Will Cain Country - From The Vault: Dave Portnoy On The Secrets To Barstool's Success

Episode Date: November 28, 2025

In this best of episode of 'Will Cain Country,' Will goes into the vault for a conversation with the Founder of Barstool Sports, Dave Portnoy. Will and Dave discuss the secrets to Barstool's success and why Dave believes he has become a favorite punching bag for so many media outlets. They also delve into the conspiracies about the NFL being rigged, and whether there is a need for them to hire full time referees. Subscribe to ‘Will Cain Country’ on YouTube here: ⁠⁠⁠⁠Watch Will Cain Country!⁠⁠ Follow ‘Will Cain Country’ on X (⁠⁠@willcainshow⁠⁠), Instagram (⁠⁠@willcainshow⁠⁠), TikTok (⁠⁠@willcainshow⁠⁠), and Facebook (⁠⁠@willcainnews⁠⁠) Follow Will on X: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@WillCain Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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Get no frills, delivered. Shop the same in-store prices online and enjoy unlimited delivery with PC Express Pass. Get your first year for $2.50 a month. Learn more at pceexpress.ca.ca. on the foundation of grit and controversy. Dave Fortnoy on Barstall Sports. Welcome to this best-of edition of Wilcane Country,

normally streaming live every Monday through Thursday at 12 o'clock Eastern Time at the Wilcane Country YouTube channel, but always available by subscribing at Spotify or on Apple. We hope you have, with your family, with your friends, a very happy Thanksgiving. Today, we have a fun show for you. Dave Portnoy joins me on building an empire, staying nimble in media and why Barstool's grit and controversy still make it one of the coolest brands in sports and culture.

Here is El Presente, Dave Portnoy. What's up, Dave? How's it going? Glad to have you here on the Will Cain show. You make me a little nervous. I never had you pegged for a show up early guy. You've been waiting like 10 minutes for this show to start live. But I guess I should have known when I saw the videos of you reintering Barstool and showing up and not seen anybody at 8 a.m.

in the New York offices, your grinder, man, you show up early. Yeah, I'm always an early guy, especially when you do these foxings. They usually do, like, the testing for about 10 minutes tell you where to sit, all that jazz. But, yeah, I'm always an early person.

You know, I was thinking about you, I don't know how you do this, but because I filter every sports viewing fandom issue through the prism of being a Dallas Cowboy fan. I root against anybody that threatens the legacy of the Dallas Cowboys. So I will, like, for example,

will always root against the San Francisco 49ers. I don't want as many Super Bowl appearances. I don't want the same number of Super Bowl wins. Of course, your Patriots superseded the Cowboys. You're kind of painting yourself as a Swifty, but are you going to root for the Chiefs? Because at some point here, now, they're going to become a threat to the Patriots dynasty.

I put 500 grand on the Chiefs. So, yeah, I'm going to root for the Chiefs. 500 grand on the Chiefs. Yeah, I think it's stealing. You don't worry about, look, You've got six, what is it, six, six franchise Super Bowls? Yeah, we got six, Brady's got seven. So, but I mean, you don't worry, like, Mahomes gets, what is this?

This would be number three for Mahomes in like a five-year span. I mean, it'll be 28 years old. He'll be well on his way to racking up more than Brady and putting the chiefs on a path to supersede the Patriots. So you mentioned the Cowboys and the 49ers, and obviously the Cowboys, boys have had a couple different iterations of being good and being in Super Bowls. The Chiefs to me, the Patriots beat them. Brady beat Mahomes in Kansas City. The Patriots is so bad, I don't really view them as a rival.

I don't view anybody as a rival right now because the Patriots stink. And they're great. I can accept greatness. So I don't think, like I hated the Peyton Manning era. I thought Pete Manning for a long time versus Brady. It was Peyton Manning this, Peytonning that, Peyton Manning's this, that, and the Patriots go beat the crap out of them. That offended me on a personal level. The Chiefs are doing it.

I felt like I was watching the old school Patriots the other day. The way that they came out with Kelsey and Mahomes reminded me of Gronk and Brady. So I don't feel that. They have a long way to go, by the way. Winning three versus winning six. They're going for three. Two different things.

So I'm not threatened by that. yet maybe they'll change if they get to five but you know they're great they're great and they're worthy to be starting the conversation are they the next patriots i'm fine with that yes and and you're right three is way different than six but as somebody that is forced to live in the past i have to live in the 90s and then to tell stories about the 70s which i didn't get to experience you're you're kind of headed that way and so you're going to start hanging your hat on well we're the greatest franchise in the NFL. We have the most Super Bowls and Super Bowl appearances.

