Pat McAfee never blamed Dave Portnoy for how things ended at Barstool Sports.
When McAfee hit sports media free agency just 18 months after joining the Portnoy-founded company, he made it clear who he had an issue with. It wasn’t Portnoy. Instead, McAfee pointed to the business people inside Barstool, accusing them of “disrespecting” him.
During his first foray into the industry, the former Indianapolis Colts punter recalled that financial decisions were being made behind the scenes that directly affected him, but he wasn’t kept in the loop. In the end, he decided he didn’t want to be tied to Portnoy’s brand anymore.
My time at @barstoolsports will be one I reflect upon fondly. Sometimes adult stuff gets in the way. I’m officially a free agent. pic.twitter.com/ON5KwnFzjc
— Pat McAfee (@PatMcAfeeShow) August 31, 2018
Fair enough. That’s his prerogative. But Portnoy doesn’t totally buy it. He’s since pushed back on that version of events, even though he publicly took some of the blame at the time of the split and admitted McAfee “rightfully lost some trust in some of our business folks.”
I love + respect Pat. I begged him to stay, but he’s got to do what he thinks is right for him. He’s a complex dude and he rightfully lost some trust in some of our business folks. Ultimately that’s my and Erika’s fault. It sucks to lose such a talented dude. Wish him the best https://t.co/nLCh1626oH
— Dave Portnoy (@stoolpresidente) August 31, 2018
“I think that’s bullsh*t,” Portnoy told Shannon Sharpe on Club Shay Shay. “That part, he and I disagree on. Now, there are certainly something to be said, like maybe a check was late or anything like that.”
Pat Mcafee’s reason for leaving Barstool is ‘bullsh*t’ says Dave Portnoy!
“In no way were we trying to screw Mcafee, anything like that.” – @stoolpresidente
WATCH the full episode here: https://t.co/AhblTwwaom pic.twitter.com/h6aRyonhUa
— Club Shay Shay (@ClubShayShay) May 19, 2025
Upon hearing that, Sharpe defended McAfee, pointing out that a check can’t be late when you’ve got a team to pay and operations to run. But Portnoy pushed back again, claiming McAfee was making plenty. It wasn’t about his monthly or yearly salary — whatever that number was at Barstool — but a commission-based check that was at the heart of the disconnect.
“He was kind of in a hybrid. Let me give you an example: PMT, Pat McAfee,” Portnoy explained, referencing Pardon My Take. “If our sales people are out pitching it, and at the time, PMT is dwarfing McAfee, which it was at the time, obviously no longer. He wasn’t a full-time — he got a share of what was sold. PMT didn’t. But it could appear to an outside person, ‘Well, they want all the sales to go to PMT, as opposed to me, because they don’t have to share commission.’ Sales guys don’t give a f*ck. Sales guys just want the commission, whatever’s the easiest sale.
“If our client is like, ‘I’m doing PMT,’ our salespeople aren’t going to be like, ‘Well, go to McAfee because we got to do that.’ I could see how he would say, maybe it wasn’t transparent, but in no way were we trying to screw McAfee, anything like that. He has said that about the business. at the same time be like, I like Dave and Erika [Ayers Badan]. I don’t agree with that part of it at all. At all.”
Seven years later, this feels less like a bad breakup and more like a miscommunication that never got fully cleared up. McAfee wasn’t accusing Portnoy of anything shady. He’s said repeatedly that he still likes and respects him. But it’s clear he felt boxed out of key decisions that affected his money and his brand, and when you’re running a growing operation, that kind of thing isn’t going to go over well.
As for Portnoy, well, he’s still defending the system. His take is basically that McAfee was making real money, but the structure of his deal with Barstool left room for misunderstandings, especially in a sales environment where incentives didn’t align. That’s not necessarily malicious, but it is a business model that can create tension fast if people aren’t on the same page.
That said, it doesn’t feel like anybody’s the bad guy here. Instead, it feels like it’s just two guys who maybe weren’t built to work under the same roof long-term.