fucking put it on the table right now.
00:37:47.220
Like, the way you were, like, kind of, you know, you were championing, like, keeping small businesses open.
00:37:55.720
Not afraid to interview Trump or to talk about, you know, conservative, like, views or even look at them.
00:38:02.640
When a lot of the world was, like, mainstream media was, like, kind of shunning them.
00:38:10.820
Because gambling is kind of a high, but there's a little bit of high in fucking gambling with yourself as well.
00:38:16.540
You know, we never look for fights with that stuff.
00:38:24.000
I got a lot of haters out there, and I always say that probably the number one benefit they have that they don't realize is that Penn, the gambling company, bought us.
00:38:33.420
So, it's the first time since I've been doing Barstool, people can sort of get at me through a side door.
00:38:41.060
Like, I don't care what you fucking say about me.
00:38:44.360
And if you're going to come at me, I'll come at you.
00:38:47.980
Like, I've staked out fucking a New York Times reporter, like, who was, I know, digging through my fucking past and life and trying to, like, really write a nasty hit piece about me.
00:38:58.980
It's like, if you want to fucking talk to me, let's fucking talk.
00:39:04.840
Like, I literally parked my car with my camera guy outside the house for, like, six hours and just waited for them to come out, ran out, and, like, confronted them.
00:39:17.180
It's like I'm a confrontational person by nature.
00:39:23.380
I have had to tone it down a little bit because I don't...
00:39:38.660
But every time I go on there, that affects how people view the whole company.
00:39:43.120
And some people may have different views, whatever.
00:39:50.720
Like, people are mad within our company that I interviewed Trump.
00:39:54.040
But, you know, you got to make the decisions you think are right at the time.
00:40:01.920
You're like, you ever just rattle off a tweet and then just kind of hit?
00:40:04.400
I still think I'm the only guy who's ever gotten him to say, like, yeah, I regret something.
00:40:10.060
I don't know that he's ever been like, I regret something in his life, except for that.
00:40:16.020
When he's like, yeah, you know, you just write it and go to sleep.
00:40:18.540
And then you wake up, you're like, what the fuck did I write?
00:40:22.920
He was, listen, people have such strong opinions about him.
00:40:27.320
I think right off the bat, he kind of realized I wasn't like out to be like, gotcha.
00:40:41.880
I remember watching that interview and watching you sit there.
00:40:46.180
Like, first of all, Dave's doing this, you know?
00:40:48.460
Like, he's actually going and like, you know, whereas everybody else was just like making fun of Trump or not even giving him a chance.
00:40:57.320
I mean, he didn't help himself at certain points, but they didn't help him out of the gate or give him a chance.
00:41:05.220
There's definitely a similarity with him and how I...
00:41:08.560
It's like, if you come at him, he'll be a dick 10 times harder back to you.
00:41:14.480
When you're president, that can cause, like, issues.
00:41:16.940
Like, I have so many things that people still bring up with me, and they'll bring up quotes or whatever.
00:41:22.060
And somebody who came after me, and I'm being, like, so sarcastic and an asshole back to them.
00:41:40.680
And I think some people are like, well, you should be.
00:41:44.560
Oh, I remember when he was running, I thought right at the beginning, I was like, he's going to win.
00:41:52.100
It seems like it's not a part of a bigger plan, you know?
00:41:55.040
But then I wonder, once he got into office, is it just too convoluted in there?
00:41:59.900
Or was he just kind of overshooting his own mark?
00:42:03.460
Or, you know, that's what I kind of wonder, because in the beginning, he was kind of like, even though he wasn't really like this came from nothing kind of guy, he was kind of talking to a lot of people that I think felt underrepresented or, you know, people who want some tradition in the country, you know?
00:42:19.500
And it's like, he was dismissed by so many people.
00:42:23.120
And I think that almost made him more popular with the people he was resonating.
00:42:28.020
Like, any way you look at it, he won the election.
00:42:30.840
So there's a large, large, large portion of the country he was speaking to.
00:42:37.660
If you weren't on his side, if you like Trump, you're like a racist asshole idiot.
00:42:42.780
So you're saying like, more than half the country are those people.
00:42:45.580
Now, I'm sure there's definitely a subsection within his demo that do fit that description, but certainly not everybody.
00:42:58.900
You know, I've said before, he's intentionally divisive, which, you know, I want people to get along.
00:43:09.540
It's like, you need somebody who at least honestly wants to bring people together.
00:43:15.040
And that, I don't know who that's going to fucking be.
00:43:19.220
And it's not Biden because he's so dismissive of the people who do like Trump.
00:43:30.280
It takes away almost half the dating pool, I think, for a lot of people, too.
00:43:35.240
You know, like it used to be, you know, every, it used to be, it didn't matter so much if
00:43:42.160
someone, like you'd have husbands and wives that had different political, it was just kind
00:43:49.080
Would you ever run for like a governor or something?
00:44:02.520
This is, I'm telling you, I was doing that black people get blackballed, all kinds of
00:44:06.080
I was doing the blackout tour that I told you about.
00:44:10.100
We house of blues is a venue in Boston, like 3000 people.
00:44:14.640
I think seven straight days in like 30 seconds we were doing it.
00:44:19.900
So like, Hey, Monday, it's a beat you Barstow blackout Tuesday, BC, Wednesday, Northeastern.
00:44:25.500
So all the kids at each school would buy it, sold it out instantly.
00:44:34.100
Have you ever heard of kids getting breathalyzed in line going down the line?
00:44:37.940
If we sold 3000 tickets, like 20 kids gone into the show, everyone else too drunk, this,
00:44:58.820
You had to be able to read the signature and the person had to be a registered voter.
