Bussin’ With The Boys has a few weeks left as a Barstool Sports property.
After that, Will Compton and Taylor Lewan will take one of the most popular sports podcasts independent (with a massive FanDuel sponsorship) because of a deal they couldn’t turn down. The duo of ex-NFLers didn’t want to leave the company founded by Dave Portnoy, but when Barstool was unable to come within 40 percent of FanDuel’s offer, Compton and Lewan followed a long line of former Barstool personalities who had grown beyond what the company could afford to pay them — Pat McAfee, Jared Carrabis and Alex Cooper, to name a few.
While bygones were bygones, they were until Lewan asked Patrick Mahomes a question at Super Bowl Media Day. He implored the Kansas City Chiefs quarterback to come on BWTB now that they were no longer associated with Barstool. Mahomes indicated that they had improved their chances. And Portnoy took Lewan’s framing of the question as a slight.
It hadn’t occurred to him that Mahomes had a problem with Barstool — like at all.
“I was surprised that he did not know Mahomes didn’t like Barstool,” Compton said.
“Dave did not understand that Patrick is openly not a fan of Barstool Sports,” Lewan added. “And when he was confused about it, it’s like, ‘Dave, just watch what your company posts.’ Because it’s like one thing if the New York Times or whatever is like, ‘Patrick Mahomes’ family might be a distraction for Patrick Mahomes and his success in the NFL.’ That would be a title that a mainstream company would put on.
“Barstool Sports would be like, ‘Patrick Mahomes’ brother should go to prison for the way he dances on TikTok.’ ‘His wife’s a b*tch.’ Just saying super, very Barstool things. And so, obviously, he’s going to be upset by that. But once Dave was like, ‘I didn’t know that Pat hated us, and Big Cat literally told me,’ I was like, ‘Well, yeah, that’s the phrasing of the question.”
Compton indicated that Mahomes has been close to coming on BTWB before; he was on Pardon My Take with Anthony Sherman back in 2019.
“Back when you said, ‘Will you follow Will back?’ there was a time where you had even called him and congratulated him on that contract,” Compton told his cohost. “We had asked him a couple of times [in] a couple of different years. The first time, he was down, and it ultimately didn’t work out. And the second time it came back around, that’s when he had unfollowed, and ultimately, his side just kind of went dark on us. And then the response we got back was, ‘He’s not going on anything Barstool.'”
Compton thought it was well known around the company, especially with Dan Katz (Barstool Big Cat) saying as much as, “Oh, yeah, he hates us,” according to Lewan.
“Again, when we were at the dinner with Dave, ‘I’m legitimately surprised you didn’t know he wasn’t messing with Barstool,'” Compton added. “We had even gotten close before. So, that’s why even the context of the question, even on our story and journey with Mahomes, too; he was close to coming on, and ultimately, he was choosing not to do anything Barstool-related.”
Lewan didn’t know there would be any hard feelings on the Barstool side of things. There were many, including an NSFW rant by Portnoy that involved him angrily joking about Lewan having Mahomes’ c*ck down his throat and his “cum on his face.”
“Obviously, the phrasing of the question could’ve been different,” said Lewan. “I didn’t know in my mind that I was going to hurt anyone’s feelings on the Barstool end. Truly, 100 percent, that was a genuine thought process. I reiterated that to Dave at dinner and actually sent him a text on our flight back… Would never intentionally try to or hurt the look of Barstool Sports, so Patrick Mahomes would come on our show.
“But in the words of Dave Portnoy, ‘Numbers are numbers.’ That sh*t did go crazy.”
