Through his company’s partnership with Fox Sports, Dave Portnoy has become a mainstream media figure, exposing him to a new audience. It’s rare to go a day without him in your timeline, on television, or being written about on the sites you visit (we’re very guilty here).
Barstool Sports is everywhere in 2025, but its playbook is anything but. Born out of an anti-establishment point of view and intentionally brash language, the point was to create a no-holds-barred, reality TV-style space, primarily for college-age sports fans.
Barstool’s rise has made Portnoy a coveted media interview, rarely holding back on any question lobbed his way. And during an appearance on CBS’s Sunday Morning this past weekend, Portnoy was asked whether he believes Barstool helped to “unleash” the pervasive vitriol seen today in American culture.
Portnoy, in short, said no.
“I think Barstool and myself has always had a pretty good moral compass,” he said. “We’ve never stood for hate or anything of that ilk.”
But while that makes for a good sound bite, it doesn’t track with the offensive language and confrontational rhetoric that were core to Barstool’s early rise. The most famous example, which led to the cancellation of the company’s ESPN2 TV show, saw Portnoy and others calling host Sam Ponder a “f*cking slut.” In 2020, Barstool staffer Muj Fricke left the company after comments surfaced in which Portnoy repeatedly compared Colin Kaepernick to Osama Bin Laden. The list goes on.
Regardless of documented past instances, Portnoy said he objects “strenuously” to the idea that he has a history of bigoted commentary.
“People who don’t like me, I feel like virtually every single criticism — and some of them are brutal — have context around them that a fair-minded person, if they looked at the evidence, would be like, ‘What they’re saying about you is not true,'” Portnoy explained. “But once it’s said, it will never go away.”
Portnoy has ardently defended himself for years in the face of such criticisms and, when it has come to reporters covering allegations of sexual misconduct against him, often harassed these reporters.
While attempting to defend himself and his company, Portnoy offered an example of where he believes he has drawn the line as owner and face of Barstool.
“Do I think that feminists should complain about a Diet Coke can being ‘skinny’ and that somehow is leading to an eating disorder by Diet Coke having a ‘skinny’ can? That I think is crazy,” Portnoy said. “And there are things that I think people get far too worked up (about), like he, she, verbs, crazy to me. Making jokes that you are trying to hurt people’s feelings, that’s never flown with us.”
Later in the interview, Portnoy explained that what prompted him to engage in political and social commentary more often was the villainization of Barstool’s core personalities and fans: white dudes who do things that “normal guys” do, like partying and pursuing women.
And following the rise of antisemitism in the U.S. in recent years, including an incident in which a man was arrested for harassing Portnoy, which occurred after this CBS interview had already been filmed, Portnoy said he feels pressure to “step up” and be a good role model in the Jewish community.
Like many things, Barstool and Dave Portnoy in 2025 are much different from what they were 10 or 15 years ago. While today’s version of both may be more successful and be more congenial, it might be a bit of a stretch to make blanket statements for such a large company spanning decades of operation.
About Brendon Kleen
Brendon is a Media Commentary staff writer at Awful Announcing. He has also covered basketball and sports business at Front Office Sports, SB Nation, Uproxx and more.