Spittin Chiclets - Spittin' Chiclets Episode 459: Featuring Dave Portnoy

Episode Date: August 29, 2023

On Episode 459 of Spittin’ Chiclets, the guys are joined by Dave Portnoy live from Boston. The Founder of Barstool Sports joined (00:24:44) to discuss the Barstool Awards, 20 years of content, his favorite memories and tons more. But first, the guys open the show discussing the Barstool Awards and the Auston Matthews extension. Did the Leafs overpay? The boys break it all down. RA then wraps up the show with a Grinds My Gears and some movie recommendations.You can find every episode of this show on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or YouTube. Prime Members can listen ad-free on Amazon Music. For more, visit barstool.link/schiclets

Hey, Spittin' Chicklets listeners, you can find every episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or YouTube. Prime members can listen ad-free on Amazon Music. Hello everybody, welcome to episode 459 of Spittin' Chicklets, presented by Pink Whitney, from our friends at New Amsterdam Vodka here in the Barstool Sports Podcast family. What's going on everyone? Hopefully you're enjoying the summer, starting to wind down a little bit, so got some good interviews still to go, but let's check in with fellas first across the pond the mer matt murley what's going on big guy what's up ra i gotta say you were the star of the show i i paid the ten dollars i got the pay-per-view from the awards you guys looked amazing i loved what you saw shauno our videographer was definitely the best dressed out of our crew. The red velvet jacket.

Shout out to Sean for that. And you knocking over the water thing was the best thing I saw the whole time. But I want to know what went beyond, like, behind the scenes. What did I miss from you guys? I want to hear all about that. So get it going. We'll dive right into it. Mikey Grinelli, what's going on?

The Chicklets crew. Yeah, we had a little reunion in Boston last week. We had the 20th anniversary. Boston Awards. Never did anything quite like this before. Great time. Grinelli, great to see you. We had a pretty good in Boston last week. We had the 20th anniversary Barstool Awards. Never did anything quite like this before. Great time. Grinnelli, great to see you. We had a pretty good week last week, pal.

Yeah, I mean, incredible week from a Barstool standpoint, from a spit and chiclet standpoint. I mean, we're working on this college hockey project. I don't want to dive too much into it, but we filmed that on Monday. Tuesday, we filmed a sandbagger, Jack Eichel, Noah Hannafin. Wednesday, we did a bunch of interviews, Dave Portnoy, Tuka Rask. And then we had the Barstool Awards that night.

So an awesome week for Barstool, an awesome week for Spittin' Chicklets, just a terrible week for Mike Grinnell, like a horrible week for Mike Grinnell. I got my credit card stolen. Just a brutal, brutal, brutal awakening, basically, where I order room service. And about five minutes after I order room service, I get a call. And the call is, Hey, Mr. Grinnell, we know you just ordered room service, but your credit card didn't go through. And this is a call on the hotel phone. So I answered the hotel phone. Hey, Mr. Grinnell, you know,

your credit card didn't go through. You know, if you do want your room service, you're going to have to give us your credit card number. I'm like, that's weird because like work, work, book the hotel room. So it was like a work card that was put down. So I don't see how it could be declined. But I was like, all right, here's my debit card here. Pay for the food on this. So I end up going to the barstool awards. I eat my food, end up going to the barstool awards. And then the next morning at breakfast, I'm talking to Pasha.

And Pasha's like, dude, the weirdest thing happened to me yesterday. He's like, I ordered room service. And then immediately after I ordered room service, some lady called and asked for my credit card number. Gee, I'll never forget your face. 10 seconds into that story, I'm like, yeah, I ordered room service. Get this call. And as I'm telling this, your face just drops. You went white.

And I'm like, what's wrong? You're like, dude, the same thing happened to me. And I'm like, check your banking app right now. And he opens it up and he's just been getting rinsed like every hour on the hour. Yeah, so that night they just dropped bank at Domino's. They dropped like 80, 90 bucks at Domino's. They loaded up on Domino's. And then since then, I canceled the credit card.

I locked the credit card. But since then, it's been like Domino's, Papa John's, Uber Eats, like 70 transactions they've tried to make. And they're just riling up this... I mean, the card is locked now, but they just keep going at my card. It's insane. But this has to be an inside job at the hotel, right? Oh, yeah. Well, thank God I had the alerts from my bank because five minutes after the call, I get a text being like, hey, we noticed a suspicious charge. It was like $480 at some health co. 9849, some sketchy named company. So right away, I click no, and it locked my card. But if I didn't get that text, I probably would have been like, gee, just thousands of dollars

of Domino's getting a rents to having no clue. Yeah. If you never told me either if we if you never told me at breakfast that day they would still just be running up a tab on my account because it was my like debit card i don't get the text from that card so i was like you saved me you ordering insane amounts of fast food is nothing to be surprised so that's why the bank didn't call you where where pasha it's that health company they're like something's wrong here yeah they're like 90 in dominoes that's a typical order from grinnell we'll just let it play yep but g and i were talking i mean like like you said in hindsight it's like kind of suspicious and weird even in the moment you think it but when you get a call in your like hotel room phone it like you're not really thinking you're getting scammed but like the only way we could think it's possible

is they must have had someone lurking in the restaurant by the computer where they punch in the orders and seeing a room service order come in and then calling the front desk being like, hey, can I speak to so-and-so in room whatever, and then running that scam. And God knows how many other people they hustle. I want to catch these people though. So I was thinking of like, I have the exact time that the credit card was declined at all of these different restaurants. So if I call up that Papa John's and I'm like, Hey, at 7pm, can you go look at your security cam footage and tell me and send me a picture of the person who was trying to buy 10 pizzas and their credit card got declined? Because that was my credit

card. Yeah, we should start an investigation. Let's go back to the awards, though, G. I got to say, a lot of people dressed like their jobs were on the line, which is to say they look great. Boston will clean up really, really nice, man. I mean, you look great. That suit you had on, a little square, what is it? Pocket square.

Yeah, you were looking fresh, man. I thought everybody looked good. The vibe was good. And to have all the talent, all the same people on the one roof, it was a great time. And, yeah, when we get to my award, I won the most disgusting display of athleticism. I don't know if you say I won it,

but I had no idea if I was nominated or going to win anything. So when I got up there, I actually kind of got a little frazzled because I was like, oh, shit, I won slash lost. So I didn't have my thoughts together. And they had the water cooler. If you're familiar with Dave Portnoy's press conferences, it's an old water bubbler with the microphone basically taped to it. So I get up there and the stand was just off. Like I'm tall and I was trying to adjust it. And I just knocked the thing over. People thought it was a bit because I was winning the award for disgusting athleticism and that tied into it no not at all I had no idea the thing was gonna fall and then you know I just wanted to give

props to Dave uh like I said he you know we're all there basically because of him and you know he's changed all lives and you know people have their opinions of him and you'll hear him hear from him in a little bit but you know we're team Dave all the way and I just wanted to give him a little shout out but it was just a great night to be with all those folks just an all-time moment all right and we had an awesome table just sitting there. I think it was the Chiclets guys. We had Kevin Hayes. We had Kirk Minahan. So when that happened, it was just it was pandemonium. Basically, it was so funny. It's like the Dundies, basically, if you watch The Office and they have their own work awards, you know what I mean? They just make them up as

they're going along. One thing I kind of want to point out is just I thought the best moment of the award show was when Frank the Tank got called up there and Frank did his speech and was basically like, I was a court clerk. I went to school for broadcasting. It took years and years, but I never gave up. And then he looks out into the crowd and he's like, never give up. Everyone's giving him a standing oh it was that was awesome and then big cat posted it with like the music behind it and it's almost like emotional like watching yeah watching that video of frank and it was just uh i think the my biggest synopsis of the of the whole event was it's just crazy how many many different walks of life there are of people at Barstool.

There's just so many different types of people and it all comes together and makes this unbelievable company. And I don't know about you, R.A., and Murr, you as well, but I feel as motivated as I've ever felt to work for this company because just there's a vibe right now. There's something in the air at this company. I think it's, you know, we said it last pod when Dave bought the company back. It's just, there's something going on right now and it just makes me want to work and grind even harder for Dave and Erica and the whole company.

Yeah, a lot more bouncing the step by everybody because, you know, we know that basically a corporate entity isn't going to come down and pee-pee whack us for saying things we've been saying for 15, 20 years. So it's definitely, definitely liberating. Also, 2G, it's how many people have those like sliding door moments like like Frank, for example, like if his voice doesn't crack in that interview, does he go get as viral? Does he get as much exposure? Because the voice crack was the key thing.

Or if he leaves five minutes earlier, he catches his train or me. If I'm not on Twitter or you with the email, just everybody just has this kind of crazy story to end up at Boston in the long run. But back to you, Merle, you didn't watch the awards live. You said, would you catch it the next day? Yeah, it came out at two in the morning. So I went on the next day and watched it. And it was it was entertaining. I loved it.

And I just just knowing you guys, you know, it's not scripted. Like I knew that wasn't scripted by you. So I thought it was so funny. And then you talked about Frank the Tank. That's the same thing, i knew that wasn't scripted by you so i thought it was so funny and then you talked about frank to tank that's the same thing too he wasn't planned to be up there so that was just him talking right off the cuff off the heart and uh that was a lot of fun nate's monologue there was was out of control i was like savage that was like he does he does he have pictures of dave or something that's why he knows he can get away with some of that stuff or what but i would not have said like that's that's what the dog is like that's that's Nate dog that people don't get to see every day that was unbelievable I thought his

his monologue Francis's monologue and the best part about Nate's is is like it wasn't it wasn't in the script of the like he just did that on his own which is kind of crazy uh but francis killed it too i thought francis was unbelievable yeah i felt a little bit like a comedy central roast there when those two guys were up nate when he put the mask on i was like oh boy what's he doing and i don't care if he wrote him or someone else from he fucking whammy that place but that's you know that's all in the spirit of bostel maybe a little real old school is just busting balls and you know i think i don't think anybody had their underwear out of sorts afterwards. Everything, everyone took it as a joke because it was funny, man. Some actual daggers going down.

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Don't sleep on Pink Whitney nips or Pink Whitney big bottles frozen with maybe an ice luge, always a nice touch. Think of that at your Labor Day party. But college football and pro football is around the corner. And from my learning experience, I've been to one Georgia game. I'm a Georgia Bulldog guy. Pink Whitney was ripping at the tailgate.

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It's where it's at. Let me see. Where did we end up after that? Fenway Local, right? Gee, did you go back there for a couple of cocktails? Yeah, that was a good spot. It was good to see Nick Malafronte, a buddy who had a hockey accent a few years back. He's a little potty animal.

He likes to get at it. It was just great just seeing everybody, talking to everybody. Like I said, if there was one negative on the night, gee, it was that we just didn't have enough time to catch up with everybody because there were so many people. And, you know, Jamie Chisholm was there, one of the original four bloggers at Barstool. And, you know, just catching up with all these people. It was good night. Good night.

Great times. And hopefully we do it again another 20 years. Do we? I saw I saw Fish and Posh and Sean running around. Is there going to be a vlog coming out with all the all the stuff from behind the scenes? Yeah. So we got a vlog dropping on Wednesday this week. It kind of details our whole week in Boston.

You know, from the sandbag, our RA put on an absolute show at this sandbag. When I say, like, my face hurt when we were leaving from laughing so hard. This was like an all-time RA content piece. So we have a sandbagger coming. I mean, it's all in the vlog. It's behind the scenes at the award show. We were doing some Fuck, Marry, Kill with Biz Whitten RA.

