Barstool Sports founder Dave Portnoy has been known for taking plenty of public shots at powerful sports executives, perhaps most notably NFL commissioner Roger Goodell. The latest target in his crosshairs is PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan, with Portnoy going off on Monahan Tuesday following that tour’s unexpected partnership with the LIV Golf series it had previously and repeatedly bashed. But, unlike many of Monahan’s current critics, the key issue for Portnoy (seen at left above) is not Monahan (seen at right above) making the deal he did. Instead, it’s him doing so after making so many public criticisms of LIV Golf and its financial sponsor, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund:
This is why you should never lie. People may not like the truth but they'll respect you for saying it. This commish of the PGA comes out looking like the biggest scumbag of all ranting and raving about 9/11 only to merge with Liv an hour later. What a piece of shit. pic.twitter.com/XEaYP4VJJd
— Dave Portnoy (@stoolpresidente) June 6, 2023
In that video, Portnoy goes on to say that he’d even consider moving Barstool to Saudi Arabia if the money was right, but it would have to be really right. Here’s a writeup of that from Jenna Lemoncelli of The New York Post:
“I am so sick of this PGA commissioner talking about 9/11,” Portnoy said in a video attached to his tweet.
“Buddy, it’s about the money. It’s only about the money. You know it’s about the money.”
Portnoy went on to say that he would consider moving Barstool’s headquarters to Saudi Arabia.
“I’m not saying — well I am saying, if Saudi Arabia is like, ‘Dave, I’m going to give you one billion dollars to move Barstool’s headquarters to Saudi Arabia and you only have to be here one day a year, I will do that so fast, it’ll make your f–kin head spin,” Portnoy said.
He added that if an offer included five million, he’d say, “You guys are morally f–king corrupt, I want no part of that.”
Portnoy has a point there, at least insofar as he’s always been willing to say much of what he thinks. That’s even led to some seeming public criticisms of Barstool parent Penn Entertainment. (He did offer some defenses of that company later, though.) Portnoy’s own long-termfuture with Barstool and Penn is uncertain, though, with him revealing last month his contract is up towards the end of next year and he’s not sure if it will be renewed. And it’s interesting to see him continue to be so blunt about powerful figures in sports amidst that, and to see him bash Monahan (who’s taking fire from many quarters) over hypocrisy. (It’s also interesting to see Portnoy admit that while he has objections to Saudi Arabia’s government, he’d overlook those for enough money.)
[The New York Post; Portnoy photo from his Twitter page, December 2022 Monahan photo from Alex Gould/The Columbus Dispatch, via USA Today Sports]