And I'm telling you right now, I would start to get worried about the Chiefs. I don't care if Andy reads the coach, as long as they have Patrick Mahomes. Yeah, no, he's great. But people have just absolutely slept that Joe Burrow has hurt. I think the Bengals are very good when he's back. They beat them. You still Josh Allen. Josh Allen doesn't have, like I'm not a Lamar guy.

Josh Allen has played great. I think you make a coaching change in Buffalo. They can be. And the AFC's loaded. The guy in C.J. Stroud, I think, is excellent. I'm not there yet. You mentioned the Cowboys. You've had futility since the 90s.

We were. I know. I'm still, it's not that long ago that the Patriots are the best team. So we're coming off of it. I've had a couple lean years. I don't know. I don't have that fire of hating the Chiefs. And again, the Chiefs never beat us when it mattered.

We beat everybody when it mattered. So maybe not the Giants. But there's no teams that really stick in my craw. So you got, there's no teams in the NFL right now to stick in your craw. There's nobody you root against? No, because again, the Patriots are so bad that, and we dominated for so long, there's nobody that I feel like got the best of us. I really, like when the Patriots were great, yes, I had a lot of enemies.

A lot. I hated Peytonning like poison. I hated the Jets because what they did to Belichick. Buffalo was like a little brother. I hated Baltimore. There are a lot of teams I really hate it. But, you know, when you're the worst team in the league, you go from the best to the worst.

We just, we're in our own world again, just on the opposite end of the spectrum. And now you got half a million dollars in Taylor Swift to root for in the form of the chiefs. Hey, what do you make of? this thing everybody's saying that the NFL is fixed? You know, that's garbage. They'd be the greatest script writers of all time, but that's absolutely garbage.

But you're not someone who's put trust in the NFL in the past. I mean, you're a little bit of someone who's earned some skepticism in the NFL. I mean, everyone knows your relationship with Roger Goodell. It was rigged against the Patriots. That's a different story. that but there is not that element like giddell doesn't you know lamar to the super bowl that's the good story the bills to the super bowl unbelievable story with buffalo uh Kansas city what yeah they have Taylor swift going again but there's no advantage he obviously with

everything he did with uh spy gate the flake gate he hated the Patriots throwing me in jail he would do anything there was Roger Goodell there's no team that he could stand up on the podium give the trophy to and be booed roundly like he was with the Patriots where he had to put his tail between the legs and run out of there. So that's different. They tried to cheat against the Patriots. But now, no, what's the agenda? For what reason?

Detroit would have been a better story. Like, the better story for the Super Bowl would be Detroit. I think it's idiocy as well. I mean, if the NFL were fixed, the Cowboys would not be losing in the wildcard or divisional round. There are ratings juggernaut and the NFL put them in the Super Bowl or at least the NFC championship game, which they haven't

been in in 30 years. But Dave, the theory goes, Taylor Swift, Super Bowl, massive ratings. By the way, there's an even deeper conspiracy. I think even Vivek Ramoswamy tweeted it out where it puts Taylor in a prime position to then endorse Joe Biden and swing the future of the country.

Yeah, well, here's the thing. I'm a Swifty. And it's insulting to Swifties to act as though she needs the NFL to somehow enhance her brain or brand. Taylor Swift is bigger than the entire NFL could sell out more stadiums than the entire NFL in other countries. Taylor Swift is a worldwide phenomenon. I love Taylor Swift. She don't need football. She like football needs Taylor Swift.

Yeah, so they put her in the Super Bowl. Well, Travis Kelsey. Yeah, so they need Taylor Swift. Listen, I'm giving you the voice of the conspiracy. Well, you got crazy people all over the world that say crazy things. The bigger conspiracy, if you want to get into conspiracy theories, it's not even conspiracy, is why the NFL doesn't have full-time reps. So you have 65-year-old men running at 100th of the speed of the athletes,

getting paid basically like a grocery bagger at your. your local 7-Eleven, you're going to have some weird calls. So that, I don't know if that's against, maybe they like the chaos because you're going to have idiotic decisions, calls all the time when you have out of shape old people reffing the fastest game in the world. I do wonder if they sit back, look, I had a daily radio show on ESPN and Mondays about breaking down awful calls, which is just more content for the NFL. And I do wonder if they've ever sat back and said,