00:45:03.300
I hired a full blown agency that you have professional people get it.
00:45:16.240
So I didn't make it onto the ballot, but yeah, I, I was like trying to do it.
00:45:23.900
I don't, who would ever, I've used this quote, like the movie gladiator when Maximus, um, it's
00:45:30.780
the, the, the, the King or, uh, wants max Maximus to be the, the leader of Rome.
00:45:38.440
And he's like, that's exactly why you have to do it.
00:45:40.740
Who would, who in their right mind would want to be in politics?
00:45:45.400
Well, like you, the person you want in politics should be somebody who's not doing it for
00:45:50.080
ego, who truly cares about like the wellbeing of the people not doing it to money, get rich.
00:46:03.620
Like people actually kind of love you on the apprentice.
00:46:08.180
He's going to go down as one of the most hated dudes who ever lived.
00:46:17.220
If somebody gets to say, you get to be president.
00:46:19.660
Everybody wants to be, you know, or a little better.
00:46:21.900
You, I mean, maybe for like an hour, you know, a couple hours.
00:46:25.100
I don't know if I would do a full term, you know, like I think I'd want to be in the office
00:46:30.600
and like walk down and see like the long curtains.
00:46:36.440
But the amount of hate and the amount, like I, I get so much hate and it's all political.
00:46:40.620
Like people who don't like me always, if you don't like Dave Portland, I can go to your
00:46:44.920
Twitter and within three, you have something political on your timeline.
00:46:50.140
Now, I don't know how isolated like these guys are.
00:46:52.640
Like when I went and visited Trump, you know, everyone's so pro Trump.
00:46:56.620
It's like he, maybe he doesn't even, the hate doesn't get to him on a level.
00:47:03.460
But do you think 10 years from now, you're like, oh yeah, I'm not fucking around.
00:47:08.280
I think we would, I would, I mean, I guess part of me would like to see you have, but
00:47:13.200
then also I, I sometimes feel like politics is just this, like, it's this, this shell
00:47:20.080
company for actual real leaders, which is a lot of it is in the tech world these days.
00:47:26.280
And even if you look at like, you mentioned the barstool fund, which we gave away 50 million
00:47:31.240
basically to like the government couldn't do that.
00:47:36.020
If you actually want to get stuff done, it's way easier to do it the way I did it, which
00:47:41.320
is we just set it up 24 hours later, the money's going in.
00:47:44.320
And the second the money comes in, the money's going out that they did.
00:47:47.780
The government basically did nothing for like small business.
00:47:51.140
They're still talking about now and so much fraud with the PPP and shit like that.
00:47:59.360
And if you really want to get stuff done, you can get stuff done, not within, you know,
00:48:07.020
I think in, in the, in America these days, it's like, there's all the, like, you know,
00:48:12.820
there's a few kind of, there's less companies, there's less mom and pop places.
00:48:20.420
I wish we had never done so much globalization.
00:48:22.080
I don't know a lot about that kind of stuff, but it's like, you know, the guy, the kid
00:48:27.260
down the street, it used to be their dad worked at the factory in the town and they were proud
00:48:31.320
of like, if their dad's factory made tables, they were proud of the table they had in their
00:48:36.540
And there was like a sense of like, you were doing something now that your table comes
00:48:44.500
The kid is in the other room, you know, cooking pills.
00:48:47.360
And then there's a guy in China making a table.
00:48:50.860
He never sees, they're just like, I mean, it's kind of a very small example, but.
00:48:57.180
We look for like generational and that was what was so sad about it.
00:49:03.280
It's like, Hey, you can't have customers, right?
00:49:07.460
So like, what do they think is going to happen?
00:49:09.360
It's like that, that to me was always the wildest part.
00:49:13.680
And again, I mean, you've built up your career over the time.
00:49:18.340
I always looked at like, I worked my dick off to get where it was.
00:49:21.920
And then if something that's so far out of control and it just vanishes like that and
00:49:25.500
nobody's there to like, that is what the government in my mind, that's what it's fucking
00:49:29.220
Like that is what we're paying taxes and all this shit.
00:49:33.840
Like if you want to keep shit closed, fine, but you better figure out how to take care
00:49:38.740
of the people who need things to be open or let people make their own decisions.
00:49:45.660
I mean, I go to a lot of like recovery meetings and stuff and they closed all those recovery
00:49:52.640
I had five, maybe six friends that overdosed and died during the pandemic, right?
00:49:56.060
Died like, and it was, and people were like, well, it's not cause, but they need those
00:50:03.360
Like, what do you think people, I'd rather have COVID than, you know, overdose.
00:50:12.700
Like if you were, you know, like my parents or whoever, like scared of COVID, you do have
00:50:28.800
Like people were at their, like at their funerals over zoom.
00:50:35.740
And then I talked to my friends in Mexico and they're like, yeah, nobody's doing shit
00:50:44.260
I mean, not, you know, not shoot, you know, or probably grazing each other, but there's a lot
00:50:51.300
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00:54:25.640
You've had some, like, dude, you've done a really good job of, like, hiring, like, really neat talent.
00:54:30.920
Like, guys like Caleb, Big Cat, who's your, you know, I don't know if you hired him or he was a partner.
00:54:47.080
Getting put in that category is pretty fucking high level for Glenny Balls.
00:55:03.880
That's like you don't think he can fit in an airplane seat, and he can't.
00:55:28.500
Now, obviously, people end up usually speaking mostly of people's successes, right?
00:55:33.200
Do you feel like you've had a good eye for it, or do you feel like you've had just as many hits and misses?
00:55:37.540
No, we definitely have a good eye for it, and we have misses for sure.