So a lot of fun stuff coming in the vlog that comes out on Wednesday. Nice. Nice. Yeah. Can't wait to check that out. Merle, what's shaking across the pond? A little nugget for us this week or what?

Yeah, well, we're getting closer and closer to the season. But interesting story. I blogged about it. I don getting closer and closer to the season, but an interesting story. I blogged about it. I don't know how many people saw it, but it's come over now. It's Kenny Agostino. He played in the KHL the last two years, but he signed before the war.

So he was over there, played the year, told everybody he was trying to get out of the contract for the second year, because he didn't want to go back because of the whole situation. So he ended up having to go back and play but this Swedish team Shaleftia they told everybody we're not signing KHL players you know blah blah blah this was way back in the end of the season so Kenny Agostino comes around and they decide to sign him and what they said was well he tried to get out of the contract.

So, you know, he's a good guy. He's a good guy either way, but he tried to get out of contract. We can sign him. Their fans go bananas. They're tweeting at the team. It's all the hardcore fans are saying they're not going to come support the team anymore. They're not going to go to the games because they all think it's like

blood money, you know, because the KHL is run by the government. It's run by Putin. So everybody got all upset about this. But he's American, though, too, though. Yeah, he's an American, but they just like they didn't want any part of anyone that played in the KHL during last season. So they made a big stink about it. It lasted 48 hours.

I don't even know if he flew over here, but they canceled the contract. He's not going to play for that team. He tried to go to a couple other teams. They didn't even know if he flew over here, but they canceled the contract. He's not going to play for that team. He tried to go to a couple other teams. They didn't want him. So it's the first player I've seen where coming from the KHL and there's an issue. So it's going to be something to see over the next couple years

how teams are going to react to that. So I thought that was kind of interesting. And speaking of the KHL, they're starting on Friday RA. So if you want to start getting your action ready. And I got a little tidbit, a little tidbit that maybe the books, that the sports books aren't going to know about, that they're not going to be ready for. So an EBR rule, number 10,

is when there's a fresh ice for the power play starting the period, I like to take that team to score next. So it's going to be even easier this year in the KHL, because if a team is on the power play to start a period, they're going to have the face off in the offensive zone. Wow. So, you know how like normally in a penalty,

it goes down there. So even after the intermission. So if you can keep an eye on those games, when there's a power play, you're going to get fresh ice and an offensive zone. So that's only going to help their chances to score. Jesus. But speaking of contracts, I feel like we're kind of burying the lead here.

Austin Matthews signed a giant extension this past week. R.A., why don't you dive into that? Yeah, four-year extension, $53 million. It comes out to $13.25 million for each year, average annual value. A full no-move clause as well. What was interesting to me, only $3.35 million is base salary. $49.6 million is all signing bonuses, which I'm sure there's a good reason for it, but that jumped out at me pretty crazy. And gee, when the deal expires, he's only going to be 30 years old. He'll actually turn 31 a couple months later. So what was your initial reaction on this, G?

Were you shocked about where you thought it might come in, thought maybe a few more years? What was your take? No, I don't think any of us were really shocked after having a couple drinks with Judd down in Nashville. I think we knew this deal was getting done. It was only just a matter of time when. I have a hot take, boys, and I said this in Boston,

and it, it actually pains me to say this, but I think the Toronto Maple Leafs win the Stanley cup this year. Wow. I do. And I'm not, I'm not saying that to pander. I'm not,

I just, I love everything that this team did this off season. I'm not a fan of the team, but I just, I love, you know, adding Bertuzzi, adding Ryan Reeves, adding Max Domi, locking up Austin Matthews. So there's no distractions heading into the season. Do they still need help on the back end with goalie and defense? Absolutely.

That can be acquired at the deadline. I just, there's just something in the pit of my stomach that's telling me, this is the year, All-Star Games in Toronto, it's their season, they win the Stanley Cup this year, and it pains me to fucking say it. Wow. Merles, what's your take on this deal? Yeah, I think it's a good deal for both sides. I really thought Austin was going to move on. I thought he was going to try to get to LA,

but maybe when they got Dubois, that ended that idea. But now I just feel like now Nylander is definitely probably gone. They can't sign both of them, right? So now maybe you move Nylander to get that D you're talking about. Gee, I like the Leafs too. I won't go as far as saying win the

cup, but I will be backing them. I think they can make a serious run. I don't see Florida being as good as they were. Tampa, they took care of them last year. Boston won't be as good. So it's going to be, I don't think it's that hard in the East for them. Maybe the Devils will give them their hardest game.

And real quick, I think for years it's been kind of widely known that Pat Brisson is the NH nhl agent he's the big dog in the nhl judd's in that conversation now i mean this guy has 330 million dollars in active contracts he has connor mcdavid he has austin matthews zach warensky roman yosi this guy has everyone he's he's judd is taking over the agent game. And it's awesome because he's the best guy in the world. My agent when Pat Bersan was my agent at one point in my career, I would get like emails from Judd.

I'm like, who's this guy? It must be like a secretary. Like, who is this pigeon? Fast forward 20 years. He's a power agent. Got all the best players. He's an unreal guy. That's so cool to hear, though, and see, too, because so many people have said that.

I think Witt said that. You've said that. They're like, yeah, Judd used to just be so low in the industry. And he worked his way all the way up. And guys, $330 million in active contracts. That's fucking bananas. Wow. 4% goes to the agent.

Yeah, like you said, he is a great guy, so everybody roots for Judd. He's a hell of a guy to hang out with. Next time we are in Toronto, man, it's going to be the All-Star game. It's going to be a slobber knock

when we get up there for that. What do you think of the deal, R.A.? It's about right about where I figured, you know, 13 and a quarter mil. I mean, obviously, the cup's going to go up. Hopefully, it's going to go up six, seven million over the next three or four years, they're saying. Yeah, I figured, you know, 13 and a quarter mil. I mean, obviously the cup's going to go up. Hopefully it's going to go up six, seven million over the next three or four years.

They're saying, yeah, I mean, he's going to be the highest guy in the league, highest paid guy in the league until the next contract comes down, whether it's, you know, McDavid or whoever. But yeah, I think it's great value for Toronto, right about where I expected it to be. But it's going to be interesting to see, like, just who goes higher from here. You know what I mean? Because I think I saw the highest percentage a contract has taken up for a team salary cap was Ovechkin when he signed his deal initially.

I think I want to say it was like 19% of the cap. It was pretty high, but that's been the highest percentage that one contract has taken up on a team's cap since. And Matthews isn't anywhere near that. So it's going to be interesting to just see all this money coming in for these guys the next few years and how they're going to balance their rosters out and stuff. Because it's not just getting the players, man. You've got to balance that money, as we all know.

Because we've got to keep track of that, the average annual value, all that stuff. Gets my brain a little scrambled. I was kind of talking to Merles earlier a bit about this, and I'd love to hear your guys' opinion. Who do you guys think is the best contract in the NHL now? I mean, not that Austin Matthews is probably in that category because he's the

highest paid player, but I'd love to hear from you guys, like overall value, everything like, who do you guys think is the absolute best contract in the NHL? One guy jumps out at me right away is dry cycle. He's making eight, 8.5 or something right now.

And I mean that guy he does it all he does power play penalty kill he's getting 50 goals people say oh it's because he plays with McDavid but he's he'd be putting up numbers similar to that playing with anybody else too and he plays a lot on when they're split apart they play on separate lines he still is dominant and some nights he's better than McDavid we've seen. So him at 8.5, I really like. And then the one that our boy Barbashev just signed with Vegas for 5 million. Another one, just because of the style he plays, not a lot of guys play that. And if he's scoring like he did in the playoffs,

then that's a really nice looking deal for a 5 million guy. You know what's the contract I think everyone forgets? Brad Marchand, $6.125 million a year. Took the words right out of my mouth. That's exactly what I was going to say. He's got two years left at that price, too. He's a huge bag. Honestly, Crosby,

$8.7. That's pretty cheap for that guy. He's a $12-13 million play easily with the skill, his resume. He's fucking $36,000 too, man man those guys got old quick him and boshan's 35 jesus christ yeah i bet marchand plays out this contract and then he's done i wouldn't be surprised if he plays the two more years and then he hangs them up pasha's in the chat of course yelling for jack hughes which that's a decent one too that's gonna

that's gonna be not so good today but i mean in in four years or whatever it's he still had eight million that's gonna be sick i mean i think even today i mean he he had 99 points this past year like eight mil for a guy who's getting 99 points i'll take that any day of the week but just imagine in four years when he's putting up 120 points for that and everybody else is going to be making the 13 that Matthews is. Exactly. Yeah. Well, he's the guy who said, if not everybody, everybody has to take a little less to win. That was the Crosby quote from that interview. So it's going to be interesting, though,

just to see how it plays out when these teams are doling out this kind of dough. Speaking of superstars, I think we should probably go to our interview with superstar blogger, superstar entrepreneur. I know a lot of you out there might not be familiar with Dave Portnoy, El Presidente, or maybe you are. I don't know. Maybe you read some articles about him. But I suggest listen to the interview, man. You get a real good idea of what kind of guy Dave is and his mindset and how he went from a four-page free newspaper 20 years ago to a huge multimedia conglomerate worth a half a billion dollars. It's quite a story.

So we're going to send it over to El Presidente Dave Portnoy right now. Listen and enjoy. This interview is brought to you by Chevy. Chevy has convenient ways to research and shop electric vehicles online. When you're researching, utilize Chevy MyWay. You'll get vehicle specialists and hosts that'll give you a virtual tour and help answer all your questions, especially someone like me. I'm not much of a gearhead, don't know a lot about cars, so I need all the help I can get, and Chevy is fantastic for it. And when you're ready, you're able to buy online by reviewing available EV inventory or build your own at participating dealers.

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electric. Well, this is the first time we've had this guest on the show. 20 years ago when newspapers were dying off daily, this guy started his own paper that centered around sports, gambling, and women. A legendary blog would soon fall. Then came expansions to other cities. And eventually, Barstool Sports would become an internet behemoth. He sold the company for half a bill, then later bought it back for $1. Thanks a bunch for joining us on the Spittin' Chicklets podcast. Dave Portnoy.

What's up, Prez? A behemoth. I heard that. Thank you, Rear. Had nothing to do with women in the beginning, Rear. Get your facts straight. But thank you. Thanks for the intro.

That's what my mind is. This is the first time you've been on the show. That's crazy. That's nuts. I thought you'd been on before, but it was just when you suspended R.A. that one time. When did I suspend him? He was buckled. What was it?

The podcast safety? Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's because he got buckled during a podcast. Yeah. He made a video and sussied his ass. Kind of like Brandon Shanahan would do for the, what was it? Department of Podcast Safety. Department of Podcast Safety.

Thank you, Mike Grinnell. Done so much shit, I barely even remember that. Seriously, man. I mean, 20 years now. Do you want to start from the get-go or why are you here? How do you want to start? Well, I don't know, R.A. You you're the host you tell us all right we're here because it's the 20th anniversary awards dave i have no idea what to expect tonight like this is

obviously unprecedented where like the idea come for an anniversary thing like this to have awards as well yeah it wasn't my idea at all so this is uh from what i've gathered a pen idea when we're still owned by pen they wanted a schmooze fest for some VIPs. And I was just, I was kind of checked out. I don't want to say totally, but a lot. And they're like, hey, we're doing this award show, 20th anniversary. Will you show up? The original concept that I've been saying on my way out,

I want to do like a big event, an evening of hate with Dave Portnoy, where I just crucify everybody that I had issues with, that I had to bite my tongue oh you don't do that normally no I had been he wants to go like oh okay yeah yeah there's people is that what this journal's about no that's just keeping notes I have a it's on my phone my notepad my hate list uh but I I couldn't do that because we were still panning and things I say can get us in trouble so I'm, I can't do the evening of hate. And then they turn it into this award show. We've done one before, like three years ago, four years ago,

the Duncan Awards. But that's how this came about. I don't really give a fuck. I mean, 20 years is a long time. But it wasn't like I was sitting in my house being like, oh, I need a sentimental 20th party. No. And it's not even over.

