The greatest rivalry in sports history has been fueled by COVID19
- Gino Fornaro
- May 11, 2020
- 4 min read
Ladies and Gentleman, last night we found out some breaking news. What is now probably "old news" to most is something that I am looking forward to as much as I possibly could be: Roger Goodell will be forced to allow Dave Portnoy into his home to watch a Monday Night Football game next season. This could not be better. Google Goodell's name right now and you are flooded with "Top Stories" regarding this rivalry. Dave Portnoy is an internet icon. The founder of Barstool Sports took it upon himself to win a bidding war of COVID-19 related charity to get full access to the Goodell "Man Cave". What most non-Stoolie's are finding out via Twitter is that this is going to be a watch party for the ages. Dave Portnoy hates Roger Goodell more than Winnie the Pooh loves honey. Although that comparison doesn't do enough justice, it is so true. I have been a huge follower of Barstool Sports since early 2014, and being a Boston Sports Fan, it is easy to adopt all the sports ideals that Dave Portnoy has. Looking at his unlikely success story, it is easy to thoroughly love or hate Portnoy. Sure, he is basically just an asshole on the internet, but he is so much more than that, and you can learn that by watching the Barstool Documentary series and learn more about the way Portnoy became an internet celebrity and icon. Now, most people who don't follow El Presidente on social media accounts probably know few things about him: he reviews pizza, he founded Barstool Sports, and he is just another sports crazed Masshole. For those three reasons, but for many more, I love Portnoy and he is on my personal Mount Rushmore of Internet personalities.
Portnoy's walk to glory has had many bumps in the road. After the "Deflatgate", which I don't have to explain, New England Patriots Quarterback, six time Super Bowl winner, and four time Super Bowl MVP award winner, Tom Brady, was sentenced to serve a four game suspension at the start of the 2015 season. Before it was all said and done, the allegations and proposed suspensions against Brady were harsh. Science proved that there was no benefit to Tom Brady, and that the Commissioner was actually the one benefitting because he was able to suspend a player that he had previous beef with for sometime... I don't want to get into the science behind it because I don't remember much about it other than Brady was held accountable for giving the defense a better chance of catching an interception with the deflated footballs. Portnoy stood outside the courthouse before the Brady vs. NFL case and proceeded to compare Goodell to Hitler.
Now this is where things get super interesting and Portnoy's hate for Goodell continues to grow. After the hearing and Brady's sentence of a four-game suspension, Dave Portnoy, and three of his subordinates at Barstool took it upon themselves to handcuff each other and literally sat in NFL HQ until they were arrested.
He quite literally got arrested and spent a night in jail all because of Roger Goodell. His twitter avi for the past five or so years is his mugshot that he got when sent to prison by the NFL... this is the face of a man who spent a night in jail and is now filled with rage because of one man:
An iconic image was born because of the suspension of Tom Brady (and for the hatred that Portnoy has for the NFL commissioner):
The iconic Barstool Apparel flew off the printing press in the Barstool Sports store. To this day there is no doubt in my head this is one of the most iconic pieces of Barstool clothing. It was on Towels, T-Shirts, Hats, and just about anything that was allowed inside an NFL game.
Basically, in order to donate to COVID-19 efforts, the NFL held an auction where the highest bidder would be welcomed into Goodell's home to watch a MNF game alongside the commissioner. Portnoy essentially was going to stop at nothing to be able to dangle a camera in Goodell's face for four hour's:
If you are familiar with El Pres, you know that he has these "emergency press conferences" when something significant in his life (or at Barstool) happens. Yesterday, we had an emergency press conference that Portnoy won the auction to be able to sit alongside Goodell and spend an entire four hours alongside his nemesis over their love of sport:
Portnoy plays it off like he is just here to donate to a good cause, and you have to love that spin zone. However, Portnoy sends out this 2 minute long video wearing a "Fire Goodell" hat, and the iconic Goodell Clown shirt, just to show that he is going to have a personal FireFest in Goodell's basement.
I CANNOT WAIT to see how this goes down. Somehow, I know that Goodell is going to try his best to not allow Portnoy to bring in camera's or get under his skin, but Portnoy didn't spend $250k to be able to actually watch a game with Goodell, like many things that Portnoy does, he put $250k down for content (and OBVIOUSLY for the Corona Virus...).
If nothing else, and somehow no content comes out from the "Goodell Man Cave" we at least got this hilarious video meme of "Pres vs. Commissh":
If you want to know the true hatred for Goodell that Portnoy has, spend 25 minutes of your time getting to know "The Brady Bunch":
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