00:55:40.080
I think, though, the biggest thing, we have an eye for it, and we don't control people at all.
00:55:47.400
So, you know, we hire somebody, and there's like, you do you, and hopefully they find the way.
00:55:57.020
He was running up and down the sidelines of North Carolina.
00:56:00.720
Because they wouldn't, because he never started.
00:56:04.620
His title was, like, I think the professor of morale or director of morale.
00:56:11.380
He'd wear, like, an ex-North Carolina professional football player who's now in the league, their number.
00:56:27.280
And we hired him, and it's like, Caleb, do whatever you want.
00:56:30.000
And, you know, he kind of, he was always talented and funny, bounced around kind of trying to find his niche.
00:56:35.720
And then he, the Sunday conversation, which is now his kind of trademark thing and is great, that took a couple years for him to, like, fit that exact perfect role.
00:56:50.380
We have a good eye for talent, but more so, we are so free in letting, and I don't know if that's just we're lazy or whatever, but we never tell people.
00:57:13.460
Like, I thought podcasts, when I first heard about podcasts, a guy, Kevin Clancy, who's been with us forever.
00:57:28.120
So, yeah, we've had a lot of big, big successful people that really were, I mean, McAfee played in the NFL, but no one knew him on the media side.
00:57:37.620
A lot of big people that million dollars worth of game is a huge, like, urban podcast with us right now.
00:57:46.580
Was there someone that you, can you turn the heat on?
00:58:00.640
This is the first time kind of debuting, going with it.
00:58:06.420
I'm going to try to maybe get into the scarf phase of my life.
00:58:10.540
It feels like it, almost you feel a little bit regal, or you feel like at least they'll let you in a department store, I feel like.
00:58:24.800
So, it's like, I've been doing the pizza thing forever.
00:58:39.900
Yeah, Caleb, whenever I got to know Caleb, one thing he raves about is that he loves working for you.
00:58:47.280
I mean, he genuinely, like, you know what I'm saying?
00:58:49.120
Like, some people say my job, but he has, I mean, he absolutely loves it.
00:58:54.500
I think it's two things for him that probably he likes working for us, me, is the freedom, which I just said.
00:59:03.300
So, I have the back of the talent as much as I can, always.
00:59:12.140
I actually think in his contract, he has something.
00:59:15.080
Like, when Penn bought us, he's like, if there's a disagreement between Penn and me or something, like, Dave gets to make the final decision.
00:59:24.340
He just trusts that it's good to work for somebody where you know you can trust, like, they have your best interest.
00:59:32.820
And some people may not like what I say or do, but I'm pretty straightforward, and the track record is, like, there.
00:59:39.040
Like, 20 years, I've been pretty consistently straightforward, honest, truthful.
00:59:44.180
Is there a hire or a departure that you regret or that you, like, somebody that you let go or anything, or did you have any?
00:59:54.620
This is a big fucking, I don't like that guy right now.
01:00:01.080
I literally, if I throw a punch, I've never been in a fight in my life, never thrown a punch in anger.
01:00:06.840
If I threw a punch right now with my left arm, it would dislocate.
01:00:10.740
He got me so mad, I sent him a contract to fight him.
01:00:17.160
The McAfee thing with us didn't end great, but, like, I don't really have regrets.
01:00:23.200
He was always going to be, like, a huge star on his own.
01:00:31.280
I mean, we've become, to a degree, and I always said a Saturday Night Live model, like, we bring unknown talent and try to make them stars.
01:00:40.360
And we'll keep them as long as we can keep them.
01:00:43.220
But, really, you know, if we can't, hopefully they go become big somewhere else.
01:00:50.080
You know, because then people are like, oh, this is a place where I can get a start and build my name and either stay with Barstool or not.
01:01:11.500
Like, you know, like the, I think it was Burger King, right?
01:01:17.840
That was her, when we hired her, she already had, like, Brianna Chicken Fries was her TikTok user handle.
01:01:32.260
Yeah, I thought maybe she was, like, Cherokee or, like.
01:01:34.620
It'd be, like, your Native American name, Chicken Fry.
01:01:40.500
Yeah, I almost knocked up this Native American girl one time.
01:01:49.680
Like, is there, like, do motels have, like, motel bars?
01:01:55.000
Or, like, you just saw her walking out of a room?
01:02:04.960
So, she drove, I think, like, 10 or 11 hours, too.
01:02:22.100
But then, on the drive home, I guess she got kind of bored.
01:02:25.200
And she starts saying, well, if I'm pregnant, I'm going to keep this child.
01:02:31.180
Although, to her defense, you probably do have a lot of time to think on a 10-hour drive.
01:02:40.360
I should have given her at least five hours to be hypothetically pregnant on that drive.
01:02:44.200
Like, a 10-hour drive, you're thinking a lot of shit.
01:02:48.740
Yeah, especially when you're just driving back to the res or whatever.
01:02:51.220
And you just get back there, and it's a bunch of free gasoline from the government.
01:02:54.280
And you're like, what the fuck am I going to do with this family, you know, if I have a family?
01:03:17.540
So, like, my ex-wife, basically, I met when I started Barstool right about the same time.
01:03:29.180
Probably living a crazier lifestyle, I would say.
01:03:34.980
Like, it was a totally different time because Barstool was nothing.
01:03:39.640
And to it, obviously, like, being well-known, fame, money brings more women and opportunities
01:03:52.400
Yeah, there's some stuff out there that, you know.
01:03:59.100
I even walk out of the room backwards because I don't want women seeing my butt and stuff.
01:04:06.780
And back in time, it's like, who the fuck would ever want to watch me fuck?
