Does Dan Le Batard hate Barstool Sports? Dave Portnoy seems to think so.
During Thursday’s episode of The Unnamed Show, Portnoy, Kirk Minihane and Ryan Whitney expressed amazement that Spittin’ Chiclets co-host Keith Yandle served as a guest on the previous day’s episode of The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz. Considering Le Batard’s apparent disdain for his company, Portnoy and his co-hosts theorized that the Meadowlark Media co-founder was unaware of Yandle’s Barstool affiliation.
“I’m pretty sure he’s on the record as [he] hates us,” Portnoy said of Le Batard. “… I Googled it. This guy hates us… he’s always just taking shots. I don’t think I’ve said much about him.”
Minihane noted that he’s had issues of his own with Le Batard dating back to his time as a host at WEEI and accused the ex-ESPN star of complaining about his show to the station’s program director. Portnoy added that he saw multiple comments on a clip of Yandle’s appearance questioning whether Le Batard knew who the Spittin’ Chiclets host worked for.
The show proceeded to play a clip from Yandle’s appearance, in which Le Batard could be seen and heard laughing uncontrollably over the former Florida Panthers defenseman’s admission that Vijay Singh is his least favorite athlete of all time. After the show spent an extended period of time mocking Le Batard’s laugh, Whitney then called Yandle, who said he was totally unaware of any issues between the former Miami Herald columnist and Barstool.
“I’ve never really gone on the offensive with them. He just hates us and mentions it all the time,” Portnoy reiterated before noting Le Batard’s personal and professional relationship with John Skipper, who has had issues of his own with Barstool. “… He’s like a broken brain guy. He views everything in politics really strongly, so I think that is a lot of it.”
While there isn’t any reason to think that Le Batard likes Portnoy, the idea that he “hates” him might be a bit hyperbolic as there hasn’t been any true public beef between the two sides. Perhaps the closest came this past January, when Le Batard called attention to Barstool helping rehabilitate Jon Gruden’s image, prompting Portnoy to refer to the 56-year-old as a “self righteous jackass.”
To Portnoy’s point, however, the idea of Le Batard inviting a Barstool Sports personality onto his show was a bit surprising, although perhaps not as shocking as he made it out to be. But based on Thursday’s segment, don’t expect many Barstool-Meadowlark Media crossovers in the near future, even as both sports media companies have a mutual connection via their respective DraftKings partnerships.
About Ben Axelrod
Ben Axelrod is a veteran of the sports media landscape, having most recently worked for NBC's Cleveland affiliate, WKYC. Prior to his time in Cleveland, he covered Ohio State football and the Big Ten for outlets including Cox Media Group, Bleacher Report, Scout and Rivals.