you know, net positive all of this. controversy. Maybe, because why else want you have, it's like what, a bazillion dollar league and you can't pay full-time officials? It makes no sense. Hey, let's go back to the grind for a minute. You being a guy that shows up early, I've wondered this about you. You know, you've told the story of handing out papers in Boston, you know, the origin stories of Barstool. What I'm kind of curious about, and I don't know if you said this or if I just kind of picked this idea up, but the pizza reviews, which are super popular. one of your biggest things I think I don't think there was a grand plan I think you've said that

before like when you started doing the pizza reviews I don't think you had any vision that it would become what it has become but when you were founding barstall sports brick by brick did you have a vision for what it's become I'm kind of curious if you're if you're the kind of entrepreneur that sits down with the big vision and then sets about executing that vision or sort of just keeps perpetual motion going until you find success perpetual motion there was definitely no grand plan i think i'm sure there's some entrepreneurs who have a grand plan there i would guess they're few and far between there's probably far more entrepreneurs who are full of crap and say they had a grand plan of what they expected um but in my

world we started as a newspaper and then you know the internet wasn't really humming so there's no way to predict it people still ask me where do i see barcel in five years well during the course of I didn't know my space would exist, dating myself, Facebook, TikTok, Instagram, everything. So how can you ever know where you're going to be in five years when you don't know what the next six months is going to bring? Everything changes. The biggest advantage, there's a bunch of things, right place, right time, right guy, but we've been nimble, just nimble. We're not stuck in our ways. And a lot of networks that we've competed against are the opposite. They're stuck in their ways old school, older. I'd like to say we're like one of the first true digital media

companies and we've just reacted quickly and been able to maneuver. And, you know, I think if people ask me what is the best compliment you can give to Barcelona sports, we've managed to stay cutting edge cool if you want to say it for like 20 years. Very hard to do for a media company. Eventually you get stale, get old and the next new guy comes. Maybe thanks to Roger Goodell, thanks to whoever, we've managed to stay cool. Don't go anywhere. Let's continue this conversation with the founder of Barstool Sports on this best of edition of Wilcane Country. Snap up Ancestry DNA's lowest price ever in our incredible cyber sale.

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foxnewspodcasts dot com or wherever you listen to podcast Welcome back to this best of edition of Wilcane Country. We're still hanging out with the founder of Barstool Sports, Dave Portnoy. Well, so when your sort of philosophy, or at least tactic, is stay nimble. So whatever it's going to be, we're going to jump into that and we're going to try to dominate that. That's got to come, that comes with a significant amount of failure as well. I mean, you've got to be willing to fail, pivot, succeed, chase, every step of the way. So, like, is there a tolerance?

I don't even know, like, is it 80% of the stuff you're trying and failing? If you're constantly moving and no, no, no, no, no, pivot this way, pivot that way. Do you ever run the risk of moving on too quick, by the way, Dave? Oh, that's a failure. And it turns out, oh, we probably dumped that too quick. Yeah, I suppose. Like, I never thought podcasting would be big. I made fun of our guys doing it early.

Good for us. They kept doing it and it exploded. So I'm not the end, all be all with knowing what works. we also give our talent a ton of freedom so you know I can't think of what other people think of and they can't think of what I think of and if they hit something what we're good at it's almost like a band label we try to find talented people and then say go do your thing and we'll support it we'll give you the resources and through the years you know whether it's a pat maccavy or call her daddy a big cat a million dollars worth a game bustling with the boys myself whatever it is

they're all radically different. Jenna Marbles, a lot of people may not even know who that is. She's like the first, like, female YouTube star she worked for us when she exploded. So it's just finding talent and letting go nuts. So is there a, when you find talent, and I've used you guys,

and I could be accurate or inaccurate with this, but it seems to me the modern day media company is built around, it's like you find three to five tent pole personalities. And those personalities become the media company and around those personalities, you've got to build whatever it may be profitable content production warehouses, whatever it is. You know, I mean, that's the daily wire. You can look at three to five big personalities.

It's most media companies. You, it's pretty easy to find, you know, the tent poles of Barstool. But I'm going to give you an example, and I'll say this on air. I've said it to you in private. I'm a huge fan. You know this of Jersey Jerry, right? I think Jersey Jerry is hilarious. I think he's incredibly talented.