01:04:10.240
So, I don't know, five years single and then just met her.
01:04:21.660
Because I start to find that, like, as you start, you don't want to just, like, hook up
01:04:27.320
It gets a little bit, like, scary, kind of like, you know.
01:04:30.400
It's like, I don't want a child, like, even a possible child somewhere.
01:04:41.100
I would never, like, in hindsight, I was probably a fucking idiot because there's a
01:04:46.760
lot of post shit that I've dealt with that a lot of people know about me.
01:04:52.640
I mean, I, you know, hit pieces written about me, about my sexual activities, sex, things,
01:04:56.600
about it all, which I never would have guessed for, like, fucking me.
01:04:59.900
Like, if someone back in high school was like, wait till you fucking see what this
01:05:03.860
guy's going to turn out to be, like, I would have never fucking guessed it.
01:05:09.480
So, yeah, I was probably playing fast and loose is how I would describe it.
01:05:14.760
But whatever, it's been a wild ride, I'll say that.
01:05:19.920
I think it seems like it's really been exciting.
01:05:23.180
Like, I feel a pressure as I get older to try and stay, like, younger and stuff.
01:05:26.980
No, no, I feel like it's been a fairly natural thing.
01:05:31.840
Like, so I probably crammed so much into that five years of being single.
01:05:42.220
And, you know, I went from the guy who's, like, with his buddies, if you're trying to
01:05:47.340
save up to go out once, like, how the fuck am I going to afford this table?
01:05:54.500
But it's like, I can't fucking afford this to, you know, you're getting opportunity.
01:05:57.920
Like, I remember I was just saying on the way over, like, Super Bowl's coming up.
01:06:05.380
And I sent it to this guy, Paul Gaz, who's been employee basically number one, worked at
01:06:20.660
We weren't even in the room where the fucking party was happening.
01:06:35.460
It was just, like, a very different phase of my life.
01:06:38.860
Now, I really don't like being in clubs at all.
01:06:45.680
I've gotten her to be like, listen, I don't want to be there.
01:06:53.060
The first time in my life, I look around like, damn, I'm a fucking old guy in here.
01:06:57.160
So that part of my life, I think, is pretty much in the rear view.
01:07:02.700
But, I mean, I was going out, fuck, four or five days a week.
01:07:28.540
Oh, the hair looks like I'll find a gram in it, son.
01:07:36.840
And maybe now, especially since you live in Florida, maybe that adds to it.
01:07:43.300
Adderall would be like, I do a lot just to even wake up work.
01:07:49.640
Like, you know, I never get, like, depressed on it.
01:07:54.220
But, like, for me to be out, I don't know how people.
01:08:07.840
Like, you walk out of 11, and there's a fucking line at 9 a.m.
01:08:12.020
It's just I don't even know what people do there.
01:08:14.560
It's like, well, how you work and what are you doing?
01:08:19.180
It's like, sure, you're going to be the only fucker in the club.
01:08:31.200
Dude, a friend of mine got all coked up one night, fell off of his balcony, right,
01:08:36.180
landed on another balcony, right, and T.I., the rapper, came out and found him.
01:08:55.800
There's another rapper who was always in Miami.
01:09:05.120
He's like, hey, this guy ruins the story not knowing him.
01:09:13.980
Oh, it might be, what's his name, who has that same beat over and over again.
01:09:37.180
Oh, he's been around forever, but he's still super popular.
01:10:04.780
He ate pizza with no cheese, though, which is wild.
01:10:23.900
He actually just, he, I wanted to say it was with a T, too, but I can't remember.
01:10:46.740
Dude, I did, I went to Paris Fashion Week last week, right?
01:10:53.060
So, this guy, Colm Delane, he's like a fashion guy, right?
01:10:58.340
So, he had comedians come and be in his fashion show.
01:11:02.640
Andrew Schultz went, a couple of other guys, and it's, the fashion show finally was at like
01:11:12.420
And, Kodak Black is sitting in there with a baby in the front row.
01:11:25.040
I was credited in Kodak Black getting pardoned by Trump.
01:11:33.980
When Trump mentioned, it was some convoluted, like, Kodak Black actually reached out to
01:11:44.160
I think he donated, and then Trump, when he pardoned me, he's like, Kodak Black donated
01:11:48.540
to, like, Dave Portnay, the Barstool Fund, he's like a good guy.
01:11:51.080
It was a little blurb, but I was like, what the fuck world am I in?
01:12:02.300
Like, how everything, the lines are so blurred.
01:12:07.640
The news, you can't trust the news anymore, so there's conspiracy theories.
01:12:10.300
People are always like, there's all these conspiracy theories.
01:12:12.120
But it's like, a lot of it is because you can't rely on the news.
01:12:14.700
So people are going to try and get whatever they think the news is.
01:12:18.560
No, I, the whole thing, yeah, that, which I agree, I don't trust the fucking news.
01:12:24.980
I've said that, but I don't even know where you go if you want, like, a non-spin take on
01:12:44.980
I just wonder, kind of, how does that end, you know?
01:12:49.560
Like, everything's gotten so, like, me, you know?
01:12:55.540
It's an interesting, it definitely feels like an interesting time to be alive.
01:13:06.660
I really didn't because I was a huge podcast guy.
01:13:09.440
And people always, I always got like, hey, you should go on Rogan.
01:13:14.020
I'm not, like, ever somebody really necessarily.
01:13:17.920
And that was when all the fucking negative shit was happening.
01:13:35.240
I got, like, fucking weirdly high from smoking a cigar.
01:13:46.300
My main thing, honestly, because I know he goes so long.
01:13:49.600
It's like, if I go two hours, that probably means he fucking didn't like me and, like, I'm out.
