Barstool Sports president Dave Portnoy isn’t surprised that ESPN canceled late-night talk show “Barstool Van Talk” after just one episode. He’s also not exactly losing sleep over it.
“ESPN needed us more than we need them,” Portnoy said Monday night during an “emergency press conference” livestreamed on Periscope. “Everybody is saying, ‘ESPN is not cool, no one is paying attention to ESPN, they’re all paying attention to the Barstools of the world.’ Why? Because we’re authentic.”
“This is exactly why Barstool Sports has to exist,” Portnoy told his loyal audience. “We’re one of the few places — maybe the only place — on the Internet where we don’t let agendas dictate what we do.”
Portnoy still didn’t apologize for remarks he made three years ago about ESPN “Morning Countdown” host Sam Ponder that were widely viewed as sexist and that may have prompted the show’s cancellation, directly or indirectly. The man nicknamed “El Presidente” does wish he worded that self-described “rant” a bit differently.
“She got accomplished what she wanted to get accomplished,” Portnoy said of Ponder, later referring to it as “a grudge move” on her part.
Portnoy, who tipped his cap to Ponder for resurfacing the remarks one day before “Van Talk” debuted, asserted that “95 percent” of ESPNers actually like Barstool.
He called out Sarah Spain specifically as another employee of the Disney-owned network who most certainly does not — though Portnoy said that her beef stems from the fact that the “Around the Horn” regular just wants her own series.
“I actually get why ESPN canceled the show,” he added on the social pressures levied against their short-lived allegiance.
“Anyone who thinks that ESPN executives wanted to cancel this show are nuts,” Portnoy said of the Big Cat vehicle, which literally takes place inside of a vehicle. “They’re a Walt Disney company. They gotta cater to what all the complaints and the few say. We do not. We will not. This is not our first controversy.”
“People who have been with us forever know we’re not sexist, we’re not chauvinistic, we’re not anything,” he concluded. “We make fun of everybody.”
ESPN the Magazine Body Issue: See Julian Edelman, Javier Baez, Caroline Wozniacki and More Pose Nude (Photos)
From snowcapped mountains in California to Hawaiian beaches, the world's biggest sports stars bared all for the 2017 ESPN the Magazine Body Issue. Check out their sexy covers and behind the scenes photo shoots for the special issue, which is themed "Every Body Has a Story."
Chicago Cubs second baseman and World Series champion Javier Baez
Dylan Coulter
Javier Báez photographed by photographer Dylan Coulter at the Coolidge Municipal Airport in Coolidge, Arizona on Friday, March 24, 2017.
Eric Lutzens
Boston Celtics point guard Isaiah Thomas
Walter Iooss
Isaiah Thomas photographed at the Charlestown Club, in Charlestown, Massachusetts
Mahala Gaylord
Dallas Cowboys running back Ezekiel Elliott
Kwaku Alston
Ezekiel Elliott photographed at STUDIOS 1019 in Dallas, Texas on Wednesday
Eric Lutzens
Tennis star Caroline Wozniacki
Dewey Nicks
Caroline Wozniacki is photographed at Spiderwood Studios in Utley, Texas
Eric Lutzens
MMA fighter Michelle Waterson
Mark Seliger
Michelle Waterson photographed at the Bisti/De-Na-Zin Wilderness area (Bisti Badlands) in Farmington, New Mexico
Eric Lutzens
Julian Edelman photographed at the Willow Studios in Los Angeles, California
Eric Lutzens
San Jose Sharks players Joe Thornton and Brent Burn
Ramona Rosales
Joe Thornton and Brent Burns photographed in Los Gatos, California
Eric Lutzens
Sprinter and four-time Olympic medalist Novlene Williams-Mills (the first breast cancer survivor to appear in the issue) photographed at Orange Studio in Orlando, Florida
Eric Lutzens
2016 WNBA most valuable player Nneka Ogwumike of the Los Angeles Sparks
Mark Williams + Sara Hirakawa
Nneka Ogwumike photographed at the Immanuel Presbyterian Church in Los Angeles, California
Eric Lutzens
Sgt. Kirstie Ennis (the first veteran featured in the BODY Issue) Sprinter and four-time Olympic medalist Novlene Williams-Mills (the first breast cancer survivor to appear in the issue)
Peter Yang
Kirstie Ennis photographed Joshua Tree National Park, California
Eric Lutzens
Pro softball player A.J. Andrews, the first woman to win a Gold Glove, photographed at the Harper Dry Lake in Hinkley, California
Eric Lutzens
Figure skater Ashley Wagner photographed at The Rinks Anaheim ICE in Anaheim, California on Wednesday
Eric Lutzens
New Zealand All Blacks center Malakai Fekitoa photographed on the Hawaii Island, Hawaii on Thursday
Eric Lutzens
Olympic freestyle skiing silver medalist Gus Kenworthy photographed at the Mammoth Mountain Ski Area in Mammoth Lakes, California
Eric Lutzens
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The ninth annual issue features athletes at the top of their sport stripping off for ESPN the Magazine
From snowcapped mountains in California to Hawaiian beaches, the world's biggest sports stars bared all for the 2017 ESPN the Magazine Body Issue. Check out their sexy covers and behind the scenes photo shoots for the special issue, which is themed "Every Body Has a Story."