It's kind of just beginning, I feel like. But the Duncan Awards was kind of just beginning i feel like but but the the duncan awards was kind of a legendary moment because i'm in a moment i mean it was you snapped and actually we were talking about jeff d lowe who's created a great franchise that does and he was done i think if his partner wasn't there four minutes on the radio they were right the next day and it was people didn't dress up and now everyone's going to be dressed up ready to go tonight but i'm curious because kfc tweeted out this is kind of a powder keg and you said that like what's the the thesis behind what's going on and why well the powder keg yeah so since i've

gotten back the company which is like i don't know two weeks now i've dove right back into a lot of things i really hadn't been paying attention to. Numbers, sales, you name it. Like things that, you know, I just was kind of on my island, slowly doing my thing. I'm back in the weeds. And we're doing this event. And our entire fucking company is at it. Like you guys are coming. Anyone who's ever worked here.

Busting with the boys, million dollars worth of game pmt four play you name it and we when you line up all of our talent i have a pretty impressive like roster of just names and you guys do your own events and i do my own shit and i owe pmt our events people fucking pack these things oh the trick is up we do we sold it out in like 15 minutes it's fucking crazy we didn't sell this event it's like we put 300 tickets on sale 150 of them are still fucking available we had no embarrassing we had no sales sponsors like they didn't sell the fucking event how i don't fucking know so that that when i say powder keg i'm looking around it's like we're flying 60 fucking people in rooms all these people that we can't get together

we're doing it for this 20th anniversary and we're not fucking we're just doing it to fucking wiggle our dicks we're not making a fucking penny from it no you're losing money yeah so when kfc i think he knows videos started come out like i was starting to be like who is making who decided it was 200 a ticket for this it's like oh uh live events lisa nothing against her but like why the fuck she picking $200 a ticket for this? It's like, oh, live events, Lisa, nothing against her, but why the fuck is she picking how much a ticket costs? We have this basketball event, and it's like, who decided this? And then I'm hearing all business Pete. It's like, well, he thinks ticket sales will be good at Loyola.

It's like, who the fuck is all business Pete forecasting ticket sales? He's a fucking tech guy. So I'm starting to get like who what the fuck is going on here who has the power it literally there's been a power vacuum and people are stealing it are you okay putting all that stress back on your plate because that's what i wanted to know well the beginning of barstool like when i became a fan it's like you're so invested it's your life savings you're building it and then now and as you said the whole time, like if I end up making,

I think you said 20 million then, I'm done. You end up making fucking 10 times that. So I totally understand if you're out, but when you got out, did you miss it? No, people are like, you're coming back in because you miss it. I've seen people say that, like, he's bored. He's this, no.

Really? No. I would imagine it would have been stupid not to take it back at what you could take it back for. I know, but then he's all in again. Or are you? We're losing millions a month. So I saw something that says 16 million in a year?

That's probably a little high, but it's above 10. We're losing that. Now, we're in growth mode, and I'm sure what Penn's like, hey, let's just grow the funnel, and if you can pour them back into gambling, it makes sense for them. Now, I made a shit ton of money, but I'm not planning on dishing out 12 million bucks out of my own pocket a year to fund this company. Now, there are fucking people thinking I'm exaggerating. We have morons sitting in that fucking office in New York

and they are morons, and they're idiots, and if they didn't work for me, they'd have no future, no Rico who's just up there, Nate fucking... But you're a second-chance guy. I don't have a second-chance guy. He just doesn't want to ruin their lives. Correct.

And so before the ESPN-Penn deal, it's like, all right, we have a deal with Penn. We're their media agency. If I go, Dan's there. These people will all be safe. Barstool will continue on. Well, that drastically changed when now Penn is partners with ESPN. They have this huge fucking media agency.

Yeah, you guys, Chicklets will be all right. PMT will be all right. A lot of people fucking won't. To me, if I was just like, all right, I'm going to fuck off and go into the sunset, that was the end of Barstool, as we know it. Which I don't really, I'm not like sentimental about the name. I'm like, these fucking losers, they're fucking dead. They're going to go have to bag groceries.

But you coming back, they still might have to. No, because I can fix this. I can get. While not letting people go? No, people are going to get let go. I'll say this. I think get. While not letting people go? No, people are going to get let go. I'll say this. I think there's a different level of accountability. I mean, we talked about it on the phone.

Like when I was playing professional hockey, if we fucked up between periods, the coach would come in and he'd fucking scream in our face. And that's just how it works. That went away too with Penn there. Yeah, that's coming back. Which is what I think that's all fans want. Yeah, that's coming back.

And I mean, I went up to the sales meeting. There's all fans want yeah that's coming back and i mean i went up to the sales meeting there's all these people i told him i look around half you guys are gone like honestly you should do a little survivor yeah it's like i don't know who's gonna make it but people want to make a lot of money which you should in sales they'll be here no the people i know your face like if i know your name and i busted your balls you'll probably make it we were just growing growing there's managers man and managing managers managing managers gone like if there's just too many fucking yeah well it turned into like a place there was a meeting for a meeting for a meeting and i'm like yeah he called me and he said this is bullshit this is fucking bullshit because who is this guy i go i

don't know he works for you he's like who the fuck is he well so one of the reasons one of the reasons i wanted to get you on we got to go back because i think everybody who's listening to this podcast right now knows who you are but i don't think that they know the the old barstool how we're now you're gonna introduce you to the fucking crowd well they know i don't hate granella you thought i hated granella you did for a while you were being mean to him i didn't even know who he was he called me a pothead yeah he called like what are you even talking i don't even know who you are you did have a pothead phase though didn't you no no he had like he'd take one hit of a joint like and then just cough like no but that wasn't even in it was before even the amahoc like a girl called me like i heard i thought that

girl who said that grinnell it's i don't even know that girl came out to be crazy though can I clarify the actual story would happen because I've been waiting for this for a long time so it was that text I did see the text it got taken out of context because I'm pretty sure that was the day that you smoked on barstool radio so I was at the bar and I was like I was with my with the girl I'm not going to say her name not going to give her the credit and I was like oh I think Dave smoked on barstool radio today and then she jokingly texted you and was like oh what are you a pothead now just being like we i will say we were talking about you smoking weed but i did never i never said you were a pothead because as someone who is a pothead you don't call people a pot i don't give a fuck like i'm not like oh pothead bad guy like you don't want to talk

and shit about you i've done plenty of shit my day talk about it yeah like no problem but it's like what do you mean granelli who the fuck's that's in a pothead no i'm not but then granelli went about it the wrong way and he was like trying to impress you and suck your dick and i'm like that's almost on you why would you like let any i kept telling him stop doing this he would text me if i ever tweeted at you like you look handsome today. I was like, you're such a loser. Yeah, he'd be like, stop it. Stop it.

I tried to play the Eddie Haskell vibe. That's not how he's going to like you. No. Yeah, I played the Eddie Haskell vibe and it just didn't work. No, that's not how to do it. But we're good now. Yeah, I have no issue with you now.

Well, I love you. So, you want to suck his dick now, G? People who are listening probably know you from the Barstool Fun, which was an amazing thing you did. All the antics with uh the new england patriots and when you went change yourself outside of goodell's office when all that went down but let's go back to when you you ended up quitting your job to start this barstool sports right you you were right it company yeah so i had like a sales job for like five years out of college and they took a little different one

when i knew i was gonna start barstool uh but yeah i had a sales job for like five years out of college and they took a little different one when i knew i was gonna start barstool uh but yeah i had a sales job for like five years so that's why you know sales people are just like full of shit in a sense or you know how it should be done nobody wants to be a sales guy the only people are like you can make bank you can but it's a fucking terrible example all right if you're first of all your sales staff you want to be a bunch of fucking gordon geckos wet hairs running around like bragging about their fucking cars because they're money driven um like liars basically yeah basically like you gotta take a call we don't have that and like you know there's a guy we used to have a guy a woohoo guy this guy was that was old school barstool this guy

this guy i i get he is what you want yeah right yes lewis we'll say his name and and like trying to fight david he was like trying to fight him like kimbo slice in the backyard i was like friends but he he he would fucking you know i'd walk into the my little office in milton at like 9 p.m because i had to like get something he'd be blasting metallica trying to make sales calls on the weekend he was like a fucking lunatic literally um so but what I said in the sales meeting I go listen I have sold Barstool like that's what I did I sold it for a decade and guess what the reputation we had in Boston wasn't too much better at the time than it is now if you're using it as a complaint. Like, people didn't like us. People liked us, liked us.

But I fucking sold it. And I sold the big company. So I get it. It's not easy. But you've got to, like, be motivated. And we're all fucked up with the way our commission plans are. What was your family thinking when you quit your job? I think they thought I'd be quit.

So basically, I quit the job. And I sold the newspaper. It was a newspaper. And I sold, like, a year of advertising before it ever launched. And what's the number of like total sales sold that year? Probably like 30 grand, 40 grand. And so you're living off that. We weren't making money.

I moved home. Did the thought of the fact that newspapers were on the downturn, like did that? So here, the concept came this way. I like gambling. I want to get into gambling. I was like, that so here the concept came this way i i like gambling i want to get into gambling i was like that's what i like to do so i actually at the time i flew to vegas met with all these casinos i'm like how do i get involved in this industry like you gotta go be a dealer first you work your way up into marketing it's like fuck that i don't want to do that and then i talked these offshore sports books they were

illegal but like uh the greek and bet olympic and things like that and like how do i get involved in this and they were the ones who came up with the concept they're like listen we don't want to be advertising online right now because during the time and this is like 2003-4 if you go to website gambling fireworks pop-ups looks like you're getting your credit card stolen so they were like we want to get off of that if you have a physical newsletter we'll advertise in it like my first advertiser i think was party poker like i was actually at the world series of poker the year moneymaker won that was like the boom i think it was 10 million yeah i remember watching a couple summers i was a loser that was watching people play cards when morals would play it like

not nap before games you play all day oh even all the nhl guys had their cards down playing all that online that was the boom i was with the indians who actually developed the software like that's who the advertiser was um so that's why i created the newspaper because they're like we'll advertise in that we won't advertise online so that was kind of the birth and no plan at that time of blogging which is what made you not being like funny writing shit down none it slowly morphed it was all like you know gambling fantasy like my buddy mcshay wrote articles in it before he's at espn uh and then it slowly morphed from like strict gambling fantasy to more my life funny boston stories and

you and you also create different aliases right yeah you would write how many different characters i had like 20 like devil yeah so it would have a million different names because i didn't want people to know it was all me yeah like i i uh like i put in fucking fleming's steakhouse as an ad and then i'd call up morton's be like look at this your fucking competitor is in the newspaper that's how you sell and then no shit and then fleming's calls me like what the who the fuck did this i'm like oh that was a sales guy he did it and he's fired he's gone so i was like sorry because they literally called me like we didn't advertise why are we in your newspaper that's how bad we are they want the free advertising out so i was doing everything like whatever i could do to sell get anything uh like jack diamond dui lawyer i remember he was an early one. When did your obsession with gambling start?

When I was 10. 10? It was like detention for running white cards in middle school. My dad took me to Rockingham Park. But I always gambled. Really? Like horses too? All of it?