01:13:59.340
I mean, I know how big he is because we're sore in the business.
01:14:02.240
But even still, like, after we did it, so many people just walking down the street.
01:14:09.880
He's probably the most influential, you know, guy in media there is.
01:14:16.120
You know, I think, and especially, people didn't realize that until he got that big contract.
01:14:20.480
That almost kind of, I mean, it was amazing for him, and he deserves it.
01:14:24.500
But when they put out that article that he made, like, $100 million a year or something.
01:14:29.720
But that's when everybody, like, that's when people started attacking.
01:14:35.040
It's like, it's just, it's so dangerous, kind of like, I don't know.
01:14:43.600
It's like, they can shape anything any way they want.
01:14:47.120
And I, he, he, he's definitely perceived as a threat because he, he's, he uses escape
01:14:59.420
If you can't control how somebody thinks and you really can't hurt them, that, that is
01:15:06.120
I think the attacks come when, and why they came, because what's the point really of going
01:15:13.900
When you have Spotify, there's a thought I can get to him now.
01:15:21.040
It's like Spotify backed him up, but I mean, he did have to delete episodes and maybe say
01:15:27.100
things that ordinarily, if it was by himself, maybe would have, maybe he wouldn't have.
01:15:32.740
It's like, aha, he kind of has to answer to somebody now, whether he actually does or he
01:15:37.260
But somebody's signing his checks before and nobody is.
01:15:40.340
So what's the point of going at, what is that going to do?
01:15:42.580
Because you may just actually ignite more because he doesn't give a fuck.
01:15:48.620
That would be, to me, the difference and why it happened when he did that.
01:15:52.440
Um, yeah, I remember when I first went in, dude, I was so nervous.
01:15:57.360
I got a tweet, a DM from him in the middle, like in just like 11 PM or something, but I
01:16:03.280
So it was like middle of the night, but, um, and it was like, Hey, do you want to call
01:16:07.500
And I remember being like, Oh my God, I was excited too, when I got it.
01:16:10.840
Cause if you, people always hit me up like, Hey, can you have me get on or sit?
01:16:21.200
So the New York times wrote basically a hit piece on me and they were working on it for
01:16:33.060
Every single person that I was friends with in my network, they're reaching.
01:16:46.380
It turned into just like, again, like I'm a scumbag gambling hippies.
01:16:49.360
The point of the story, the reporter wrote in the article, like we reached out to Dave
01:16:56.920
And I posted my exchanges with this woman and they went back, I think seven months where
01:17:03.240
I'm like, Hey, I know you're digging into my past.
01:17:14.100
This went on for months of her being like, I'm eager to meet with you.
01:17:23.220
She's like, you have 48 hours to respond to a million bullet points.
01:17:28.380
I was like, I gave you the opportunity and I posted the exchange.
01:17:39.000
So I, I, she, she never, this is the reporter never responded.
01:17:49.240
I just tweeted a thank you for the hit piece you wrote on me.
01:17:52.060
It's what landed me on Rogan and introduced a brand new audience to me.
01:18:10.000
And it's like, I've always said, Hey, I'm here.
01:18:14.300
You can ask me fucking anything and record it as long as I can too.
01:18:17.920
If you're trying to do a fair and what's crazy.
01:18:21.260
Like I grew up in a, in my brain, I'm like the New York times is like legit.
01:18:27.720
So I always look at that unless you're in this fucking world and you're like part of it.
01:18:34.020
Like even my dad, who's a liberal hates fucking Trump, that type of guy.
01:18:37.900
Like he still has a hard time to be like, yeah, the New York times is biased.
01:18:41.180
Like he almost has it because he's seen it, but it, it, it, it is scary because if you're
01:18:46.340
not in it, you just believe like most normal people aren't going to do the back research
01:18:50.500
on a hit piece, they're going to be like, Oh, that's true.
01:18:55.320
Well, it's even like even headlines in anything.
01:18:57.620
If somebody writes like Larry's gay and you see that as the headline, it'd be like, damn
01:19:05.120
And they didn't even add, they didn't even know who it, they didn't even look at if,
01:19:13.080
It's just like, and then it's like, and there's never any apology.
01:19:17.460
You're like, you're, you're, there's never any like recuperate or any.
01:19:22.760
So business insider, who I fucking hate wrote a hit piece on me and it was vicious.
01:19:29.360
And like within 24 hours, I had all the receipts.
01:19:36.400
Of like, well, here's all the proof that this is totally fucking bullshit.
01:19:45.020
They said, they wrote another article and my lawyer was like, well, they can now say
01:19:51.580
It's like, well, it's only news because they fucking wrote it, but it becomes new.
01:19:56.160
It's like, what, what kind of fucked up game is this?
01:20:07.580
They're like, there's no way being bad at your job.
01:20:11.800
Isn't an excuse to like, so it's almost like Johnny Depp.
01:20:14.660
Johnny Depp when he sued, he originally sued the newspaper and lost because the newspaper
01:20:19.900
can always be like, well, we didn't know that she wasn't telling the truth or we didn't
01:20:25.540
You have to sue the actual, like he sued Amber Heard.
01:20:34.540
I think, cause you start to feel like there's no way to win against this thing and whatever
01:20:40.180
this thing is, but it starts to feel like there's something that you can't, you know,
01:20:44.000
the only way I look at it, people fucking hate me are always going to hate me.
01:20:51.460
Now the flip side, the people like me and love me are always going to love me.
01:20:56.640
Now I tell the truth, but my crowd is so kind of like in my corner and I wasn't, but if
01:21:05.120
I wasn't telling the truth, they'd probably still believe me.