I can't believe he started out as a. caller on my radio show back at ESPN but you got to find like you take a guy like that and you think okay I got to find or he's got to find a platform so you know he's got to find what I don't know what's going to be podcast YouTube show something those personalities have to become part of your business in some way yeah and we don't always know what it is a perfect example I didn't mention the first time around is Caleb Presley so Caleb's a wildly talented guy and he was with us for years before I would say he found his niche, which now he does a Sunday show, Sunday conversation.

It's great. Insanely popular. It took years for him to find his thing. Jerry just started this Jerry after dark, which is him just basically mutilating himself, I guess is the way that I would describe it. But it's like that's wildly successful. So we don't put a time clock, again, you find, I'd agree with what you said, the analogy I used when I sold Barstool the first time, half of it. We want to be like a new age Saturday

night lives. You find your cast of people, core people, create content. And if a couple people leave, the core is there and you keep looking for new talent. And we've become fortunate that a lot of young, comedian, talented people, they want to come. So like Jerry wanted to join. And, you know, I had to find Caleb. But people send us. And we have our page. sort of, of, you know, up and coming people. It's harder now. It gets harder, the flip side of that with social media. A lot of people don't need the network anymore.

You can go be successful yourself, so you're going to find them young. So, by the way, Caleb, in Sunday conversations is awesome. I don't give gratuitous compliments. I think that's an awesome show as well. Let's marry these two conversations we're having about you being nimble and making quick decisions and then, you know, you finding these talents and putting them in position to succeed. So what happened with Barstall Radio? It just didn't do what you wanted them to do, the mission of the show. So yeah, Barstall Radio started. We used to have our own station on Sirius,

and I did a daily show. And it was really, it could be anything, but the thesis of it was insider Barstall, drama, which we air out, we're very honest. And then we didn't renew a Sirius, and barstool radio basically went away um i became quite a bit more wealthy in the time that we didn't renew and my interest in doing a daily radio show uh basically really went away unless somebody was going to pay me so much money uh so we brought it back after i got the company back started with kevin clancy who's been with us forever he stopped doing it and uh two new people did it Kelly Kiggs and Francis, there was a big controversy in there. This is probably boring people.

Big controversy involving Kelly Kiggs. She didn't talk about it on Barstool Radio. That's the antithesis of what Barstall radio is. I mean, you basically fired for you canceled the show. Cancell the show, yeah. Instant cancel. Why? Why the rash decision?

Why so no meeting? No talking it over? Yeah, no. If they can't figure that out, then they'll never figure it out. there's no like if you don't get that you're never going to get it versus that patience you talked about a minute ago yeah now Kelly Keeggis will succeed at Kelly Keeggs is very good at covering Taylor Swift

and people make fun of it why you're covering Taylor Swift blah listen Taylor Swift is an industry onto herself so she's very good at that but that's not Barstall Radio so she could be successful somewhere else Caleb Presley was on the original iteration of Barstool Radio. He hated it. Wasn't his bag. Go find something else. She wasn't fired from the company. That show just got

canceled. You're right. Some people will probably be bored by the inner dynamics of Barstall. I'm curious about it. But I'm also curious. But no, I'm also like always trying to dig a little deeper. I'm just kind of curious as you as an entrepreneur and you as a leader in making decisions. And you said something there, you got rich.

I'm curious. Like, it's easy to grind when you're working towards, you know, this sort of idea of a promise land, which you sort of reached, Dave, like, you know, whatever you're worth, I'm sure at that moment, it seemed like the payoff for the brick-by-brick handing out papers on the streets of Boston. But now you're back and you find yourself in the same leadership position. I'm kind of curious if it's not hard for you to get back up for the grind. Uh, no. Here's the Before I start Barstool, I had a 9 to 5.

I did sales and I did that for, I don't know, 5, 6, 7 years. It makes you appreciate what Barstool is. So, yeah, it's a grind. You know, we got to live stream football games. We got to talk about things we want to talk about. This is Barstool in a lot of respects. If you can't throw a 98 mile per hour fastball in the black or you can't, you know, run a 4-140, this is a dream. job. So yes, I don't have to work anymore. This is not work. It never has been work. It's like

we, we, we, this has been a fantasy trip that I, you know, you sometimes close your eyes. I can't believe we made it here. So yes, I get it. You got to do the shows. You got to talk about it. It's tough to complain. And that drives me, by the way, nuts about some of my employees. they've never had real jobs. I know what it's like to have a real. 99.9% of people who wake up, hate their job, 9 to 5, they wake up, it's dark out,

they get home, it's dark out. They don't like, that's not us. So, you know, oh, shoot, I've got to go spend a week in Vegas at the Super Bowl. Young Dave, 25 years, would have cut somebody's, you know, head off to have that opportunity. So it's all relative.