Always. At that young, 10 years old? Yeah, I loved it. So who got you into it? Your father? Yeah, my dad. My dad would take me. I remember my dad bet in would take me i remember i dad

bent like kentucky derby like he won it was like uh 49 or something he put like a draw money he's like hey pick out money out of it i just always loved it at a dollar i remember dollar 1985 super bowl like on the patriots versus the bears i remember that in a block they lost by a hundred but what was like so what was the change you're doing the newspaper was it when social media started when like twitter came around were you oh no way before it was before that it got online what's the story of how it got online i used to so when it was a newspaper my day would be i wake up like four or five a.m go to the subway stations in boston physically handed out with like the homeless people would you put the cap on ticket scalpels i still can go to a game sometimes outside of the garden and ticket scalpers will be like congrats on your success because i was they were scalping tickets

and i was like hey dad that's fucking yeah take the newspaper so um i was doing that i'd wake up go hand it out deliver the newspaper 48 hours, right. And one day I was handing it to a kid. And he was taking a self station financials in the financial district. He's like, Hey, listen, I love this fucking newspaper. I'm moving to New York. If I build you a website, will you put the newspaper on the website so I can read it? I'm like, yeah, if you're gonna do that for free, and I can do it, knock yourself out. His name was Ian White. Ironically, he became the chief technology officer for Business Insider, who I fucking hate.

Oh, God. He's not there anymore. Awesome dude. Never asked me for anything, but I started putting the newspaper online. Every time I was like, can you make this change? Can you do this? He'd do it for free.

So it went from the newspaper to online not by design and it was pretty obvious once we went online it spread way easier and it didn't cost me anything so that was obviously the future but it wasn't like i planned it was there any there had to be times during this where you're kind of like questioning yourself a little like or were you always pretty confident like i'm gonna make it work or were you like fuck man this isn't yeah this isn't going how i thought the weird thing about it's the only thing i ever started so i i don't know if i would have been as caught like yes i always thought it was growing one day uh i did get a sale i got a job i went because we had no i'm ready to quit i had no fucking no i wasn't gonna quit i had no money i literally it's uh i

was living at my in-law's house. Like you mentioned poker, like Renee at the time, she wanted to get her nails done. I'm like, hold on, let me play a quick round of party poker. No, dude, you weren't, I saw, you weren't that poor. Yeah, we were. She didn't have a job? She had a job.

She couldn't get her nails done? No, we had no money. We literally had no money. Renee was your wife? Yeah, no money. And at the in-law's house, that was when the state he showed up correct correct that police showed up together about the brady thing right

or was it something else no no uh that was the dad of a smoke show at uh the state he showed up in abington and in uh not abington in dorchester whose idea was it to start doing the smoke shows in order to sell more newspapers i don't even know where that came from but we well we used to do it like contest like you pick a girl you vote for the local smoke show of the day and the winner would advance in the newspaper and we just start putting local girls in and it it rocketed around boston because at the time local speed bags yeah Maxim was fucking huge. Yeah. And it's like,

it was a localized Maxim. These were local girls. You could go see. And we started getting hammered with submissions. So that really like, and then we did like local smokes. So they parties, the blue ball.

That's what we called it. Buddy. My, my buddy went to it. My couple of my buddies went to it. It was a, you had to wear a blue shirt. Ned Devine.

Ned Devine. So they go there. I was playing, and they're like, we're going to this bar still party tonight. And my buddy's like, there's fucking 145 guys in blue dress shirts. And about one girl. Yeah, yeah. That's incredible. The blue ball.

So the state trooper shows up. It was his daughter that you put in the magazine? No, no. Those are two different stories so the dad of a smoke show showed up but she had said put me on yeah so it's like she lied yeah because we got permission from the girls that's like one of the great lies told we'd always ask girl like are you cool with it and after a while it became very accepted like girls were like yeah they wanted to get on yeah it was like an honor it was a badge of honor they were just clipping pictures off that they already posted um so that guy came threatened to like kill me that was abington my in-laws the stadies showed up when

i put brady's kids dick on the website they showed up in lower mills at two two stadies good got good cop bad cop the. One guy was really mean. One guy was nice. They're like, we're going to fuck with your taxes. We're going to fuck with your- Oh, they're going deep. Yeah. They're like, we don't want to ask you to take it down, but if you don't take it down.

So this, for those who don't know- Do you consider that a mistake? If going back, would you still have done it? That got so blown out of proportion. It's one of the more blown out of proportion. Okay. Well, how brady's kid's dick ends up on your website you guys would definitely when i say kid he was an infant okay like even worse no even better yeah in terms of putting kids dicks online you'd rather be an infant than a four-year-old right bill it was like well now we're talking what what whitney the dad you were probably you had

my back when there's listen here's the story like what a hammer no he he did uh here's the story giselle was on a beach miami with the kid naked all right kid had he he was the gerber baby he was brand it was like a little kid had a fucking big dick for like an infant i wrote a blog check out the howitzer on brady's kid's dick and on brady's kid and then below it i wrote peyton manning could never have a kid that was the blog it was a shot at peyton manning it was the height of the it was the height of the colts p rivalry, and then people went crazy. Like, he's fucking sexualizing the infant. The picture was online. It wasn't like I was in the bushes.

It was a paparazzi picture. Giselle carried the kid naked all the time. People who didn't like me, Glenn Ordway in Boston, big fucking local toast show. Back then, sports radio was huge biz. There was one station there. Believe it or not, he was on the air with Minahan when this broke. Oh, shit. They're like, he's going to jail.

People come up, be like, we beat his head in with a baseball bat. It was a locker room joke. If your kid comes out of the crib with, we'll use your term, like a wrench, you're like, my kid's got a fucking wrench. Yeah, 100%. To say it was sex, I tried to reverse it. Be like, if you think this is sexualizing, you're fucking my kid's got a fucking wrench yeah 100 that to say it was set i i tried to reverse it be like if you think this is sexualizing like you're fucking so so were these cops sent there by brady they said the patriots were like unhappy with it brady was unhappy with it have

you talked about it with them since because you guys are boys we're not boys like we're not like if i saw him i'd be like hey what's going on how you doing oh he doesn't dab you up he's a different cat right we're not like buddies where you can joke about it like i can joke about with like zolak or like somebody like not brady we're friendly he doesn't seem to hold a grudge um but yeah the stadium showed up i was on howard stern i'm like oh he'll have my back he's like you're a pedophile you know he's he's still pretending like he doesn't know you yeah he wasn't doing that arrogantly i met him the other day he he didn't know who i was oh okay he wasn't like trying to big time at least i didn't get that vibe oh one thing we we talked about that blue ball party but that was another way that you kind of made a name for yourself

where you're throwing these crazy college campus parties which in some cases you were getting banned from campuses the umass one was one that grinnelli told me about yeah so you're still bound banned from their campus yeah i don't know they've unbanned me they fucking hated me uh so we we did local events in boston and they always did great it's how we got advertising because even if we weren't as big as some other people our audience is super loyal and they'd show up and we'd fill venues in boston one day it's like all right there's 2010 we gotta get outside of downtown boston and see how popular we are so he came up with something called uh stula palooza sam adams um who was just

like performing yeah he was at his wedding yeah uh he was just kind of breaking into music i'm like you know what if we put, I can still get alcohol sponsors because they can sponsor that, instead of just saying strict college tour. So we booked Sam Adams, 20 grand, six shows, UMass, URI, Quinnipiac, Toads, one in downtown Boston, forget the other, Providence, whatever. So we put the tickets on sale.

We're going to like frat basements. It was just go to the campus. Within 24 hours, the Mullen Center at UMass, which is their arena, called me. And they're like, who are you? I'm like, what do you mean? It's like, this is me, Dave Barstool. They're like, no, we're getting calls.

Kids want to buy tickets for this thing, Stoolpalooza. I'm like, oh, we're going to a frat, like down the road. And they're like, well, would you ever do it at the Mullen Center? It's like, I'm not going to a frat like down the road and like well would you ever do it at the mullen center it's like i'm not going to pay for a ton of shit and they set up a deal where i didn't have to put a lot up front and we moved it to the mullen center they sold 3 000 the entire floor they sold in five seconds like instant like bang sold out all six spots first time making bank kind of first time that allowed me to like hire dan and the other guys no way that was it yeah now we went to umass his wife got her her toes done yeah this you want a

few blackjack hands no exaggeration we went to umass when we left the campus is burning like it's not i'm not like saying that to like exaggerate there were the campus is on fire like flames up it like it was it was wild like you man driving like the joker no literally like we got out you could just see smoke and flames the whole campus went up it was like uh they were when we showed up it was like the beatles up. There were fucking signs in every dorm, like Stool Palooza, and we were going up against their, like, campuses have their own parties. Yeah, spring weekends.

Yeah, and we were destroying them. Like, it was like the fray. I want campus, like, people had shirts like, the stool is hard, the fray is soft. Like, the poor fray. They didn't know what they were getting. Hey, the band, the fray? Yeah, the band, the fray. Yeah, it's like soft getting hey the band the fray yeah and i at the time was like a maniac so i'm like i didn't know who it was if i didn't think you

were fully like on our team and you were against me so like fuck the fray like you name it we were coming but they have this thing uh what is what the The UMass, the Blarney blowout. And it was kind of like along with it turned. They had shut that down. We came back. People, full beer cans. There's 5,000 people in the middle of this festival firing fucking shit. The campus blew up.

And they called me. The cops. If you ever set foot on campus again, you're going right to jail. You invited us. Didn't you have like a Jordan Belfort moment, though, like during the concert where they were kind of like, you have to shut this down, and you kind of came out on stage. Yeah.

Like, we're not fucking shutting it down. We're partying all night. Yeah, the cops, they're like, you have to tell. This is at the concert. They're like, you have to tell everybody to go home after the concert or you're fucking dead. And I went up and I mean, I said the opposite. I took the mic.

I'm like, the cops say we got to fucking go home. We're fucking going nutty. And I mean, they burn the campus. When did you meet R.A.? What was the whole beginning to that? I mean, I don't think Chicklets is maybe even around or anything without like R.A.'s connection to Barstool. Yeah, you reached out in the very beginning.

You asked me the Bruins blogger. Yeah, but I think we met before that a couple of times. At the Blue Balls. March Madness Party. Yeah. Were you there at the early one, the place? Yeah, a couple of years in a row I went to that one. Yeah, so we knew each other casually.

And then who was the kid? Justin Ribello. He called Glenn Murray a playmaker. And the comment section revolted back when it was all Boston-centric. So you're like, I got to let you go. And then he put up, this was the blog title. Look, need a Bruins blogger. Send submissions here.

Wait, I fired a kid for what? Calling Glenn Murray a playmaker. He said Glenn Murray's a goal scorer, and the kid called him a playmaker. And so all the commenters were like, this kid stinks. You got rid of him because all the commenters. This was like, it was all Boston on there. That's weird. I'm calling bullshit on this story.

Oh, all right. Well, I mean, you got rid of the kid. I don't really care, but I can't see me firing a guy because he called a hockey player a playmaker as opposed to like a. I mean, you did tell them to burn down a campus, so I can't really trust everything you're saying. Yeah, no, but I don't know enough about hockey to be like, oh, Glenn Murray? Is that it? I don't know Glenn Murray.

Were you blogging under an alias? For Bruins? No, I never did. Either way, he was out and there was a vacancy. And I wrote a blog based on the last night game and didn't hear back from Dave. And then boom, it popped up on the screen the next day, which is fucking a thrill.