01:21:07.400
It's like, it's almost that they're on my side and the people aren't, aren't now.
01:21:13.480
I do tell the truth and it's always honest, but it's so hard to convince once people have
01:21:17.900
their minds set up or made up, it's hard to get them off that point.
01:21:27.220
But then sometimes I wonder how much do I fall into the same trap, even myself, you know,
01:21:31.040
it's like, I sometimes wonder that, um, we saw this thing like Buzzfeed was starting to
01:21:40.920
Stock went up like a bazillion percent because of it.
01:21:43.300
But do you like, cause you have like real, you know, employees with alcoholism and whatever
01:21:50.660
You guys got the fucking guy, you know, he's right there.
01:21:53.340
You know, some guy who's, you know, going to overdose or his wife's going to leave him
01:21:57.900
because he's writing another article for you, you know, it's like, you got, but you got
01:22:02.940
You got real people with fucking asthma, you know, like fucking real motherfuckers.
01:22:07.180
Um, does this kind of shit scare you or do you think this is cheap or do you think
01:22:12.080
It's, I mean, I feel like Buzzfeed has always been the lowest common denominator for talent.
01:22:23.460
There's no way I, or anything like that who can, you know, reflect.
01:22:27.120
Well, I mean, I think Lenny balls, uh, but no, this is in our world.
01:22:35.580
Cause it says Buzzfeed's using AI to write its articles after firing 180 employees.
01:22:40.160
They're talking about their like listicles and shit.
01:22:44.360
I feel bad for the people who got fired too, but I wouldn't say those people were like the
01:22:55.220
You're coming up with like, uh, you know, that, I don't know the 10 things you should
01:23:00.040
fucking be doing when you like come home after your grocery.
01:23:10.900
Uh, but this isn't, I wouldn't view Buzzfeed as like my world necessarily.
01:23:17.440
Like we really are looking for like talented people or weirdos.
01:23:23.520
Me and Caleb wanted to try and do a show, you know, it would be fun.
01:23:29.460
Uh, the, the bigger, I wouldn't say the bigger threat, if you want to call it to my world,
01:23:35.320
our world is the evolution of like technology, like let's take you, for example, there's
01:23:42.720
probably a world back when we started where you wouldn't have nearly the vehicles to get
01:23:50.080
your name out there without like coming to us, you know, or, or somebody or TikToker like
01:23:56.020
So if you're a talented person, how do you get your content out there?
01:24:00.480
Um, so that, that's the harder thing because, you know, we really have to find the talent
01:24:06.600
early, early, early, because once someone's pretty established on social media or through
01:24:14.700
So that, that's the harder thing with, do you have somebody looking for that kind of thing?
01:24:18.500
We're always looking for talent really always now when you say always looking, but you have
01:24:21.900
like, it's like an employee that's actively kind of, no, we don't.
01:24:24.840
So I guess not where we're always willing to hire talent if we find it.
01:24:31.600
And, and our value prop on that early is basically we'll be like gasoline.
01:24:36.840
You sign, you know, uh, uh, generally like a two, three year contract.
01:24:40.440
And if you're good, being in our network should really like give you maybe a, a way to cut
01:24:47.980
So to speak, to get your name out there, then you can reevaluate.
01:24:54.700
Um, what do you think anything about like this GP, this GP chat thing, that thing that can
01:24:58.760
make all its own articles and stuff that can write papers, you know, is that what's the
01:25:02.460
difference between that and the listicle shit chat GPT can be like, Hey, will you write
01:25:06.640
me a, um, a paper, uh, you know, it's a Dave Portnoy writes a paper on, uh, young men trying
01:25:20.080
And you put that information in there and then it'll do like a three page paper that would
01:25:26.000
Sounds like a good fucking way to like get through school.
01:25:32.560
If every, you know, like I, at the same questions, I mean, I, I don't know.
01:25:36.640
The same questions, I guess, what kind of, it's like, well, they're sourcing the information
01:25:41.180
So who's facts, like, how do you know where you're getting the information from?
01:25:50.640
I guess in the end, in the end, I think you're still going to have to have real talent will
01:25:55.840
I think even with stuff like this, hopefully most people are going to see through like,
01:26:04.160
I feel like you can see that stuff pretty easily on the internet.
01:26:06.120
And if you're falling for that shit, then you, you are, something is wrong with you.
01:26:11.440
And yeah, I don't know what, what these things will be used for exactly.
01:26:16.220
But I, I know in our world, at least a lot of what people like is because they are attached
01:26:25.060
So like if, if you switch the names on who, like you, I, it changes how people perceive
01:26:30.480
it because if it's Theo Vaughn wrote or did something, people know you and they view it
01:26:36.460
through that lens and that affects their enjoyment or lack thereof.
01:26:41.760
Like when Frank left the Jags game early, that shit broke my, I was like, what is even
01:27:00.160
When he left it, when Frank left the Bill's Dolphins game early, I just.
01:27:03.240
That's the attitude of Barstool and full display.
01:27:06.280
He, I think I was mad at first because like, why'd we fucking send him there?
01:27:10.660
And by the way, you're never going to make a six, 6 PM flight.
01:27:14.400
The game was long, but like the game's at one, you're going to be sitting in traffic.
01:27:20.880
So like this went through like 10 different things at Barstool, like people who booked
01:27:24.980
It's like in what world you can't, it's a one o'clock game.
01:27:36.820
Like, of course you'll stay, stay the night and fly.
01:27:51.280
But I have like a long history with him because of where I grew up.
01:27:57.180
Like, of course, you know, I, uh, the good, the bad, the ugly.
01:28:01.540
Like, so he, first of all, he went to the same school as me, Michigan.
