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Dave Portnoy: Penn National Considered Changing Name To Barstool

“With all of the baggage we have, me personally, I guess that was probably the right move not to do it.”

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Last week, Penn National announced that it had a deal to acquire the remaining 64% of Barstool Sports that it did not already own. Barstool’s founder and president Dave Portnoy says that announcement was more of a PR trick than actual news.

“This, to me, unless I was missing something, is very much old news packaged as new news,” he said on the latest episode of the Dave Portnoy Show with Eddie & Co. “Like, I knew the dates the second we did the deal. They always intended on buying it all.”

The deal is set to close in 2023. Barstool Eddie, Portnoy’s co-host, said that the announcement is akin to a team holding a press conference to introduce a player that it had already been reported was joining the team.

Portnoy agreed. He said literally nothing changes regarding the day-to-day operations of Barstool. In fact, this was such a non-issue that he did not know a major announcement was coming.

“I didn’t even get a call regarding this latest announcement. The changes that happen [for Barstool] already were enacted.”

Penn National Gaming has acquired both Barstool and TheScore since 2021. Portnoy says that is Penn, a company he called “an old school company” embracing entertainment over traditional casino operations.

He said that evolution nearly put the Barstool brand front and center.

“At one point, I think there was thinking of turning the name of the company to Barstool, but with all of the baggage we have, me personally, I guess that was probably the right move not to do it.”

According to Dave Portnoy, he already believes he is an employee of Penn National. The only change he believes is coming to the Barstool offices is the day Penn National officially takes over the remaining 64% of the company, any employees holding shares of Barstool will get a nice payday.

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Dan Le Batard: ‘Does Sports Media Care if Interviews Are Done Well?’

“An exclusive interview with Ja Morant, who hasn’t talked to anybody after his controversy, is going to get eyeballs, so it doesn’t matter how good it actually is.”

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Mike Greenberg had praise for Jalen Rose this week. He said that no one but his ESPN colleague could have handled the interview with Ja Morant that has been airing on the network. Dan Le Batard has the exact opposite opinion of what he saw.

“What I saw was soft and didn’t seem to serve anybody except ESPN,” Le Batard said on his Thursday show. “This seems to be a lot of people around the economy of basketball and Ja Morant orchestrating an interview so Ja Morant can move onto the next stage of his branding.”

Whereas Greenberg thought the shared experience of an NBA career made Rose more likely to get answers from Morant, Le Batard said it created a problem. He accused Rose of letting Morant get away with using “talking points” in lieu of answering any actual questions about the string of erratic behavior and disturbing incidents the Memphis Grizzlies star has been involved with.

It wasn’t the only interview that Dan Le Batard pointed to. He noted that Pat McAfee’s interview with Aaron Rodgers may have drawn an audience of nearly half a million, but very little substance was offered.

“Does anybody in the audience, in sports fandom, or even, at this point, in sports media companies, care in a real and legitimate way whether the interview is done well or not?”

He added that the standard has changed for these interviews because the goal has changed. They are no longer about journalism as much as they are about branding, particularly in the case of ESPN’s exclusive interview with Ja Morant.

“An exclusive interview with Ja Morant, who hasn’t talked to anybody after his controversy, is going to get eyeballs, so it doesn’t matter how good it actually is,” Le Batard concluded. “All you need, if you’re the media partner, is please get me the famous guy to sit down.”

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Jomboy, Aaron Boone Partner For Weekly Podcast Appearance

“I thought it was a really interesting opportunity, and a cool idea. These guys have been innovators in this business and they’ve built a massive, young following.”

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It isn’t unusual for a professional sports team to partner with a local radio station for weekly interviews with team personnel. Even though Jomboy Media is a digital outlet, it didn’t stop the company from inking a deal to have Yankees manager Aaron Boone on one of its signature podcasts.

In a move announced Thursday, Jomboy Media has signed a deal for Boone to appear on its popular Talkin’ Yanks podcast — hosted by founder Jimmy O’Brien and Jake Storiale — once a week throughout the baseball season.

“I thought it was a really interesting opportunity, and a cool idea. These guys have been innovators in this business and they’ve built a massive, young following,” Boone told The New York Post. “I think Jimmy and Jake are both really good guys. And they’re passionate about what they do, and they love the Yankees. And, sometimes they’re a little misguided and it’s my chance to set the record straight every now and then.”

Previously, Boone had a weekly spot on 98.7 ESPN New York’s The Michael Kay Show, which reportedly paid him six figures.

“It’s going to be really fun and it kind of goes with the changing landscape of media,” O’Brien said. “The fact that two fans can create a show and in five years get to the point where they get to ask questions to the manager of the Yankees and bring whatever insight we can get out of that to our audience — it is pretty wild, a little surreal.”

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Sports Media Reacts to Aaron Rodgers Telling Adam Schefter ‘Lose My Number’

“Here are some of the best responses from Schefter’s sports media colleagues to the tweet.”

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Quarterback Aaron Rodgers appeared on The Pat McAfee Show on Wednesday and revealed that if he gets his way, his time with the Green Bay Packers is done. He intends to play for the New York Jets in 2023.

Rodgers told McAfee that the hang-up lies with Green Bay, which is trying to determine the appropriate compensation for trading for a first-ballot Hall of Famer.

Rodgers also revealed that he had an interaction with ESPN NFL insider Adam Schefter. Schefter, who was obviously digging as much as he could to get the scoop on what was going on with Rodgers’ future, texted Rodgers trying to confirm the information he had.

“I didn’t respond to Dianna Russini I think her name is,” Rodgers said. “But I would say the same thing that I told Schefty. Lose my number. Nice try.”

Upon hearing Rodgers’ account, Schefter followed up with a screenshot of Rodgers responding exactly how he said, and that sent social media into a whirlwind.

Here are some of the best responses from Schefter’s sports media colleagues to the tweet:

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