It's like front page of the paper. Oh, he didn't even respond. No, never. No, never did hear back. And then all of a sudden it's by was he asking for salary oh yeah like we had a bunch of different and he also if i recall rears early blogging days they weren't exactly riveting it was like bruins would win five three headline bruins win five three it wasn't like we weren't like we were trying to get people to you know do it he was being fucking the box score that was my early complaint it was like bruins win five three now here's a picture of joe thornton's kid's dick yeah that's how you gotta get the papers yeah that was i guess my trainer i was like more of a journalist it'll

be like in the second period the bruins broke the top i got i got the press pass and i and i started using my like quotes that i got you're like no we don't want fucking quotes on here that's for the paper i was like okay i was trying to like i said be a journalist and then i think i got better especially with the writing so so obviously that was all the time around expansion right so you you do you end up getting online that's a huge boost you start throwing these parties that's a huge boost you get money coming in. And then obviously that wave of guys you talked about, like getting Big Cat involved.

Was KFC already involved at that time? Big Cat said no, Biz. Big Cat said yes, then no. Oh, okay. He wasn't. You had some idiot that was doing Chicago. Neil Fenil. Neil Fenil. Sheebly.

Yeah, Neil Fenil. He was so bad that people thought. So we hired outside it went kevin first then dan like had this uh this website called the hot glove it was like a blog great like you took one look at it like this kid gets it so we tried to hire him i met with him he's like so how do you get paid it's like i mail you personal checks like unless i lose that month gambling yeah right and i think he's like oh I don't know whether I want to quit my fucking full-time job for a guy who's fucking sending personal checks. So he backed out.

And I couldn't find anybody in Chicago. And we found this kid, Neil. Awful. He was a nice enough kid, I guess, but just everything wrong. But when we hired him dan was like can i contribute and like sure knock yourself out it's not mad at him it's like he backed out it's like you're a pussy but he started contributing with neil again his talent was obvious he's making neil look even worse it was so bad people thought it was conspiracy by dan they thought he invented

neil to make himself look good. That's how bad Neil was. So when you say you discovered him, at this time, was he just like posting everything to Twitter? Who? Dan? Dan, yeah. He had this website that really nobody read called The Hug. How'd you even find that? How'd you find it? No, he was a fan. Dan is

a caller on Ian Elio's radio show. No shit. Yeah. Oh, I didn't know that. So all the early guys that we found were Barstool fans. They were reading Barstool. So when I was like, hey, we need new people, he applied. He was a fan. No shit.

Yeah, he's on like the very first show with me and Elio when we couldn't get the technology. He calls in, hey, I'm Big Cat. No, I'm Dan. I'm Dan from Chicago. How did you find like Manzo, Chisholm, Jerry Thornton, the first three? They're all fans. They picked up the newspaper.

They did whatever. So a lot of people don't know that. That's a very early thing. We had, before there was Kevin, Dan, K-Marco. I had another original four. I had Chisholm, Manzo, Jerry made it. But it was really us four. But no one was making money. wasn't they weren't and they all kind of were like we can't do this anymore we got to get on with our lives

right as we kind of started hitting it oh so then the next another six months and they're probably and they were great they were like man i thought manzo was brutal manzo is bad at blogging he's the best writer we've ever had no shit he wrote long form stories that was like about stuff in the sports world or just like any life they're very barstool like tell biz how that guy got fired when you you brought him back so manzo pete manzo i have a soft he is the like when he submitted his article for the newspaper i'd stop what i was doing and read it it was that funny that good um and then we tried to hire him back once i had money as a blogger for the yankees and uh he pre-wrote a fucking blog about derrick jeter getting his 3 000th hit so it was already written and it's like it's coming so you know he's gonna get the hit turns out if i recall like jeter hit for like the cycle a grand slam up for his like

three thousand three thousand hit was a walk-off dinger yeah and he just pressed submit oh he was on a boat so it didn't pay any attention like congrats on three thousand yeah with no mention like the fact he broke every record in fact doing it and that was that was the end of manzo he wasn't cut out for fast writing he was long form take your time think whereas the blog was like you gotta crank them wasn't this like the same time that renee made you go back and get a job and then you quit on your first day so that is when we talked about a little bit earlier at one point we had no money That's why I mentioned the nails. I took a sales job, went.

At lunch, I'm like, I cannot do both. Like, Barstool has no chance if I have this job. So on day one, I'm like, all right, I'm going to lunch and just drove away and never came back. That was as close as I was to like, this just isn't working. When you say like, I know you as a boss, right? Like I don't think people probably understood or got what they were getting into in terms of like publicly embarrassing them and just making everything content.

And that wasn't something you thought about. It was just kind of came natural. Like I'm not, you don't do stuff behind closed doors, which people love. Right. It's the, who's Frank, the guy on the island is Frankie loves, the good looking kid. Oh, Matty Barzell? Yeah, Barz no barzell oh okay it's barzell frankie tells the story

barzell's a barstool guy so he's like hey can you come in and see the office and shit like that so he came in i didn't really know what he was but at the time frankie's desk was right in front of my office and i had just got back from the kentucky derby when sausage our sales guy fucking put me at a table at the kentucky derby with like clients who were obliterated drunk and just such a pain in the ass and i turn i'm like looking at sausage to like help me out of this he's fucking stuffing his face with shrimp cocktail at the i don't even know why i was there so i call him down it's my first in the office doors open and i'm like you fat fuck what the fuck are you doing like you're stuffing your fucking fat face with fucking trip barzell's right there he looks at frank goes this is like a hockey

locker room like he's like i fucking love this place like i was screaming at him at the top of my lungs but that's how i am and i don't got like i it's gotten harder as we've gotten bigger because the guys i hired they can take it and i don't mind you can yell back at me i don't give a fuck we'll get over it in five minutes now i don't know everybody i don't know who i can be myself around that that but don't you want to find out who can take it and who can't yeah but biz i mean whitney i said this the other day since i took back the company i don't know the laws of the world like i don't know that i can call a salesman a fat fuck and he may be able to go like i don't be worth 500 million right i don't know how that

works you'll be you'll be fucking dealing blackjack yeah or working at that's what i mean it's like great to say that but you don't know what the laws just because we're a private company i don't know that the laws of society don't apply to us um oh i was just gonna ask about gaz and how important his role has been like he seems to know a lot what a motherfucker yeah he is does he know where all the bodies are buried is that your right-hand guy? He buries them. Gaz knows everything. Gaz knows everything.

And he seems to be intelligent on the- No. Whatever you're going to say, no. All the technology stuff, like growth path. So why has he been your right-hand man? Because he knows he can bring them down. He was day one guy. He's definitely not smart. He's he's sales guy but he didn't even gaz got the job he so gaz knew my ex-wife renee and he he she's like hey he wants to come work

for you sat down this is what he said he'd do he goes i he won a job i go i can't pay anybody we have these t-shirts he's like this was a. I'm going to go stand outside of Fenway Park, and I'm going to sell T-shirts. I have them. I'll bring them. I'll sell them. And that's how I can get paid. So I was like, all right, great. I ordered 3,000 T-shirts, gave them to Gaz, goes to Fenway Park,

shows back up at the office less than a minute later. He's like, oh, it turns out you need permits to do that. They kicked me out. He's like, that would have been nice to know before you pitched this whole fucking plan. And then he's like, I'll have been nice to know before you pitched this whole fucking plan. And then he's like, I'll just sell ads. So he became the sales guy, stool sales guy. He didn't sell dick.

He sold nothing. Horrible at that. Nothing. Didn't sell a fucking goddamn thing. Close to gassing him ever or no? Like at the beginning? Or just he was around? No, he was just around working at my kitchen.

This was probably around 2000 2009 2010 we started doing the concert tours that's where his value he managed those tours but i'd hear horror stories about the way he managed them it's like if gaz was interested in fucking hooking up with the girl they wouldn't get to leave they'd be like stuck in the city if no girl was interested in gaz he wanted to be out of there in 20 seconds it was like they're all determined the entire tour is based on where Gaz had women locked up literally

that guy has actually done it more than anyone he's made it and by the way I love Gaz I've known him now forever and I do trust him with anything and he's the most mild mannered guy in the world unless you take his hat off that's the only time I've seen him ready to actually fight like if a girl guy takes his hat off because he's the most mild-mannered guy in the world unless you take his hat off. That's the only time I've seen him, like, ready to actually, like, fight. Like, if a girl guy takes his hat off because he's fucking,

he ages 30 years when you take his hat off and ball ball. Yeah, tonight we'll see him. He'll have a hat on. Can I ask, like, speaking of fighting, like, when you get those calls that, like, him and Feidelberg just, like, beat the shit out of a whole frat while they're blackout tour? Yeah, they don't call me with those. The only calls I got would be we do these blackout tours and they became fucking we had abc news following if it

wasn't called blackout tour either that might have never shut down right no they would have found a way for no whatever the blackout tour was the raves that we did and it was it was a blacklight tour it was you wore white and the logo was the plug it was the thing going that we did, and it was a blacklight tour. It was you wore white, and the logo was the plug. It was the thing going in, and then people tried to trick it or not. People didn't like me. They didn't want girls to get blackout drunk, and it really had nothing to do with it. But that's what they were saying, and the news truck started.

It was also the beginning of EDM. Gaz would call me 4 in the morning, and he'd be like, we got a problem. They're shutting us down we're in the middle of a riot I can hear him just chewing his gum what do you want me to do I don't know fucking Gaz

it's 4am I'm fucking 18 states away handle it alright don't know what to do and I get those calls once a month literally like kids paying these tickets and like the fire marshal riots i think i don't even know if they brought back in albany it was a union center we got the whole venue shut down by the city like there were literal riots outside these things

but i don't know if those guys it was the fact that they just loved barstool or the fact they had no other skills to work but the descriptions of those they were living the worst life ever for two months i mean they were i think they were driving cars to each spot sleeping in the cars eight guys to a hotel room yeah no there's definitely parts of it that wasn't great but you said i don't care like no well it's not like that look at that ragtag group of guys they're all young they're like young 20s i don't care like no well it's not like that look at that ragtag group of guys they're all young they're like young 20s i don't know what jazz was they were rock stars on campus yeah so is being in a band that you're driving yourself around but you go and you have like fucking every girl in college like throwing themselves at you because you're fucking

i don't know why you're wearing a mascot costume like it they could have been it was either he's melding uh fucking workshop metal at his dad's shop so yeah there were parts of it that bad let me say this whenever i went they were not having a bad time okay so you're you're looking you're listening to them complaining and then you're seeing like what the fuck are you complaining about yes there were definitely parts of it driving but if i think most people in a band if you're like yeah we're driving we're roadies but we have 30 uh shows and they're all sold out and the crowds are fucking on bananas for us that's not the worst lifestyle no What's bad is doing all that and 100 people are showing up and it's like you're playing empty venues.

That's bad. Yeah. When did you decide, Dave, you had to get down to New York to like really blow this thing up? Yeah. So, I mean, it was around, I forget the year. It was 2009. I knew I had something.

