Over its two decades as a sports media outlet, Barstool Sports has ruffled a few feathers.
That’s likely to continue now that Dave Portnoy’s company will be featured front-and-center on Fox Sports programming, including a daily Barstool-run show on FS1 and Portnoy himself appearing as a weekly panelist on the Big Noon Kickoff college football pregame show. Feather ruffling is part of the brand, and Portnoy likely did just that to several people in Central Ohio during his announcement of the news on Thursday.
But it’s one thing to get under the skin of Ohio State fans. It’s one thing to antagonize NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell — something that has been a calling card for Portnoy for years — than to get in bed with one of the league’s primary broadcast partners. However, that’s what happened, and it appears the NFL approved it.
According to a report by Michael McCarthy in Front Office Sports, “the NFL likely blessed Fox’s deal with Barstool.” It’d make sense that Fox would want to run this partnership with the NFL, as the league supplies the network’s most important programming and has frequently been in Portnoy’s crosshairs. Fox wouldn’t want to enter this deal if it thought there was a risk of upsetting the NFL.
The NFL was not mentioned in Fox’s press release announcing the deal. Instead, the network looked to highlight Barstool’s fit with its college football and college basketball properties. However, given that Barstool will be airing a daily show on FS1 from 8 a.m. to 10 a.m. ET, it’s all but certain the NFL will be a big topic of discussion.
If the Barstool-Fox deal is anything like the Pat McAfee-ESPN deal, don’t expect the Barstool founder to filter his NFL opinions just because he’s on Fox’s airwaves. This is likely more a sign of where legacy media is these days, and the NFL is aware of it. Dave Portnoy is going to say whatever he wants about the NFL anyway, where he says it isn’t so important.
McAfee has spent his fair share of afternoons ripping ESPN on its own airwaves, and the network believes he’s been an enormous success. Fox would like to replicate that, and even the NFL can acknowledge it’s all just noise at the end of the day.
About Drew Lerner
Drew Lerner is a staff writer for Awful Announcing and an aspiring cable subscriber. He previously covered sports media for Sports Media Watch. Future beat writer for the Oasis reunion tour.