While January saw plenty of change take place at Barstool Sports, February has started with some stability.
Taking to X (formerly Twitter) on Monday night, Dave Portnoy announced that PFT Commenter has agreed to a new three-year contract with the company.
“BREAKING – @PFTCommenter just signed for 3 more years,” the Barstool Sports founder wrote, along with three beer glass emojis.
https://twitter.com/stoolpresidente/status/1754672734632612129
PFT Commenter reposted Portnoy’s tweet, along with his own version of Shohei Ohtani’s announcement that he was signing with the Los Angeles Dodgers.
PFT Commenter — whose real name is Eric Sollenberger — first gained internet fame as a parody Twitter account in the early-2010s before writing for various sports blogs. In 2016, he joined Barstool Sports and formed the satirical Pardon My Take podcast along with Dan “Big Cat” Katz, which has since become one of the world’s biggest sports podcasts.
PMT‘s success even led to a (very) short-lived TV show on ESPN, Barstool Van Talk, which was canceled after just one episode due to backlash from ESPN employees. Yet despite Barstool remaining a polarizing presence in the sports media world, PMT Commenter has largely maintained a high approval rating, and was even featured as a celebrity guest picker on ESPN’s College GameDay last fall.
News of PFT Commenter’s new three-year deal at Barstool comes after an eventful January for the irreverent sports brand, which included the departure of CEO Erika Ayers Badan. Barstool Sports also recently announced a new partnership with the anti-cancel culture video platform Rumble, while the company is also reportedly nearing a new endorsement deal with DraftKings.
Earlier this week, Portnoy revealed that the company has no plans to hire a new CEO to replace Ayers Badan and that he will be “running the show” after buying the company he founded back from Penn Entertainment last year.
About Ben Axelrod
Ben Axelrod is a veteran of the sports media landscape, having most recently worked for NBC's Cleveland affiliate, WKYC. Prior to his time in Cleveland, he covered Ohio State football and the Big Ten for outlets including Cox Media Group, Bleacher Report, Scout and Rivals.