If I could recreate, not just New York, if I could recreate what we had in Boston because Whitney will tell you like I always said like if you really wanted to be like I'm from Boston and I'm in the know and it's like I'm I'm actually there and have a pulse on the city you were reading Barstool it became like the heartbeat of the city um and if we could recreate that in other cities I knew we had something so uh it was around probably 2008 2009 i said we're hiring we're looking new york chicago philly so it's trying to recreate that but i look when you i remember when you guys were going like because to me it

was already really big but i guess you knew there was that much room for growth like i never imagined it would become this i don't know if you did no not it's like like when you went to new york i'm like oh what else are they gonna do and there was just so much shit i guess erica had a lot to do with that but that first sale how much did you make on that one with chernan and was that the reason why you went to new york like did chernan already commit to yes okay yeah yeah so the chernan deal which was 2016 the value of the company is 12 and a half million so like i got uh five million to myself i think three and a half went into the bank account and they took 51 percent of the company and part of it the churning guys when i met with them they're like what will you do what's next if you have money it's like you know if we're all under one roof because

they're all separate and kind of like a 24-7 like reality TV blog, I think there's something there. So that is what caused the growth. Erica, pardon my take. And I always said, I said to turn, I go, I think it's kind of what you just said. It's like I thought Barstool was way bigger than the outside world was giving us credit for it because everything we did was like kind of popping i'm like if if we put some gas on this this thing could explode and it fucking exploded the second we put gas like i was like oh if you don't know it now i don't know if you'll ever know it how do you not know it now and then i mean i couldn't have been more wrong it was

there was so many people who became fans that had no clue at the end and people let's you hear it now but i knew this our content was better than anything else it's like if you saw it and you were kind of our type of demo you were hooked like it some people obviously hated us but it just hit a demo that nobody else had. And the second people got exposed to it, we had them. And, you know, we, once we expanded, obviously Dan with, um, PFT was huge. You guys were huge. Uh, and then we started getting to everything like Cooper got, you know, the female market, it, everything we started doing just started hitting.

So, uh, I, we were talking right before the, uh, we started recording the podcast, um, your, your ability to assess talent. hitting so uh we were talking right before the we started recording the podcast um your your ability to assess talent so jenna marbles was a girl that you discovered her before she popped off well and then you just mentioned alex cooper so like what you just are able to siphon through the internet and see what you think is going to pop and get them on board yeah i don't know it's a combo i think i'm very good if people ask me what my greatest talent is I would say that it's like figure like big cat too I mean big cat was not doing anything related to this it's it's sensing what funny is and it's not even necessarily my cup of tea like big cat I thought was funny and I got

Jenna so Jenna the story and Jenna marbles who you could argue is the biggest celebrity we've ever had come through the doors still. Like, what's she worth now? I think she stepped away. She did. She had a wax statue in Madame Tussauds. I don't even know what that is. What's that?

Oh, at the place? Yeah. So is she worth like $50, $100 million? She did step away. Who knows? She was like the original YouTube girl. Yeah, she did the Ugly to Hot video. Yeah, while she worked for us she was

working for us when she did that and our logo wasn't on it and i fucking went nuts jenna marbles was a interesting example of me and gaz used to fucking tell her the type of videos and stuff to do they didn't hit none of them she went and did her own shit crazy like you just have to find people so you knew she was good but then you didn't know what we couldn't utilize her it's like everything we're like do this do that didn't work didn't work she started she just did her own videos just to do them it was like huge and that's the same it's like pmt i was never a big podcast guy like it's them they came up with it so it's finding people that are unique like when i saw the alex cooper the

demo reel for the first time i just knew i hadn't seen anything like it wasn't my cup of tea but i hadn't seen it on the internet and i've told the story but when i talked to her the first i was like who made that sizzle reel for you she's like i did it's like what do you mean you did she's like i learned how to edit and cut it. And I made it myself. I'm like, OK. Then you're like, we're saving money on that part of it. Well, it just showed she was not. Like, there was something going more behind the scenes.

And she's crafty. Like, people are going to say whatever the fuck they want about her. She's smart and crafty. You don't accidentally get to where she is unless you're very on top of it. But we hired her and let her do whatever we want jenna marbles start doing whatever we want like you guys we never say like hey do this or do that it's like find creative people and let them do whatever the fuck they want and some hit and some don't and we also things are changing like mcafee take mcafee nobody would have hired

him like he's openly said that it's like he wanted to go to espn right away no espn wasn't going to hire somebody with no experience nothing we did we're like oh he's interesting so don't don't do you have some sort of not hatred but like to him are you kind of like whatever well i mean really no but i mean i guess you could ask it for all of them because i feel like Jenna Marbles didn't really give you guys your flowers. Marbles I was mad at. Marbles, that's just because I thought when she left, she skewed it and told a story that was totally not accurate.

Like she was getting forced out and she was not getting forced out. And she also did something like she was down for anything. The second she exploded, she was impossible to work with. And by the way, I marvel's entertainment contract before she went to la i'm like yeah fix this that but i'm like good luck i knew we couldn't monetize her so there was no hard it was the next day she wrote this article like i'm sorry i'm leaving guys on all stool a lot they're taking the websites like that's just not how it happened so that fucking pissed me off mcafee because they took he took your guy or he took the software no here's the thing about mcafee he was always probably gonna go on his own um he's super wildly talented uh

so there wasn't really no i i wouldn't say there's any i mean i still talk to him like we text back and forth yes no hatred there yeah and i'll congratulate people think there is um because we get oh you guys are idiots you let mcafee go mcafee was not gonna be long like it's anything it's hard once talent gets to a certain point wants to do their own thing the only thing i learned from mcafee certain point wants to do their own thing the only thing i learned from mcafee was we definitely kick-started like his everybody he has was barstool like he had barstool employees like uh you know aj hawk like that introduced all through barstool but mcafee is supremely talented and he always wanted to do the wrestling he always he was going to be a huge star with or without us so yeah so it was almost like we'll get what we can out of him, but I don't think in 10 years he'll be here.

Did you expect him at a certain point to end up leaving? Did you see that coming? And have you experienced it a couple times before? I'm not sure if Cooper ended up leaving before him or after him. Cooper, I think, was after. Okay, but you'd already been through it with Jenna. McAfee was not on like – we're super loosey-goosey so mcafee was really early i don't even know mcafee was on like i think mcafee could have left

anytime oh okay so that's the way it was there wasn't like mcafee broke a contract okay and we had a really fucked up like situation where it was easy for him to think we weren't selling ads like for example i know there was something with, and you guys could, I don't know how you're set up exactly, but let's say you go to a major, I'm just going to pick one out of the blue, Pink Whitney, obviously. Nice little shout out, thank you.

So they have a budget of 100 grand. And McAfee's only getting paid if he gets those ads, Pink Whitney dollars. Well, Pink Whitney, say, you can advertise anywhere across barstool so pink when he ends up going to pmt not mcafee back he's like that's fucked you guys would obviously push it to pmt because you keep 100 right so there was that inherent but no i uh i think pat's like one of the more for me unique people i've met because he's not motivated by money he really isn't no shit he isn't he he's more he's more motivated i would say by like um respect so i think he did

think that barstool fucked him on not me but some of the things like the business side he thought and we weren't by the way it was like mackfee didn't i think even him running a business be like maybe looking back like the check was late well the advertiser paid late or something like that it did piss me off a little bit the lewis shit like i wouldn't have done that he was our guy he went over there um it all was a lot of it came with that rosé shit which i won't go into but that was a big a big problem or fracture but again pat mcafee was going not everyone can say this like biz you was going to be a star regardless if he came to us or not that's not the case alex cooper i would argue probably not like yes she's super talented but we fucking jammed her down people's throat so So like PMT, Dan, maybe like PFT was around, but no, wasn't a huge star before he came to us.

You came to us a million followers on social media. McAfee came to us a million followers. And so he was going to be a star no matter what. We accelerated it. He went to the school of Barstool sports on how to run a business. And we fast forward him for barstool people but there's no hard feelings with him i say shit and people think there are but there isn't like i taught him how to gamble there's a couple funny stories that he cost me

like 100 grand who did mcafee okay literally so people think that's me being mean but it's not mcafee had never placed a bet in his life and we're on the college football tour together and the first time he can gamble he's like just double up what you're betting i'm like are you sure he's like yeah just double it call my he thought you were betting rico units yeah call my bookie i'm like i'm gonna need this doubled you know he's like all right so i tell him it's like all right you're in for like 20 grand a game he's like what are you fucking talking about so i had to eat all the bets myself i got fucking killed that's a heavy bet um it's like i thought you bet like five bucks uh g wrote a couple of these franny lyden hank story what's this about this is this is this is a class this is an all-time you know hank well hank's another

og right we keep mentioning all these guys. Yeah, so Hank's one of our first guys who's like an intern. All you're going to know about Hank is his resume, which had a ton of misspellings. And lies. And fake college. And a fake college. One of his big things, I can get computer equipment for free

and cameras from a college that didn't exist. So he became one of the most vile commenters that we had criticizing us under the alias fran franny lyden um like dogging you or just by the bloody every me dan that's dark shit yeah like brutal and i don't know what happened but he thought i knew you know is that hank apalooza the night of his 21st birthday and he outed himself oh no me with me not even knowing what no like what are you talking about he's like i'm sorry i i i was just in a dark spot my i don't i he's like hank I have no idea what you're talking about. So yeah, that was a Frankie. It still sticks.

Did you go back and read all the comments? There were a lot of them. I mean, some of them. He'd be in prison for a while. Yeah. And then so when we snuck into the NFL, my badge was Franny Lydon. That was like my fake credentials. What do you do over there?

That's what he's writing his notes. Playing tic-tac-toe? He's playing Sudoku puzzle. But he made him wear a shirt for a month straight that said, I am an internet troll. And if any fan in the state of Massachusetts saw him without the t-shirt, he was fired. Yeah, he'd wear it in the water on the 4th of July and stuff.

Literally, I'm like, anybody sees this fucking guy without this shirt, send it to me because he's gone. That's how he earned your trust back. Yeah, and you got to talk about taping him to the wall like how did that happen he was just viral video that may not be allowed anymore hank uh so if my right hand men like they go to the church of day portland which is a tough school it's like hard to graduate but if you do david knish if you do you make it in this company so i had gaz then hank and uh then frankie and now i have austin but hank i used to like torture i mean we taped him to wall he cut his cut his finger off

trying to catch a drone out of the air and i remember taking him to the hospital and he's on speakerphone with his mom and his mom's like i told you not to trust that dave portnoy he's gonna lead you straight to the ground you gotta get out of there i'm like does she know i'm on speakerphone this is too good what about i mean in terms of the future like because you got to be in florida six months in a day you're obviously back in like are you back in like it was before like will there ever be people down in Florida with you? I feel like that would be pretty sick if there's a new little madhouse down there. Yeah, there could be.

I don't know. All those club rats you're hanging out with down there. Yeah, I don't go out anymore. I really don't. I used to go out, but I don't anymore. Maybe, yeah, maybe there will be. So you have college football show. That's Saturdays.

Yep, college football. Not on pick. I'm not picking them up. Pick them. Advisors, though, off of them. That's Saturdays. Yep. College football. Not on pick. I'm not picking them up. Pick them. Advisors, though, off of them. Yeah, unless I'm in Chicago. I'm going to go to Chicago a decent amount. And I got to help fix the business.

So I'm not trying. How much do you want to spend a year? That's what I don't. Spend a year on what? Salaries and trips. I just want to break even. I've already made my money. I don't need more money i just want to break even like i've already made my money i don't need more money i want to make it so it's a place where people are happy to be coming to work yeah

it's self-sustainable self-sustainable people who are should be making money should be making money there's not the overall prep like we don't if i lose a million bucks a year i don't fucking care like that that to me we can't be losing 10 a year but like get it get it right and Dan and I were saying like we want to reward the people who are bringing money and but I still need that bullpen like the misfits

the whack pack that makes us us but it's just we've got we got a little bit lazy and sloppy it was different incentives we're trying to grow for pen it's like revenue revenue revenue revenue revenue sometimes you can lose a million bucks but your revenue is three and depending on how you look at it like oh that's a win they have revenue that we're getting away from in the video you made like and i think it is our sports background like but when you bought the company back and the next morning nobody's in there like nuts that is so crazy to me it's like when Rico wouldn't

blog it's just like so I guess those people you'll find out in the next six months like who's gone and who's staying yeah and I mean it's a different our world so content's strange because when I used to do it I'd be writing and working until like 12 1 in the morning so like I don't care if someone's in there at 10 and to be honest honest, if I have to step on you to work, you're probably not the right fit anyways, which, again, I would say is probably similar to an athlete metaphor. The coach has to be up your ass 24-7, and you're not a little bit of a self-starter and want it yourself.