01:28:08.600
Then he comes to the Pats and I'm a, I'm in Boston and in the Patriots rise,
01:28:18.720
Everything since I've been involved with like the cops twice with Brady once in a negative
01:28:25.100
fashion, once in, well, cops involved is never good, but one anti Brady, I guess you could
01:28:32.040
say, and one pro like, so he way back in the day, uh, he, he basically Giselle was on the
01:28:46.640
Who was Tom was no Ben, the kid with Giselle on a beach, myself, Miami naked too.
01:28:53.040
And well, keep in mind, the kid's an infant, her son.
01:28:56.540
So it's his son, tiny little kid, like the Gerber baby.
01:29:15.000
This was the height of the Peyton Manning, Tom Brady, like rivalry.
01:29:22.900
I said, check out the howitzer on Brady's baby.
01:29:26.940
I go, Peyton Manning could never have a kid with this big of a hog or something like this.
01:29:39.020
They're like, we're going to make your life real fucking horrible.
01:29:42.500
Like people were saying, I should be beaten to death.
01:29:50.740
And then fast forward, the Patriots explode where we end up going to jail, defending Brady
01:29:56.140
for when he got suspended by the NFL, handcuffed ourselves to each other at NFL headquarters.
01:30:01.360
I've been dragged out of the Superbowl in handcuffs.
01:30:05.340
Bob Kraft, the owner of the team, when Brady came back with Tampa Bay, called me up.
01:30:10.180
He's like, I want you to be my guest for when Brady comes back.
01:30:12.980
So it's been the full circle and I have met him, I think a couple of times.
01:30:17.700
But like, so if I saw him, I'd be like, Hey, Tommy, like, Hey Dave, how's it going?
01:30:22.380
But I don't know him like on a real personal level, but yeah, it's their success and everything
01:30:35.500
If that doesn't happen, it put us in the headlines in a lot of different ways.
01:30:47.280
Just on getting to have that experience because life, you know, to have the ups and downs, to
01:30:51.320
have all of it, you know, to really have so many experiences.
01:30:54.320
And football is so big in this country and the Superbowl is so big.
01:30:56.840
And we became Barstool, the face of like the Patriot fan.
01:31:01.940
Like there's a game they can probably pull out.
01:31:07.880
So Goodell, the commissioner in the league, like the first time he came back to Gillette
01:31:12.600
after all the controversy, we printed like 70,000 of these towels with his face and a
01:31:18.620
And we got, we're like, we need volunteers to hand these things out.
01:31:26.340
Like if you, you could, if you on the images for it, you'll see like the whole fucking stadium
01:31:40.760
So like the whole fucking stadium Goodell in there.
01:31:46.040
And we became people just, they hated us because people hated the Patriots.
01:31:54.440
It's like this, yeah, it's almost like this, like this plague, but it's not a negative
01:32:02.360
And the Patriots were the most talked about, hated, loved, whatever team for like two decades.
01:32:19.140
I like Tony Collins, but I think he played in their Superbowl game.
01:32:26.920
That was when the Patriots, they were very good.
01:32:32.360
That, I mean, the Patriots are, for the most part, a terrible franchise up till the Brady
01:32:36.620
They had two Superbowls and the second one being the Parcells.
01:32:39.820
But like, if you, like Tecmo Bowl, did you ever play like, oh yeah.
01:32:45.900
They had a lot of, I think one of the running back was white, I think even.
01:32:54.540
Them and the Colts are the two worst teams in it.
01:33:04.400
I think right now, you gotta see if the Chiefs get healthy.
01:33:09.180
But if they get back, I think they get a pretty good shot.
01:33:23.780
I'm trying to see if I'm going to get over there.
01:33:31.760
I feel like the Eagles, it just feels like there's some kind of weird destiny thing going on there.
01:33:47.480
So you're not going to win many games that way.
01:33:57.800
There was so much disparity in the league this year between good teams.
01:34:02.300
Yeah, and I thought the AFC was overall better.
01:34:17.900
Well, their faces are getting deformed and shit.
01:34:25.060
I saw the clip of the woman doing the somersault after.
01:34:37.060
Because if you go Google it, a lot of hate out there online.
01:34:41.160
Like, this is the worst thing that's ever fucking happened.
01:34:43.220
You know, obviously, a lot of people have opinions on Dana White, his incident.
01:34:49.380
Oh, that was crazy that that happened right when the league started.
01:34:52.240
I almost feel like I wonder if that was planned.
01:35:05.420
But so if you Google it, there's a lot of hate.
01:35:15.340
If you see that, the guy left the place and bought a van for no reason.
01:35:24.240
Like, his wires got crossed and something's like, you got to buy a van?
01:35:32.340
But if you don't even need a van, you're just like, hey, I'm getting a van.
01:35:34.300
Like, you fucking come home from losing the fight with a van?
01:35:57.120
And I don't know what that says about the human psyche.
01:36:06.160
I think Dana's pretty confident it's going to be successful.
01:36:10.200
Yeah, it's hard to deny those clips when you see them.
01:36:12.380
It's like, you want to stay on it, but you don't want to.
01:36:14.200
It's like that and the people, like, attacking CVS workers.
01:36:18.300
Those are the two clips where I'm like, do I want to keep watching this?
01:36:27.880
If it continues and grows, they'll have to put some regulations, which he already said.
01:36:35.740
It's like, yeah, I want to watch somebody get slapped.
01:36:40.180
I don't know what it says about humans, but like you said, people fucking used to go to the Colosseum in Rome to watch fucking gladiators.
01:36:51.740
With all the success with Barstool, you guys have crushed it so much and your journey through it.