Don't go anywhere. Let's continue this conversation with the founder of Barstool Sports on this best-of edition of Wilcane Country. At Capital One, we're more than just a credit card company. We're people just like you who believe in the power of yes. Yes to new opportunities. Yes to second chances. Yes to a fresh start.

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But the CEO, Erica Nardini, is left. So what's the future? Are you going to run Barstall? Are you looking for a new CEO? No, just me. I'll run it. I was probably more involved. really then people realized yeah um she's there if i need her or questions though here's the benefit

of getting to my position on the way up you got to kiss a lot of ass and you got to be like okay these meetings if i don't want to do something or i don't like it i don't do it and i don't like it i'm short i'm curt uh that probably will be the biggest see change for barcelal employees erika was great open door policy treated everybody almost like family you have a complaint She had a ear. You have a complaint and you'll go, go tell the wall. I don't care. So that will be a little bit of a difference for people at Barstool.

I really don't have, if someone wants to complain, it won't be to me. What about New York? You're going to stay in New York? You built this whole big thing in Chicago. So what's the future of New York? We still have the New York office, a lot of people, a lot of business people content. Chicago's a fun. factory that Dan built.

I'm in Miami, Texas. So I have built my life around the 183 model. So I will get my 183 days here. And then I'll spend a lot of time, New York, Chicago. But I can get my 183.

But you keep the New York office. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Well, I checked in where we have like, we're under contract till, I don't know, like the year 4,000. So yes. Okay. One more, I wanted to ask you this, so you brought it up. You're rich. Hey, man, you and I've only met in person once. I don't care. I'm going to ask you the questions that made me curious. You look different than you did when you were young, Dave. And what I want to figure out is what you did. Like, you lost weight, for sure. You're saying I look better now. Well, it's not just, yes. And yes, you look better now. Do you think I was going to say, no, you've really let yourself go? No, no, I know. It's a well, wrong thing. Well, uh, um, What'd you do?

Is this, you got rich and you started eating right and working out? Do you do an HGH? Like, what's going on here? So when I started Barstool, I literally would be at my computer. And we blogged. It was a writing world. And I would write 24-7. I've told this, but I would get Panera for lunch.

I would, you know, a Caesar salad comes to the little baguette. I would also get the full baguette and eat the whole thing for lunch. and then a pizza for dinner, no exercise. So I was gross. Then I was also married. I got divorced from, I actually still like best friends with. Food that was in the kitchen, gone. I started going out because you have to meet people.

Adderall. I was taking Adderall losing my hunger. So the weight went off and it just never really came back. But I don't work out. Really? I have a bummed shoulder. I can't do anything. You don't work out at all.

Not at all. You got a private chance. Oh, well, I started hot boy walks. So I'll walk like three miles a day. You've got, surely you've got like a private chef making sure you eat right now. No, I literally order takeout every day. What about Adderall? You still on Adderall?

No, not as much because I've switched into, so I was going out a lot. I went through like a party phase. So I don't do that anymore. So it's early to bed, early to rise. So I would take Adderall. If I was out late, I was exhausted, I needed it. If I really need to be sharp, if I feel like I'm about to get to a debate with an enemy, I don't know.

Oh. Yeah. Keep that thing going quick. Speaking of enemies, let's talk about business insider and Ackman. It looks like you met Wall Street financier Bill Ackman, who's got a vendetta now against Business Insider. They're going after him because he went after Harvard. Yours thing goes back with Henry Blodgett and the reporter who I don't remember her name,

a business insider. Did you meet up with Ackman? Did you launch a grand war plan? Yeah, well, he's brilliant. You meet certain guys and they just strike you as brilliant. I kind of figured he was because I don't know how he writes the tweets that he writes, their thesis tweets that would take me two weeks to write. I'm glad he,

I'm glad his enemies are my enemies. It really, seeing the names that he hates, it's like a bad memory from the past. And you know, I never really, a business are scumbags. And when I say scumbags, that's way too light. What they did to me is actually, it was eye opening the scary. It's a 0.0.0, not 0.001 truth, anything they wrote, zero.