Ain't going to work. Correct. Yeah. Dave, as far as the comment is, obviously it used to be all boss, and then it's changed over the years. Has there ever been a policy with comment, where you just let it, like the free fall that it's always been?

I mean, with anything, we don't want it to be racist. Right. You know, anything like that. Anything. The easiest way I look at it, I don't want hate. Right.

If somebody's really doing something out of pure hate, it's bad. Now, I'm not saying, like, if someone fucks you over, like, fucking blodge it. You can hate him all you want. But, you know, hate along the lines of racism, anti-Semitism, bigotry, like that type of shit, there's no – I have no tolerance for that. You just mentioned that Bloggit is the guy's name? Bloggit, yeah. The worst.

Scumbag. How are they able to just get away with that it's actually one of the scariest like uh things i've been through because i know what happened and i've said this but with the bi stuff there's not like point zero zero zero one percent true there's zero like i was there i was like know everything there's no truth to it and i have the proof to show and i think i showed a lot of it but like i had and i couldn't get it out like i sued them because i wanted to be like at least knowing you'd lose knowing i'd lose i just wanted like all i need is the report be like well how are you showing if you have her texts or a couple how do you not have mine like how do you not have the conversation

because they tell a totally different like story like how does that possible how where this come from like you have that fucking mooch that fucking yeah he's he's milf hunter from call her daddy this is after it all went to hell and he was with sophia who both fucking hated my guts. You have this kid on a podcast saying he was fucking one of the girls who's mentioned the story. And he's the one who introduced the girl to the reporter. It's like, well, that's kind of an important detail. Like how? But the reporters can always say, well, the girl doesn't tell the truth. How do we know?

It was very scary. I mean, I remember when you kind of got some info that would help like prove them wrong i thought i was talking to you were like maniacal i remember feeling bad like this guy just you wanted to just show like and protect your not protect your name like prove it's bullshit and then it in the end yeah it's like if people are gonna think it nothing mattered and i'll still get people who say it fucking today they'll be like whoa what about the women's like well they lied like what else can i say you want to go through everything i have because it's the proof like one of they're really only two girls but one of them

like a week later is like begging to hang out and be like i can't believe you're like what one of them open and only fans right yeah on the next day And it's on record before being like, I'm a liar. Is there a sense, though, that now, like, what else do you have now? It's kind of almost like it's obviously not over for you. You deal with it the rest of your life. Well, it makes it a lot easier without Penn involved. Yeah, because now it's like. I mean, Business Insider launched two articles on the day of Penn's earnings. I mean, what the fuck is that?

Like, you're saying this is just normal? And by the way, the New York Times tried to write a hit piece on me. And the lady who wrote it had won a Pulitzer. So she's no joke for getting rid of Bill O'Reilly. She's the one who brought down Bill O'Reilly. When I say I got every single person I'm attached to from my kid, girls I've never met being like this lady reached out zero she the only quote she got against me was from my fucking dad being like

he's a degenerate like that was like it's all my fucking headline of the new york times article dayport his own dad says he's a degenerate i'm like dad what the fuck um and ellio they got ellio in the first article ellio's like ellio called me he's like you you owe me dinner i'm like dad what the fuck um and ellio they got ellio in the first article ellio's like ellio called me he's like you you won't eat dinner i'm like why he's like i just talked to this girl julia black for you at business i'm like you motherfucker it's like a hit piece you idiot he's like oh man so they got ellio and my fucking dad that's it oh but yeah it is scary actually well it's an amazing story i mean ari i don't know if you got anything else real quick one of all the famous fans uh you have who's the one you're like

holy shit i can't believe this guy's a stoolie or a gal anyone like kind of blow you away like i didn't realize this person was a stoolie no i mean you get to a point anything where it's like you get amazed and it's like holy shit i can't believe this person but i don't know now i i mean robert your friendship with robert craft is kind of awesome i mean he invited me i sat next to him the game brady came back on the bucks he invited me personally sent his helicopter for me landed at the stadium and sat fucking next to him for that game it's unreal i i the the most ridiculous video, though, is when you're with the actors,

all those famous actors for that fucking movie, and the girl walks by, and she's like, pizza guy? It's like Jon Hamm and fucking... Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. That's a classic right there. Yeah, I mean... Oh, well, the Gretzky story.

Oh. Oh, yeah, yeah, you met him at the game. I didn't meet him. He came up and asked me for a picture. Like, Wayne Gretzky story oh oh yeah yeah you met him at the game i didn't meet him he came up and asked me for a picture like wayne gretzky we're in the box at the panthers game and i he was in the box i wasn't like going up i was letting do his own thing he comes up taps me on the show he's like do you mind if i get a picture with you took the picture shot the shit i like texted janet gretzky now she's the best and she's the best so he turns walks away and then the guy next to me and gaz gaz just shaking his head because he knew texting me right away he knew

he just asked portland for a picture what do you think of that yeah and the guy next to me is just and i didn't know the guy next to me was like i cannot believe wayne gretzky and neither could i that's like fucking surreal he's the best yeah and last thing no idea what to expect tonight really depending on like what you see what you hear just who knows yeah uh i put like that's what makes barstool barstool i put out the clip of the last awards and i mean i was in a bad mood because people didn't dress i mean i was ripping people apart i think it'll be fun yeah today because i've seen the clips it's kind of like a walk down memory lane. People forget all the craziness. No way even 20 years we've been doing this shit

to remember all the memories and weird moments, but it's trying to wrap it into a neat bow. All right. Thanks for everything, Dave. Yeah, absolutely, buddy. We appreciate you. What you've created is amazing. We're happy that you're in full control again,

and hopefully things will go back to the way they used to be. Yeah. I'm excited. you're in full control again and, uh, and hopefully things will look back to where they used to be. Yeah. Yeah. I'm excited. Before we go any further, here's a word from our friends at factor with the busy fall season, just around the corner. You might be looking for wholesome,

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I can't believe we hadn't had him on before, G, huh? I could have sworn he was at least made some sort of an appearance, but never. I've been trying for years. I've been trying my hardest

for years to get you guys to budge, so I'm finally glad that we could finally do it. But interesting note on that story is he called Cap on your story

about the Glenn Murray article. Yeah, I mean, he did. I don't know. I mean, I'm not trying to fight with my boss, but I mean, I stand by what I said because he got rid of it. Like I said, well, you got rid of the guy for something. And, you know, I think because the message board revolted back then and he did get rid of him and open the door for me. So, yeah, I mean, I would tell it. I lie about that.

Like Glenn Murray, a playmaker, opened the door for me. And the rest, I mean, I would tell it. I lie about that. Like, Glenn Murray, a playmaker, opened the door for me and the rest is history. Did you hear that, Pat Merles? Obviously, you didn't hear the interview. I don't know if you heard the story prior to. No, I can't wait to hear the interview. I was a little disappointed. I didn't get the I wasn't there for it. I had a great question for him. I wanted to find out. People have been telling me. I don't know if it's true or not but the reason Penn finally got sold Barstool back was because of our chicklets boost we actually broke the book in the playoffs on the last game there when we hit the Barbashev Vegas minus a half and over boost plus 550 and

then Vegas to win the cup in five plus 575 So people are saying those two bets broke the book and why barstool sports book does not exist. And now Dave's back in charge. I want to find out if it's true, but I'll just think it is for now on. Once the rainbow game happened, I think that changed everything. That's what got the conversations going like, Hey, we can't take on this sports book anymore. The rainbow game just, just lost us so much money. These chicklets, guys, are too good. They're going to break us. We're getting rid of them now. Yeah, please.

I almost retired seven times last year. At least I could say that now. I'm not worried about getting a fucking email from corporate. Oh, well. All right, rolling right along here. This week's Grind My Gears is brought to you once again by Big Deal Brew. You can go to bigdealbrewing.com to find it to see where you can find Big Deal Brew near you. You know, G, I had a pretty pleasant week last week. Things were great. I really didn't

have too many rocks in my shoes, so not a lot of bellyache in this week. It's kind of a generic grinding of the gears, but when you're on an escalator or one of those people movers in the airport and you're in a hurry, it's like a highway. The left lane is the pace guy. You should be going as fast as you need to go on the left lane is the is the pace guy you should be going as fast as you need to go on the left lane but the people just stand there one side or clog the whole thing up and they get all huffy with you and you're like excuse me it's like bro it's an airport man people are in a rush here you gotta get by them especially on an escalator too man it's it's annoying it's annoying as hell and on the highway dude because i'm a speed demon i can't stay when

someone's in the left lane going 55. Speed limit's 55. It's like, buddy, you can see my tonsils in your rearview mirror. Get the hell out of my way. You're grinding my gears. Get out of my way in the escalator. And the people move it. It's annoying when you're in a hurry.

Do people get in front of you and just not move at all? Like, they just stand there because they're lazy? All right. I deal with this all the time in New york city because it's you walk everywhere here right so it's yeah it's not as much you know in the airport but in new york city people just they'll just like they're walking in the middle of the street and they'll just stop you know like look at their phone and then you bump into them or or or i hate when like a family or like four or five friends walk five across on the sidewalk and i can't go around them even if i try if i try to speed around them i i hate that so i'm i'm definitely on your side

for this one yeah yeah down new york the uh tourist game absolutely slows you down no matter where you're going down you need blinkers down there too man when you're when you're walking around actually you know what you ever shop at market basket around here g you ever you ever go to Market Basket? Dude, they need freaking traffic cops in those supermarkets. It's a local supermarket, and it's just absolute mayhem. Shopping carts going all over the place, wild scenes. So, again, you know, it was a nice week.

Not too much to bellyache about. Grind My Gears brought to you by Big Deal Brew. Once again, go to bigdealbrewing.com slash find us. Guys, I have a question for you guys fire um a little am i the asshole as you guys know kfc radio's got the game am i the asshole so saturday night i uh went out for some drinks we went out to dinner with some friends um it was actually a birthday shout out becca and um we so we got muscles and as the, uh, waiter, uh, or it was more of the bus boy was moving the muscles.

He dropped the entire thing of muscles of the hot, warm butter all over me. Oh, legitimately fully all over me. It was in my socks, all down my legs. My shorts were fully drenched like my whole bedroom when i got home smelled like butter and garlic so am i the asshole i asked i after after i uh after he spilt it on me i was pretty rattled i was like all right i need a second to just calm down and then when the waiter came back over i was like sir all right, I need a second to just calm down. And then when the waiter came back over, I was like, sir, like you just spilled so much shit on me.

Is there any way I could get like, could I have a free beer? That's all. That's all I did was ask for a free beer. And everyone at the table starts ripping on me. And I'm like, I should be asking for a free fucking dinner right now. The fact that this guy just ruined my night. All I do is ask for a free fucking dinner right now the fact that this guy just ruined my night all i do is ask for one free beer and everyone's like oh look at this karen over here asking for a fucking

free beer i'm like i'm like it's it's one beer i didn't ask for the whole meal to be comped so what am i the asshole here like should i should i get a free beer yeah i would have asked for the whole bill to be taken care of i would have gone big i said yeah you burnt me i would have asked for the whole bill to be taken care of. I would have gone big. I would have said, yeah, you burnt me. I would have done that whole routine. Get the whole meal paid for for everybody. Yes. So they didn't offer you anything after it happened? Like just, you know, pick up the appetizer or anything?