01:36:59.060
Do you ever start to have ideas of, like, there's something else you want to do down the line?
01:37:10.120
It's the number one thing I've been crucified for in my life.
01:37:24.900
But there's a community of watch people who take their watches so fucking seriously that I didn't...
01:37:31.960
Mine was, like, built for people like me who...
01:37:34.760
I'm not going to spend, like, 10 grand on Rolex, but I thought I want a watch that's clean, looks good.
01:37:39.600
I spent a lot of time, like, coming up with the design of it.
01:37:47.500
We'll see what happens with it, but whenever I post it, like, watch snobs, they come from my throat.
01:37:59.120
Yeah, no, they're like, I could buy this watch for this fucking...
01:38:02.960
It has this movement and does this and fucking sucks my dick and, you know, doesn't do that.
01:38:10.080
And they thought they're like, you're doing it as a scam.
01:38:12.520
It's like, what the fuck are you talking about?
01:38:16.620
And it's like, by the way, I'm at the point, and maybe rightly or wrongly, where I can get investors for everything.
01:38:22.780
People are like, oh, he's a smart business guy.
01:38:24.900
So if I'm like, I'm doing something, people knew I was doing this.
01:38:29.000
I was like, no, because honestly, if it doesn't work, I don't want you to be able to be, like, in my grill.
01:38:34.320
Like, I'll lose my own money, and I don't have to worry about a phone call from anybody being like...
01:38:40.260
So it's my own money that I either will lose or make.
01:38:47.580
People, it's slowed down a little bit, but when I launch it, people come over the throat.
01:38:52.020
But to answer your question beyond that, and that was just something I thought would work.
01:38:55.660
It's like, it's kind of that entrepreneurial spirit.
01:38:58.900
I spent a year or so, year and a half developing it.
01:39:01.520
Beyond that, one misconception I think people have always had about me is, like, I'm ultra-driven.
01:39:08.920
Like, I think I have two more years with Barstool, guaranteed.
01:39:17.280
I don't have that inherent need, I don't think, to work.
01:39:29.640
I just don't know if that'll kind of disappear, and I hope it doesn't, you know?
01:39:32.300
It's fun to watch you instigate through the world, I think.
01:39:38.800
You know, I've long been a fan, and then I got to meet you, and you seemed like a very,
01:39:42.340
you just seemed a lot more even down-to-earth than I expected, man.
01:39:45.680
I know that's a weird, it's not a compliment to give someone, but I think you look at someone's
01:39:49.240
life, and it looks so busy and insane, and then you meet them, and they seem, you know,
01:39:53.680
it's interesting to find somebody that seems kind of down-to-earth.
01:39:57.420
So, like, I'm sure with, like, in your work, like, there's a lot of decisions to be made,
01:40:03.280
Do you have, like, a process when it comes to that?
01:40:05.760
Because you probably have to make decisions pretty quick.
01:40:10.320
Like, I always view it sort of Family Feud style.
01:40:16.400
Like, you know, if you watch the Family Feud, you got the head guy at the table, right?
01:40:21.980
If you hear a good answer, you're like, all right, I'll go with that guy.
01:40:24.460
But even if they have the right answer, but in my gut, I'm like, no, I get the right answer.
01:40:42.940
A lot of breaks that I could have never dreamed of.
01:40:45.620
And I didn't start Barstool, really, to, like, be here.
01:40:48.840
I just didn't want to hate my job waking up in the morning.
01:40:55.420
Do you have a mentor that you reach out to if there's things that, like, you're unsure about?
01:41:01.180
There's a dude, Mike Rapoli, who I met through horse racing.
01:41:14.300
So sometimes, like, business questions, I'll ask him.
01:41:17.260
Erica Nardini, our CEO, we have, like, the best relationship.
01:41:30.240
You know, the horse does sex with other horses.
01:41:38.580
And it won, like, a – it won the damn, you know, I don't know what it is.
01:41:46.860
No, I think it was, like, Brickstone or Bricktown or something.
01:41:57.560
And he said, like, all through the week, there's just lines of, like, people bringing in their horse.
01:42:04.240
And then they make, like, $30,000 every time the horse pumps.
01:42:24.160
Yeah, because you get to be right there, he said.
01:42:25.780
Yeah, and it's, like, if it doesn't take or it doesn't work, you still fucking spend the money.
01:42:41.980
And so, like, obviously, your life's super busy.
01:42:44.060
Do you have, like, a day-to-day ritual that you do every morning?
01:42:51.320
I've definitely taken the foot off the gas a little bit.
01:42:59.900
I mean, I have my schedule, like, the BFF podcast, which is, like, a Tuesday.
01:43:03.700
We'll have college, depending on the sport, like, sport shows to do.
01:43:12.040
I'm going to start day trading again probably in March.
01:43:14.460
That'll be, like, at the beginning of the stock market, the end of it.
01:43:16.900
But I've definitely taken the gas, the foot off the pedal a little bit.
01:43:22.320
I mean, 20 years is a long fucking time to be doing something.
01:43:25.400
Would you ever come up with, like, an investing arm through Barstool, do you think?
01:43:31.000
Because at some point, some of your fans will start to get older.
01:43:45.020
Especially if you are doing it or you get involved with people that do it well.
01:43:48.380
I'm sure a lot of your supporters would want to have the same or do the same.
01:44:39.160
A podcast where I'll be sharing thoughts on things like current events
01:44:51.600
And as always, I'll be joined by the voices in my head
01:45:14.440
Ho, ho, I'll take a quarter pounder with cheese
01:45:18.760
Sorry, sir, but our ice cream machine is broken
01:45:34.660
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