Dave Portnoy built a sports media empire with Barstool Sports, but it didn’t happen overnight. It took years after launching the company in 2003 to truly get it off the ground. But once Barstool gained momentum in the 2010s, it never looked back. The platform’s success also helped launch the careers of several personalities, including former Colts punter Pat McAfee.
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Naturally, Portnoy takes a lot of pride in his journey and what his platform has been able to achieve. What’s even more impressive is that he looks far ahead into the future when hiring new personalities to join Barstool. He’s a visionary who has, over the years, hand-picked the people he wants to help pioneer his brand. One of those, of course, was Pat McAfee.
When McAfee retired from the Colts in 2017, nobody knew just how much he had to offer the world off the field. It wasn’t long before many of us learned of his stand-up comedian gigs that went semi-viral. McAfee wasn’t just charismatic and funny, he was hilarious. Some would even say he was destined for television.
Portnoy recognized this destiny early and decided to hop on it, offering McAfee a job in February of 2017, which the former punter accepted.
“So, we’ve launched massive stars, and at some points I think we have the platform that we can do this,” Portnoy said admirably on an episode of Club Shay Shay. “And no one else was trying to do it. Like McAfee is an example, no one hired his a*s out of the Colts. Nobody wanted him.”
And it’s not just McAfee’s success and fame that Portnoy is proud to have ushered in. He also takes great pride in helping Alex Cooper, Taylor Lewan, Will Compton, and Jenna Marbles launch their personalities and become bigger stars in the media.
The Pat McAfee Show is still alive and well 8 years after its inception. The former punter originally hosted the show on YouTube for Barstool for about a year and a half. Now it airs on ESPN Monday to Friday.
Unfortunately, while McAfee expressed immense gratitude and praise for Portnoy when he first joined Barstool, he has since admitted that his relationship has soured with the Boston media personality. When McAfee left the company, he cited a lack of transparency as the main reason.
From 2018, when he left Portnoy, until 2021, McAfee tried to get his show sponsored by a multitude of companies. And he did have some success with DAZN, SiriusXM radio, and FanDuel. But in May of 2023, it was announced that The Pat McAfee Show would be moved to all ESPN streaming platforms. McAfee reportedly earns a seven-figure salary a year for the show.
Among other controversies, Portnoy recently had an anti-Semitic sign displayed at one of his Barstool Sports bars. He has since come out and denounced the display, as Portnoy himself is Jewish.
The issue is that controversies seem to follow Portnoy like clockwork, and even when he doesn’t support them, it reflects the type of following he’s created and encouraged.