No. So the craziest part was, and this is why I needed a second to like step back. The bus boy was younger. I don't know how much English he spoke. he wasn't he he i tried to speak with him he didn't he couldn't really conversate too well but like the second after he did it he like looked at me his eyes kind of opened up and he just like ran to the kitchen didn't help me clean up didn't he just like ran away so that that's why i was so like like if he was like, Hey,

no problem, man. Like grab me some napkins, starts like helping clean up. He just ran away. It was like a wild, wild scenario. I was completely taken back and shocked.

And that's why I was just like, all right, like maybe I can, I'll get a free beer out of this. And I got so much shit from all my friends. It was wild. Yeah. No,

I wouldn't say you were the asshole at all. I think maybe just the specificity of like asking specifically for a beer that probably, that's probably where the comedy came from. But no, I don't think you're an asshole. I think probably the restaurant is for not initially offering you something

for dousing you in garlic and oil, not to mention spilling muscles all over the floor. So that's the verdict. No, you weren't an asshole, G. Not this time anyways. Thanks, guys. Oh, shit. You just mentioned that new york city a show i've talked about a bunch of times i blogged about it it's uh called how to with uh john wilson i don't know if you've ever seen it man it's the craziest show this guy he goes around he just takes videos of every little thing he must

take thousands of hours of video and he edits it to his like to his taste to his liking and he writes the show around it's kind of hard to explain how to with John Wilson it's like the third season dude is a wicked brilliant show he just videos everything and he sent us a certain topic around it and he edits all this footage together it sounds kind of weird the way I'm describing it but it's been on for a few years it's in the last season right now Friday nights it's on I think nine o'clock of course it's everything streaming I'm describing it, but it's been on for a few years. It's in the last season right now. Friday nights, it's on, I think, nine o'clock. Of course, it's everything streaming. I can get it on demand.

How to with John Wilson. Definitely a weird show. What's his name? Nathan Fielder. The guy who does, you know, that type of comedy. I think he's one of the producers on it, but it's all centered around New York City. And this guy goes on like trips and shit. Check it out if you haven't seen it yet.

What have you been watching, G? So I've been watching a few things lately. As we know, we're at hockey season. Everything's about to pick back up. So I'm trying to get my late night docs in before 6 p.m. to 2 a.m. is all hockey. So I've been watching a few things. First off, Swamp Kings, that documentary on the Florida Gators,

one of the worst documentaries I've ever seen. It's Urban Meyer propaganda. It is just absolute ass. It basically just like makes Urban Meyer and Florida. They don't talk about any of the guys getting arrested. There's no mention of Aaron Hernandez killing people. It's just, it's a wild, wild, horrible documentary. So hated that.

Yeah, I didn't like that. Like those guys were working so hard in the gym. And I was thinking back to my college days. I'm like, I didn't even come close to trying to get as good as these guys did. So that didn't give me a good feeling either. Watching all those guys push those weights around. Yeah, the midnight workouts they do. That was kind of nuts.

One documentary I did watch that was incredible was bc high i mean bs high about bishop sycamore and it's about that high school football team that basically it was a fake school they were bringing in 19 and 20 year old players to go up against 15 and 16 year old high school guys uh the head coach roy is as big a sociopath as I've ever seen in my entire life. This guy is insane. It's one of those documentaries where you're getting his side, and then he'll tell a lie, and then it will cut to the lie he's telling and exposing him. And then they interview the students and the players who are like,

oh yeah, he lied about this, he lied about that. And then they cut back to him and he's like, no, I didn't lie about any of that it it is as wild as a documentary as i've ever seen i don't have you have either guys seen that yeah yeah i watched it actually last night and i is it still going on like by the end of it i was like confused like wait they're still gonna play again or something it was the weirdest ending i gotta almost watch it again to hear it yeah it's almost like, like they lost, like the people who were like coming out, like Roy,

like they lost because at the end of the documentary, they're like, well, the COF, the school that technically was associated with Bishop Sycamore is a religious school. So they technically don't have rules. So they can basically do whatever they want.

So at the end of the documentary, they're basically like, no, this was actually all legal. And he did what he was just doing within the rules. So it was shocking. Did they have a prom? No, no prom. You would know, Ari. I'm sure you were there. You're probably invited.

But one other thing I watched, too, the george foreman uh movie that just came out about him um it just came out on netflix oh yeah yeah it's as someone who didn't grow up in that era just to to learn about i mean i know george foreman is the boxer and the guy who made the grills right i didn't know that how how tough it was how how extremely difficult of a life he lived and he couldn't even eat every day like it was he's lived a really really crazy life and just to get to the point that he was at is is wild and in job corpse like ra was that like a thing back in the day like they there's this thing called job corpse where they basically send like 16 to 20 year old kids just to go learn how to do jobs it was it was just a a pretty pretty cool and

interesting uh docu pic is that what you call when it's like a movie about a documentary kind of yeah it was it was a movie right it wasn't like a documentary actors and stuff yeah a biopic biopic yes yes but it was it was incredible and stuff. Yeah. A biopic. Biopic, yes, yes. But it was incredible, and I couldn't suggest it enough. When people say biopic, it drives me crazy. What were you going to say, Merrill? No, I have nothing on that. I watched that Painkiller.

We kind of talked about it before, and it was good. I liked it. I didn't really know a lot about that stuff, but I liked it. It was the actor. He was a hockey player i think we played tim riggins in friday night lights taylor kitch he's awesome yeah yeah i like him and it just it reminded me of like friday night lights like now i want to go back and watch friday night lights it's football season that's one of my favorite shows of all time so just watching that

show was a great show but seeing timmy riggins was uh brought back good memories of that show every time i pass friday night lights on netflix they have it's like the opening coach taylor monologue when he's like talking to the players while they're all training and stuff it gets me so jacked up every time i'll just leave it on that once that's over i move on yeah that's a great show if you haven't seen it out there unreal show uh another doc doc, it's a three-part series on HBO called Telemarketers. That's the title. It's basically about

telemarketers. It's how much of a scam it is. It's insane what these people are doing. What they would do is they would go to a certain police department and give them a one-time payment to say, oh, we're going to do fundraising for you. And then they would just call up and whatever they made, they kept after, after paying off whatever department they were just giving money to. And they would, they were scam artists

and they went, you know, over and over like millions and millions of dollars, like old people, they were swindling and they give the impression they're calling on behalf of police officers. They were just a bunch of scam artists, but I only seen the, uh, like the first, but first part, then a little bit of the second part. It's three parts. It's just insane that there's so many of these people out there just swindling folks. But actually, the two guys who work there, they kind of turn the tables around. That's kind of how the documentary goes.

I haven't finished it yet, but it's wicked interesting just to know how many millions, if not billions of dollars, people just get swindled out because they hear uh police they think you know well put the sticker in your car you won't get a ticket they just bullshit people and it's amazing how much money people give you if you just tell them a bunch of lies on the phone so uh check that one out also hold on g uh all right their work i i know about that show they're working on season two already and they already got pasha and g's credit cards it's all about that scam yeah yeah it's called domino motherfucker oh shit but uh gee going back to swamp kings that's it's an interesting point a lot of like

critics have been talking about is uh an issue with documentaries when the subject is also one of the co-producers you know they're obviously going to have some say in it and with swamp kings obviously it was it was way too much. I mean, it was Urban Meyer, who we know the guy's pretty much no good. And he was, you know, pot making it. They did what? They had 41 arrests. They didn't mention one of them.

That's crazy enough. But in that same vein, though, the Jake Paul one, same thing, Untold on Netflix, Jake Paul the Problem Child. Dude, I didn't know much about those guys. I think I mentioned before. That doc was really good, man. Like, I didn't know much about those guys. I think I mentioned before that Doc was really good, man. Like they didn't hold back on anything. I mean, they, you know, they, it was like a warts and all type presentation.

They admitted they were dickheads and, you know, when they were younger and made some stupid mistakes, but I thought they pretty much came clean as, as to far as, as far as all the mistakes they made in the past. And I still think there's some mistakes that they left out. Oh, so you know more than, more me like for example yeah i just i think there's there's a bunch of stuff that they left out of that one as well i thought that that doc was great too ra but i i fully agree with you like this whole i mean untold on netflix i had such high praise for them before this like last

round of documentaries they put out now And now it's kind of like, it almost feels like they're just like a propaganda campaign. Like with the Johnny Manziel one, the Swamp Kings one. It's, I don't know. Yeah, I agree.

I don't think that the subject should be involved as like an EP, a director, but that's just me. Yeah. Kind of like when 30 for 30s first come out, that first season was incredible. Some of the best sports doc ever, sports docs ever. Then after that, it just kind of went downhill a little bit.

But in that same vein, I think I briefly mentioned last week, the one on Arnold Schwarzenegger, like the three pot one on him. You know, as far as I know, they covered all the stuff, you know, bad shit he did. And he was very forthcoming with it. And just an incredible story about him, like the quintessential American dream that he came over here with, with nothing and, you know, became one of the biggest stars in the world.

That's definitely worth checking out. One other TV note, if you haven't heard, Shorzy season two is coming back this fall. It's going to be up in Canada on Crave, starting September 29th, and then down here in the States on Hulu, October 27th. So Shorzy season two coming this fall. Be sure to check it out.

And some more news. We have a sandbagger, a big sandbagger coming out next week. It is R.A.'s sandbagger debut. We've talked a lot about this. Kevin Bieksa, Ryan Getzlaff from Nashville, comes out on the 6th of September, Wednesday, 6 p.m. We are very, very excited for this one. I think it's a top three sandbagger ever.

Oh, wow. I asked Posh to send it over, not for edits or nothing. I just want to make sure I didn't say any jokes about people that none of you guys got, but I might have offended someone back home. I just want to give it my looks over before we sign off on it. But I can't wait for the one after, man. Last week was a... Oh my God.

Merle's, I'll tell you all the stories when we get off. R.A. had like legit the whole golf course in tears at one point. Like it was just an all-time moment and I can't wait for that to come out. Same here, buddy. So all right, boys. Any final thoughts before we sign off?

Yeah, Champions Hockey League starts Thursday. I'm just about to submit the blogs for all the previews so you can learn about all those teams. I'll be putting out picks. We crush this thing every year, so it's fun. Hockey is back. There's a lot of good players in that. Young guys, a lot of guys we saw get drafted in Nashville are playing,

so we'll start getting the hockey machine rolling here. And just one more thing, guys. As we've mentioned many times on this pod, we're not associated with Penn National anymore. So all the support from the fans goes a long way, goes a lot farther now. So buy the merch, subscribe to the YouTube, all of that. It helps a ton. It helps our jobs. It helps our lives.

Anything you can do to help you know with from subscribing to the pod buying the merchandise it's all so appreciated so thank you to everyone who's bought the merch bought pink whitney big deal all that stuff because like i said we're not associated with pen anymore and that stuff goes a lot farther for us absolutely g bookie degenerate bookie degenerate bookie degenerate we can say it now all right boys good stuff uh have a great week out there everybody and we'll see you next week with another GG. Bookie degenerate. Bookie degenerate. Bookie degenerate. We can say it now. All right, boys. Good stuff. Have a great week out there, everybody, and we'll see you next week with another interview. Take care.