Before Ryan Glasspiegel reported that Dave Portnoy was effectively banned from stepping into Ohio Stadium, Ohio State beat writer Austin Ward and former Buckeyes’ linebacker Bobby Carpenter were among the first to catch wind that the Barstool founder was a persona non grata in The Horseshoe.
Initially, Portnoy was prepared to take the high road. He was going to bite his tongue, fall in line with Fox’s wishes, and keep things professional. But when Ohio State Athletic Director Ross Bjork tried to shift blame to Fox, the 48-year-old decided loyalty goes both ways. He defended his new partner and took some pointed shots at Carpenter in the process.
“The old linebacker from Ohio State, he has a podcast that nobody listens to, and they basically say they have it on authority — 100 percent certainty — that people within the administration of Ohio State have banned me and Barstool Sports,” Portnoy said on Tuesday. “So, that starts — I already knew this for a week and a half. We canceled our production. We had to pay a late fee, all this stuff, for not coming to Ohio State, Columbus. But Bobby Carpenter gets the ball rolling. It becomes a story.”
Carpenter wasn’t going to take that lying down. The former linebacker defended himself while taking his own shots at Portnoy’s credentials.
“Dave Portnoy’s just a guy, OK? He’s a very wealthy and successful businessman,” replied Carpenter. “I have respect for him with that. Like I said, I don’t hate the man. I don’t agree with some of his things. I can take some of it. I’ll leave some of it. He’s a Michigan troll. That’s what he is. I don’t even think he went to Michigan, if I’m not mistaken. So, I’m like, ‘alright, man, you can be you. You be you. You don’t need to be at our stadium.’
“I put as much of this on Fox as anything. Urban [Meyer] and them have done a good job with Big Noon, but, you want to put Ohio State on Big Noon all the time, and then you’re going to put this yahoo out there. The guy doesn’t know anything about football. It’s fine. He’s wildly successful. I’ll give him his flowers for that. He has a strong following — good for him. But Fox brought him on there, I’m like, what are you doing? If it’s a response to Pat McAfee, that doesn’t make any sense to me, but go right ahead.”
Portnoy did, in fact, go to Michigan.
If this entire back-and-forth doesn’t illustrate what Fox signed up for when they brought Portnoy into the fold, then we don’t know what will. Fox — and the Big Ten — wanted an “on-air fanboy” that would say controversial things. Well, Portnoy hasn’t even made his debut on Big Noon Kickoff, and he’s already turned getting banned from Ohio Stadium into a multi-day public spectacle.
Carpenter’s criticism of Portnoy “not knowing anything about football” misses the point entirely. Fox didn’t hire him for Xs and Os analysis; the network hired him to turn routine situations into content. Whether that strategy works long-term remains to be seen, but Fox is certainly getting the chaos they paid for.
About Sam Neumann
Since the beginning of 2023, Sam has been a staff writer for Awful Announcing and The Comeback. A 2021 graduate of Temple University, Sam is a Charlotte native, who currently calls Greenville, South Carolina his home. He also has a love/hate relationship with the New York Mets and Jets.