Dave Portnoy is not going to lose sleep over Dan Rapaport leaving Barstool Sports.
Rapaport announced Thursday that he was leaving the outlet, and Portnoy reacted to the news on the “Unnamed Show” with co-hosts Kirk Minihane and Ryan Whitney.
Minihane asked Portnoy about comments Rapaport, who joined Barstool two years ago from Golf Digest, made about the company not seeking to grow as much as was the case when it was owned by PENN.
“I’m not obsessed with growing the company. What he said there is fair,” Portnoy, who bought the company back from Penn for $1 last year, said.
Minihane followed up, asking, “You’re not looking to make money?”
Portnoy responded, “I’ll always try to make money, but would I do the Korn Ferry? F–k no. That was a disaster, stupid thing to do. I wouldn’t have done it. There’s certain things I wouldn’t do. Like, well this isn’t going to work. I’m not going to spend money just to spend money, but if we can make money then of course, because everyone wants money and then we get back more money.
“I don’t mean this disrespectfully, OK? I don’t like Dan Rapaport, but I don’t not like Dan Rapaport. I have apathy toward Dan Rapaport. I wish him well. I have absolutely no ill will towards him. I would agree that Dan Rapaport is an unusual fit for us in the sense, he’s boring. And he came on through ‘Fore Play.’ They wanted him there, we signed him.”
“Fore Play” is the golf podcast hosted by Sam Riggs Bozoian, Trent Ryan and Frankie Borelli, and it is a property that generally gets to operate on an island at Barstool because the personalities found a niche the brand wasn’t previously hammering and have driven a lot of revenue through merchandise.
Portnoy, as he indicated before, was not crestfallen to see Rapaport leave.
“He has agents. They reached out to renew his contract. I wouldn’t say I treated that as though I was trying to re-sign Patrick Mahomes,” Portnoy said.
“I probably could have been a little more active.”
Portnoy said he would have re-signed Rapaport if the other “Fore Play” had aggressively clamored for it to get done.
“I’m beyond grateful for these last 2 years. What a life experience, man. Running around the world with an incredible group of guys on a bunch of golf adventures,” Rapaport wrote on X after announcing that Thursday’s podcast would be his last.
He thanked his co-hosts and the behind-the-scenes producers, and concluded, “Sometimes you just gotta follow your gut and that’s where I’m at right now. As for what’s next, I’m going to take a little time away and decompress (and maybe work on my own game!) before diving into my next journey. I *love* golf, I’m excited about where it’s headed and I remain committed to covering it in new and exciting ways. Hit it hard.”