And they knew exactly what they were doing. They knew what they could say, what they didn't. I went the lawsuit route and I thought I would win. I'm like, there's no way somebody can get away with it. But they use the laws of public figures, defamation and everything in between. they all deserve great bodily harm. They really do. They're the worst people I've ever encountered.

And I hope Ackman takes them out. They're a worthy adversary. And they're everything that is wrong with human beings. But with human beings, I thought you're going to say the media. What I was going to say is that attack on you, obviously in your mind is the most egregious. But it's not the only one. I mean, I don't even remember.

You've probably had, have you had the New York Times and the Washington Post, right, hit pieces? I think, yeah. I've had everybody under the sun. Everybody. Yeah. So here's what I'm, why? Why are you a target? Something I've never truly figured out is why we are a target because I feel like the things I say

and do aren't too dissimilar from what a lot of people say and do. But we are generally the ones that get the headlines. I will say, however, however it started, I do not apologize if I don't feel like we screwed up. And I certainly don't back up. I lean into it. Like you want to take an example would be deadspin, one of the worst, obviously, publications of all time.

There was a woman there, Laura Wagner, and she hated my guts. She must have talked about me 50 times before I acknowledged her existence. And I mean, me, stuff I would say. I actually thought she kind of like was playing along, like I'm an Adderall, Adderall riddled raisin and all these things, just mean things. And I did a blog that said any woman who hates me this much, I think I'm in love with and used the clip from George Costanza from Seinfeld. There's an exact scene where a woman just hates him. He's like, anybody who hates me this much. Well, you take, they then take that as serious and then they print that.

And then I respond to it in my tone and on and on we go. So that played a factor. It intensified for sure when I interviewed Donald Trump. He really hadn't done anything. He's much more like he does a lot of stuff like the Nell Boys and Dana White, all that. He hadn't done as much of that. He was a sitting president when I interviewed him. And he breaks people.

What year was that? So that was right. before the election probably two or three months before the election the 16 election yes the one he lost yeah this oh oh before 20 i remember when you sat down with him i just can't remember so that's the that's his reelection campaign that's turning and here's why i bring that up there's two things i want to follow up with on this you are on an approved hit list okay that's what's happened and i don't know why but you are and there are some people in the public sphere who are deemed appropriate targets and some that are not. I am. I will always be. And we, it's pretty easy to figure out why I would be because

of my open political leanings, right? Um, you know, everybody who believes. Yeah. I mean, I used to, I got, Tucker, I've been on a million times. So anytime you go on Tucker Carlson, regardless of what you talk about. And we don't talk politics when I go on there. Um, but, you know, and I've said, I'll go on anybody wants to talk to me. Invite me on. But Dave, I think you were, I think you were target before you went on Tucker. Yeah. I think you were target. I think you were target. I think you were target i was idiospian i remember when barstall van talk or whatever it was called was not you know came and then was canceled internally so there's something the the why doesn't have to do with your political is here's the thing i don't know if you're a righty or a lefty in fact i want to ask you that

i don't know if you'd answer it you don't run for many things but um you know i don't know your political innings they're certainly painting you because you're on my program right now or you went on tucker or whatever it may be they're painting you as a righty and but i've seen your position as well. So, I mean, what are you? I would describe myself as a libertarian, is what I, I'm conservatively, I'm financially conservative, socially liberal, but I also am a people person. I've said this many times. I don't like either candidate we have right now. How, having said that, it's a no-brainer I would vote for Trump over Biden. Like, but that is not because I think Trump is the perfect guy for the job. I just,

I mean, Biden has dementia. I would like, and I think politics stinks in general. Like the first time Trump ran, I was very pro-Trump. I'm like he'll break politics, the political spectrum. But I also want someone who's going to unite the country, and he's wildly divisive. Like, I don't think most normal people want to live in this country that is wildly, wildly divided. And I think Trump will win. And I don't think that's going to bring the country together.

There's the people who hate his guts no matter what he does. And that's not necessarily, well, you could argue it. You could say it's his fault, not his fault. But I want the country to like each other and get along. So I'm all over the map. Do you see anybody? You can't ask. Is there anybody you like that you think could do that?

