Dave Portnoy’s book, Cancel Me If You Can, was officially released on Tuesday. Ahead of the book’s release, the Barstool Sports founder spoke to Front Office Sports about why he decided to take on the arduous project, his talent-incubation philosophies, what drove Pat McAfee’s exit from Barstool, and how much longer the outlet will maintain an office in New York City.
Front Office Sports: You’re obviously very rich and famous. Writing a book takes a lot of time and emotional energy. What made you decide to want to do this?
Dave Portnoy: Well, it was kind of twofold. One, it was pitched to me. For whatever reason, ego—the idea of walking into an airport and seeing my book in the window, or in bookstores—appealed to me. I’m not sure why.
Two, when I agreed to do it, I thought I’d have a ghostwriter in Francis [Ellis], who works for me. We did have a ghostwriter—he wrote the entire book. It took around six to eight months. And then I read the first paragraph and I was like, “Oh my God, this is not going to work. It’s not my voice. It’s not me at all.”
So then I was too deep down. I had all these commitments, and I had to do it myself. I’m glad it’s over, but I would have never agreed to it if I knew what went into it.
FOS: Over the years, Barstool has been a pretty remarkable talent incubator, starting with Jenna Marbles, Call Her Daddy, Pat McAfee, Bussin’ With the Boys, everything you’ve got going on now from Pardon My Take on down. It’s pretty different things that have succeeded under the umbrella. What’s your overarching philosophy as you scout talent and cultivate it?
DP: We look for unusual, different, talented people. It’s harder now than it ever was, but people who are just doing things that are different than what we got or have seen out there. And then we just kind of let them run wild and do their own thing. It’s always been our philosophy, and it probably gave us an advantage over more standard networks in the beginning.
We don’t have producers [dictating] what it is. We hire people and let them follow what they think they’re good at and then we just throw resources at them.
FOS: What happened with Pat McAfee’s exit?
DP: He thought the business side disrespected him, so he felt he had to leave, was his version of events. I think he probably was always going to leave. He’s a super ambitious guy. Super talented guy. But that was the reason he publicly gave—that he couldn’t trust our business side anymore.
Now, I don’t think our business side did anything wrong. I think he kind of blew it out of proportion, but that is the reason he gave.
FOS: What was the interaction? That’s kind of always been a mystery to me.
DP: It had something to do with, he was late getting paid on something, like a commission check. In the inherent nature of how he was set up with us, we were almost partners, right? If he did a sales deal or we closed one for Pat, he would get 50% and Barstool would get 50% of it, I believe was the agreement. Whereas, if we sold something for Pardon My Take, Barstool gets 100%. So he had a natural distrust that if our sales department was going to a client, they’d always want the client to go to PMT. The structure created a little bit of a distrust.
Now, that wasn’t true at all. Our salespeople get full commission regardless of who they sell—they don’t get any different money—they just sold what was easiest. At the time, Pardon My Take is like a behemoth and he’s pretty much brand new. I know that sowed some of the discontent.
And then I put a guy to work with him, who also ended up quitting and hating our guts, or hating [former Barstool CEO] Erika [Ayers Badan]’s guts—Louis Roberts became his righthand man. That certainly didn’t help. So those were some of the factors, I’d say, quickly.
FOS: You mentioned Pardon My Take being a behemoth. Could you have imagined when that podcast started, about a decade ago, that we’d be here still and it’s No. 1, with no end in sight to its popularity and business side?
DP: No, I would’ve never seen that coming. But all of our smashes I don’t necessarily see coming. The fact that it’s been a decade straight, we’ve seen so many podcasts come and go, the fact that they’ve managed to stay really best friends, and continued to grow the thing, and stay under our umbrella, is really a tribute to them in a lot of ways.
FOS: Besides Dan Katz (Big Cat), who has been the best content hire in Barstool history?
DP: Damn … Jenna Marbles was probably the most famous. Alex Cooper is probably 2.
But in terms of helping Barstool and staying with us, it’s a great question. I hate to throw his name in there because he’ll read it, but Brandon Walker’s been a great hire and very Barstool. Obviously, PFT Commenter has to be up there. You don’t have PMT without PFT. I’d put them as the top two there.
In terms of people who have left, I love Bussin’ With the Boys [Will Compton and Taylor Lewan]. They were great and really bought into what we did.
FOS: Do you envision keeping an office in New York City for the long run?
DP: No.
FOS: How much longer do you think you’ll have it?
DP: At least through 2029, so we’ll see what everything looks like then.
FOS: I imagine it’s because of the city’s politics that you are planning on pivoting.
DP: Yeah, that’s certainly a major factor.
Now, if Dan was running the office in New York City and didn’t want to leave, I certainly wouldn’t want to overrule him. But I think we can probably pivot without angering too many people. Yeah, at some point you have to put what I feel is my morals up there. If we’re flying a Communist flag up here in three years, I probably don’t want to live in a Communist regime in New York City.
FOS: Is it still wild to you about a year after the Fox deal that you and Barstool are a part of the official Big Ten bumper coverage?
DP: Yes, that will always shock me, probably.
FOS: As we talk now, have things been eased with the Big Ten office, or is that still something you guys are going to have to work through?
DP: I’ve heard through the grapevine that maybe it’s eased. But nobody ever complains directly to me. I always kind of hear at the end of things. But I haven’t heard much on the home front lately, which I assume no news is good news.
FOS: Do you relish the idea of this book becoming potentially on the New York Times Best Sellers list after the way you’ve been covered by the outlet?
DP: I wish it was a different outlet that had the list. I feel like they’ve got me by the balls here because this list you have to try to get on as a book—I clearly hate them. So I don’t know if I relish it—it’s kind of ironic, if anything, but I wish it was a different organization that had the list. I wish it wasn’t them, but it is.
FOS: What do you want to do next that you haven’t done? What are your goals looking forward?
DP: I really don’t know. I never know what the next day will bring; I never know what opportunities will come forward. I should mention the book—I’m closing in on 50, and I’ve been doing Barstool for over half my life, which is kind of insane to think about. We’ll see. I’ve definitely taken a bit of a backseat [content-wise] since I got the company back, just making sure that it runs on the business side and is profitable and all that.
As long as we continue to do that, I’ll be happy to kind of steer the ship whichever way the wind blows.
FOS: If Penn hadn’t sold the company back to you, do you think you would’ve left at the end of your contract?
DP: Yeah, 100 percent.
FOS: What would you have done instead?
DP: Probably retrenched to the same cities I’m in, and just worried about myself. I still need money; I still need to go buy horses—which is expensive. I’ve built a big enough brand to … probably be more financially lucrative if it was just myself.
FOS: You do have a reputation for paying above industry standard. What goes into this idea, not necessarily of overpaying, but making sure a lot of the talents that work for you are taken care of in that sense?
DP: I’ve always, in my mind, treated our employees fairly and then some, and then they return loyalty. But I don’t know, it’s just doing the right thing. Like, if we’re making money, we give a lot of it back to employees, whether that’s salaries or big bonuses at the end of the year. But I want everyone to feel like they’re in this together and have it be a happy place to work.
