Dave Portnoy insists Barstool Sports isn’t being run by “woke overlords” amid concerns over a bubbling rift between him and Penn Entertainment. And while that may very well be true, there most certainly appears to be a rift between the Barstool Sports founder and a now former employee.
On Monday, Portnoy announced the departure of another Barstool personality.
This is the second instance of Portnoy doing so in the past few months, but this time around, it doesn’t appear that his hand was forced by the parent company. On Monday’s edition of Barstool Rundown, Portnoy announced that the “wild, tumultuous career of Jeff Nadu is over at Barstool.”
The wild tumultuous career of Jeff Nadu is over at Barstool https://t.co/JwTLhRkbXI pic.twitter.com/1rffbMQS3x
— Dave Portnoy (@stoolpresidente) June 5, 2023
Last week, Portnoy announced he was hiring former Barstool personality Ben Mintz as the first employee of his Brick Watch Company. The hire came less than one month after Penn Entertainment fired Mintz from Barstool Sports for saying a racial slur while reading a song lyric during a live stream.
It doesn’t appear that like Mintz, Nadu will ever be back in any capacity. Portnoy insisted that he harbored no “ill will” towards Nadu before saying that if he saw him get hit by a car, he would not stop to call an ambulance or help him up.
“Not because I hate him,” Portnoy explained. “Because there’s nobody who’s just more for himself and dumb. And it’s like, I can’t risk getting a fingernail broken pressing 9-1-1… Again, I don’t hate him. I don’t.”
Portnoy maintained that when Barstool let Nadu back into the company, he signed a two-year deal with the company. Nadu had previously quit and according to Portnoy, “begged” to come back to Barstool. The deal, as Portnoy goes on to explain, was a one-year deal with an option for a second year.
“I think we gave him about a $10,000 raise,” Portnoy said. “He says, ‘I expected my contract to be doubled.’ I think he wanted $200,000 a year.”
“I’m like, ‘You signed a contract. You fulfill your contract, and at the end of your contract we’ll discuss what you want,’” he added.
Portnoy said that Barstool is not in the business of handing out 100% raises, so they were more than happy to let Nadu walk. It also was revealed that Barstool does not make money off of Nadu’s The Sit Down: A Crime History Podcast. Portnoy said that Nadu’s podcast did “OK,” so, there was no real reason for him to be seeking a raise of that magnitude.
“He’s the most ungrateful, selfish pig I’ve ever met probably, really,” Portnoy said.
Nadu responded to Portnoy’s comments on Twitter, saying that he was betting on himself amidst retweeting tweets of support:
A lot of people think they know but in the end I will bet on myself any day. You can hate on me and think you know but very few would do what I did. Keep saying I can’t
— BIG MAN ON CAMPUS (@JeffNadu) June 6, 2023
Whether Portnoy was joking or not, Katz said he thought Nadu could be back. It didn’t take long for the kibosh to be put on that idea.
“No, no, he’s dead, Dan,” Portnoy added. “Dan, he’s dead. I can’t deal with this guy anymore…He’s the most narcissistic person in the world, and that’s saying a lot.”
[Barstool Rundown; photo from Matt Stone/Courier Journal/USA TODAY NETWORK]