Well, I am trying. What is my girl? Yeah, people are getting mad. I like Nikki Haley. Really? Yep, I do. Don't go anywhere. Let's continue this conversation.

conversation with the founder of Barstool Sports on this best-of edition of Wilcane Country. This Giving Tuesday, Cam H is counting on your support. Together, we can forge a better path for mental health by creating a future where Canadians can get the help they need, when they need it, no matter who or where they are. From November 25th to December 2nd, your donation will be doubled. That means every dollar goes twice as far to help build a future where no one's seeking help is left behind. Donate today at camh.ca.ca slash giving Tuesday. At the National Post, we don't just report the news. We dive into the stories that shape

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Okay, and everybody's, oh, well, Will, you're far right. Whatever. I don't even know what that means anymore. I don't know what right and left means. It's a weird spectrum that doesn't explain what somebody believes. Because the idea that Trump is far right is absurd. I mean, most of his positions are some amalgam. Well, most of his positions,

positions are things that are some amalgamation of what used to be populist left and some conservative things. But I think there's this mindset, Dave, and I'm, and I'm, the word isn't worried. I'm thinking you're, you've got sucked in, but you can explain yourself. This mindset that sees everything through a rhetorical lens, and you're not wrong. The country is divided, and a lot of things Donald Trump says seems to inflame those divisions, but what people then react to is, I want something that feels moderate, even if they're politics. are not moderate. And I don't think Nikki Haley's are, I literally don't think

her politics are that moderate. She's just got a moderate personality. But that, I want to debate that and I don't always get that deep into the policies. I think I just said almost the people. What you just said could be 100%

true, but it's not going to change the reaction of the person who is elected, meaning Trump's policies, he could probably be left, at this point, the people who don't like him are never going to like it. It would matter. He has broken people's brain. Right. So knowing that, if you want the country to get along, I'm not even policies, whatever, it's the person. And again, you can say it's not,

well, what is he supposed to do about that? But that's the world we live in. My dad is the perfect example. I mentioned he hates Donald Trump. When you press him, why, how, what? He doesn't really have an answer but there's nothing he could do he could he could give my dad a thousand bucks he's like well he didn't give me 2000 like and that unfortunately is a lot of the country so when i say i don't think trump's the perfect candidate is not really even you could replace it it's like i want the country get along we need to get along and unite and i don't know that that's possible again and he doesn't strike me as the type of guy who's going to be like i will change what i'm doing even if he could and he's like me in that regard it's like if you hate me and you've been wrong to me screw you i'm not going to go

out of my way but i'm running a media blog i'm not the president of the united states so i was going to ask you two wise and that's kind of interesting you brought him and you together there's actually some similarities in the personality this is actually a lot do you think there's a lot of similarities between your personality and trumps i mean i i can get on a hit list for either of you yeah i can certainly to see the comparison of like If you don't like me, I will not like you 100x back and really go out of my way to try to make your life miserable. But again, I'm a media blog. I'm not the president.

I have no grand responsibility in my mind you unite. You don't like me. I'm going to try to make your life miserable. If you like me, I'll like you back 10 times harder. So I think he has that in him. And I also think he sort of takes the president as like a game show. he's brilliant he's brilliant so Dave I'm just going to go and follow my curiosity you tell me when you got to go as well but that's what you know this has come up before like what you

said if you don't like me I'm going to dislike you 10 times harder if you like me I'll return that that like a hundred times over I'm trying to figure out like it kind of makes a relationship transactional Dave right like are there people in your life that you're loyal to regardless of how you feel about them personally. I know that's, of course, everything comes down to are you together or not. You know what I mean, but like, I don't know. Yeah, say, here we go to your face, Dave.

If I had a criticism of you, I would do it to your face. I'm never, I don't believe in stuff behind people's backs, right? And I imagine that wouldn't upset you that if I criticize you to your face. But I wouldn't think it would. But I'm just trying to figure out like this idea that relationships are always built upon, you know, were you nice to me or do you like me?

I don't know. I don't know. There's also an element of fairness that I should add in. Because what I found is the people who don't like me, take a business insider, a New York Times, a Washington Post. And I've documented this. They've gone in with an opinion already made of me. And I've offered. Let's sit down.

You can interview me. You can ask me any question you want. I just want the ability to record it so you can't edit what I'm saying. and none of them have taken me up on that offer. And when you're starting the things business insiders accusing me of, and the star witness, New York Times, same, is saying, let's talk about it. I will talk at you. I am an open book, and they run away from it.

