Ryan Glasspiegel
Videos by OutKick
Barstool founder Dave Portnoy interviewed President Donald Trump at the White House on Thursday. On Friday, on his SiriusXM show the Yak, longtime Barstool stalwart Dan Katz (Big Cat) weighed in on the matter and expressed his displeasure with not having been given a head’s up:
.@BarstoolBigCat weighs in on Dave's sit down with President Trump pic.twitter.com/SBkCjOYDKh
— Barstool Radio (@BarstoolRadio) July 24, 2020
Katz’s frustration was not necessarily with the fact that Portnoy interviewed Trump. The opportunity to sit down with the President is rare and must be deliberated, Katz acknowledged. Where he was more upset was over the fact that he found out via Twitter and thus was not given a head’s up by Portnoy, Barstool CEO Erika Nardini, or the leaders of Barstool’s parent companies Penn National and Chernin Group.
Katz said that the decision to interview President Trump represented a dramatic shift away from Barstool’s goal of staying away from politics and trying to make people laugh, and that if Portnoy were to interview Trump[ it should’ve been with real rigor, preparation, and follow-up questions as opposed to participating in a stunt merely to help the president’s wavering popularity.
Katz continued, saying that Portnoy, Nardini, and Penn National CEO Jay Snowden looked him in the eye at the time of the Barstool acquisition and told him he was a partner in the company. For the first time in his years at Barstool, he said, he questions what he’s doing there.
“It’s been a tough 12 hours or whatever it’s been trying to understand where I fit in now,” Katz said. “There’s only two explanations. One is they didn’t want to talk to me because I would probably be the only dissenting view, which means that when there’s tough decisions to be made and Dan might disagree we just won’t ask him so we don’t have to hear his view. That means my opinion doesn’t matter. Or two, they just said straight up his opinion doesn’t matter. Either way, my opinion does not matter at this company the way I thought it did 12 hours ago.”
Surely, this is to be continued.
This is wild because, as he says, he has had such a large presence for Barstool. Be interesting to see where this goes from here but hope it all works out for Big Cat!
I hope Clay is really paying attention to this. Outkick is not unlike barstool.
As OKTC grows, lefties will begin to tear at the seems. I heard a snippet of this today with Clay’s gambling show partner on Lock it in. What the heck is his name? Anyway he’s a lefty. And he took a shot at Clay today.
The left is coming for you Clay.
That would either be Cousin Sal or Todd Fuhrman
If Peter King and Kmarko Barstool had a baby,
it still wouldn’t be as smug as Cousin Sal — Jimmy Kimmel’s cousin.
Insufferable Mets fans.
There have been many historical times in our lives when politics and sports have crossed paths. The event, or events, are too big for sports to stay on the sidelines. Big Cat says it’s “Barstool’s goal of staying away from politics and trying to make people laugh.” Sports is the culprit here; sports is dragging people kicking and screaming to politics. How many zeroes you got there on your contract, Dan? Sorry your feelings are hurt…self-esteem just took a big hit? Rub some dirt on it. I feel more sorry for the many nameless, faceless people who’ve had their lives ruined for believing we have a First Amendment.
Clay Call BIG CAT!! New podcast network could use him!
I like Big Kat but, he needs to get over it.
Like Don Henley sings…”get over it, get over it”
When it comes to wanting to keep Barstool out of politics as much as possible, I somewhat understand where Big Cat is coming from. But Barstool has already crossed the Rubicon on that, and not because of Dave. Over the last 6-8 weeks, Barstool employees have used the company’s platform to advocate for the burning down police stations, to raise money to bail rioters out of jail, and to peddle Chinese government propaganda in a bizzare, unhinged blog post about the Senator Hawley/China/Woj story. These same employees were mostly silent and hiding under their desks when the mob tried & failed to cancel Dave a few weeks back, so I’m guessing he could care less about their reactions.
Touche!!!
Nailed it
Big Kat, aka Big PUSSY….
Another BIG TOUCHE!!!
Just watched Dave’s interview with Pres. Trump. It was a conversation/interview as it should be. You have to let the President speak and say what he’s thinking. It wasn’t a talking points speech…and Dave was TOTALLY CLASSY…asked things that we all would like to know. Dave even did a quick IG at the end with his dad, who complained Dave doesn’t call him enough. The Prez said he’ll put some pressure on Dave to be sure he calls. Great stuff…and if a normal human being had a problem wit it, then he/she has an agenda. Dave didn’t have an agenda; the Prez didn’t have an agenda. They both seemed genuine.
Unless you actually own a piece your not a partner. Doesn’t sound like he owns a piece just sounds like he’s their favorite talent. He should be smarter than this and keep it to himself or at least in house.
Most definitely, Mike, shoulda kept it in house.
Never heard of him. I have now. I might have to look for this Trump interview. Probably raised the visibility of Barstool sports WAY higher…so there’s that!
Looks like another potential OTC candidate may soon be on the market.
Katz went full snowflake…
I like how they all speak their mind, actually. It was cool when Portnoy did it about the Call Her Daddy situation. Katz doing this is just fine. If that is how he feels, he is honestly expressing himself.
My guess is Portnoy realizes the opportunity here and isn’t upset at all.
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