Many of the top sports podcasts are hosted by existing media stars or athletes who built up their show almost as a side hustle, but the hosts of Pardon My Take do not fit that mold at all.
Dan “Big Cat” Katz and Eric “PFT Commenter” Sollenberger did not come from television or radio to launch a new digital endeavor. They were bloggers with smaller cult followings who became arguably the biggest hosts in the business. Also unlike their competitors, they did not turn PMT into a standalone business or content network. The hosts still sit under the Barstool Sports umbrella and are part of the company’s other shows.
That has led to a few bumps in the road for Big Cat and PFT Commenter. Within a year of the show launching, ESPN tried to poach them both in an experiment that resulted in just one episode of the star-crossed Barstool Van Talk. Later, PFT Commenter strongly considered leaving over a contract dispute. And of course, Barstool went through multiple equity deals and ownership changes to get to where it is today.
As PMT celebrates its 10th anniversary with a flashy (and hilariously unedited) new book, both hosts penned columns imagining what the future might look like for the podcast.
Despite the uncertainty that has faced the show in the past, both Big Cat and PFT Commenter agreed they have no plans to stop doing the show.
“The thing is that we all really enjoy talking to each other about sports and life and if that was the entire job we would probably pod til we die,” PFT writes. “We will probably try to retire at some point but then something crazy would happen in sports and I would hit up Big Cat to see if he wanted to hang out and talk about it.”
“If we quit the pod we could probably eventually just have a standing date every week to hang out and talk football. After doing the podcast every Monday morning at some diner for an entire year without recording it, we eventually go back to a once a week recording schedule which eventually turns into twice a week after Thursday Night Football, and then into three times a week during NBA and NHL playoffs.”
Later in the chapter, Big Cat offers a similar sentiment.
“I honestly don’t even want to think about ending Pardon My Take,” he writes. “I even thought about having this chapter be 1 word, ‘Never,’ because that’s how I feel. I never want it to end.”
He added:
“I never want to get off this ride. If I could script the perfect ending it would be to do PMT for 10, 15, 20 more years. To become the old guys that get mocked online, but still have people that love us. I know that there will be nothing in my professional life that will ever top this podcast.”
Earlier this year, PMT video episodes moved to Netflix on a lucrative deal, perhaps showing a new frontier the show could move into in the future. Big Cat now effectively runs Barstool day to day since Portnoy took it private and the company moved to Chicago. Shows like PMT are drawing in the audiences and money that used to go toward sports television, and the entire industry has caught up with how to create a business around a podcast.
Why would they stop?
About Brendon Kleen
Brendon is an Editorial Lead at Awful Announcing overseeing digital content and special projects. He lives in Phoenix and has covered sports media for Awful Announcing since 2023.