That makes me hate you. If you have a problem with me, I don't really care, and you're entitled, I'm not everyone's cup of tea. But if you have a problem with me, publicly will trash me, and refuse to sit down or address things about me that you don't like that I think are totally false lies proof that will make me hate you I think and this is going to take us back to we begin this why are you a target for the media I don't think it has to it may now be exacerbated by the fact that you're here literally here

right now or that you're on Varney or that you're on tuck it may be exacerbated by these things but to my mind it predates them you know I saw it before and it has something to do with control, I think. Like, Barstle represented a threat to sort of, and I don't always mean this, like there's a cabal of people that want to control what you say or control sports media, but all of a sudden, for so many people,

it felt out of control. And you represented, you know, dudes, not politically correct, not playing by the rules, and you represented, I think, in a way, a lot of loss of control. and then you may, you found yourself because of that on the approved attack list. Yeah, I mean, it's not a coincidence to keep happening. You go back to this Business Insider, but you want to talk about how deep things can go.

And for those who don't know, Business Insider wrote two hit pieces vicious on me that both dropped. At the time, we're owned by Penn Entertainment, publicly traded company. And they both hit pieces dropped the day before earnings. I mean, yeah. that that just doesn't happen unless there is a calculated plan of attack to disrupt not only me but people I do business with this isn't just a thought piece to try to reveal an evil guy there's a lot of thought that went into whatever that is with players that I'll never understand fully who was involved but two hit pieces that spent over a year and a half in the making drop hours before earnings and the first one dropped it like 20 percent I mean that That is not an accident. All right, two quick things on the way out. So pizza reviews, we talked about earlier.

I know there was the thing with the guy who got mad at you and that went viral and that played into your hands. Everything plays into your hands somehow. But I'm curious, is there anything, I would never have thought this. Some of my guys who produced a show with me told me this. Is there a thing like where some people think the pizza reviews are bad for business? I would think all publicity is good publicity, but like you give a six. Is it really hurt the business? Is there a thing with some pizza shops out there not liking you?

No, that's just that one dragon pizza idiot. The pizza community loves me, by and large. I mean, even a bad review, which I used to really get bad reviews, I don't for that very reason, no longer do. And, you know, people who don't like me will say anything. I've had people saying bad for small, that dragon pizza cut. They just don't know what they're talking about. He's like, you're bad for small business.

It's like, buddy, I raise 50 million for small business. business i didn't do it so i could have that answer in my bag but what do you there's a lot of things you can say about me that you may be able to find articles true or false that corroborate it to say i'm bad for small business it's like what i how do you even respond to that that's actually the last thing i want to talk to you about i mean i mean man what you did for small business is a thing that that i don't know what you'll feel at the end of your career because like you know we talked about your personality and you know you know if if revenge is a primary motivator i don't know look man the older i get whatever i personally accomplish ambitious you know ambitiously has less meaning it is something

about and i talked i talked about this with the rock last week like you get something big you do something big and all of a sudden you realize you're unimpressed with yourself and what you accomplished and then there's the things that really matter maui meant and does mean a lot to me we raised money, we gave back. I have to imagine, Dave, like the gratitude that you received, but not just that, the good that you did with that small business fund. I mean, I don't know if you wanted to lead your obituary, but I would have to imagine it's got to be one of the things in this world that you're like, this is one of the reasons I'm here. This is one of the reasons I'm on earth. Yeah, that has been a blessing and I still run into people probably once a week

who either were directly affected, know somebody. And it's certainly rewarding at the same time. it was one of those things we didn't plan out how could anyone plan it out and the the help we got from our readership so it's almost embarrassing yeah we did it but it we were in the position to do it with our fan base yes and you know it was it was something i'm very proud of uh and i think it is an easy answer if you look back say what's the most uh thing you're most proud of what was sitting in the 20 years you've been doing it it's that because it wasn't just one people It saved really a lot, a lot of people, a lot of businesses, employees, families, and it made a difference and we see it every day still. So yeah, that means a lot. It really does.

All right, man, listen, I'm a fan. I hope you, I like you. I want you know, I like you, okay? I like you. Let's just keep it on that. No, but I'm a fan and I look forward to seeing what you do, where you take Barstool. To the moon, man. Thank you, Dave. Appreciate it. Thank you. There you go. I hope you've enjoyed this conversation. I appreciate Dave Portnoy, joining us on this best of Wilcane Country.

We hope you do. Have a happy Thanksgiving, and you will follow us on Spotify or Apple. We'll see you again next time. Listen to ad-free with a Fox News podcast plus subscription on Apple Podcasts. And Amazon Prime members, you can listen to this show, ad-free on the Amazon music app.