Rethinking Barstool?

jcd0805

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Big Cat and PFT need to jump to the mothership pronto it seems.
although I can't do high and mighty deadspin anymore, stuff like the stupid story on the NESN anchor is becoming more and more their content and I could do without their outrage over everything anymore.
 

DeJesus Built My Hotrod

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Ok, maybe it's because I am a fan of their work or maybe it's because I watched with my teenaged son but the opening installment of Van Talk was pretty funny. I don't know if they can sustain it (Scott Van Pelt is a good foil for Big Cat and PFT) but they definitely have some potentially amusing concepts with which to work. Lastly, I bet it was the early morning air time but the WWL surprisingly let these guys get some (for that network) questionable material get through. I wonder if that will continue but it certainly increases the chances that this show will reach the audience that ESPN so desperately seeks/needs these days. On the other hand, if they neuter the show, it will be gone well before Bowl season.
 

JCizzle

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Ok, maybe it's because I am a fan of their work or maybe it's because I watched with my teenaged son but the opening installment of Van Talk was pretty funny. I don't know if they can sustain it (Scott Van Pelt is a good foil for Big Cat and PFT) but they definitely have some potentially amusing concepts with which to work. Lastly, I bet it was the early morning air time but the WWL surprisingly let these guys get some (for that network) questionable material get through. I wonder if that will continue but it certainly increases the chances that this show will reach the audience that ESPN so desperately seeks/needs these days. On the other hand, if they neuter the show, it will be gone well before Bowl season.
I agree with your take. It was weird as hell, but somehow it worked. I was dying at the mystery box at the end, it was so random but they had genuine reactions to whatever the hell that was.
 

jcd0805

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I loved it too, agree that Van Pelt is great with them but Big Cat and PFT just bounce off each other so well I can't wait to hear what comes out of their mouths next. Hearing Big Cat's voice on the podcast today and him admitting filming a tv show is a lot more work than they'd thought makes me wonder how long they can keep doing 3 pods a week now though.
 

nighthob

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Big Cat and PFT need to jump to the mothership pronto it seems.
although I can't do high and mighty deadspin anymore, stuff like the stupid story on the NESN anchor is becoming more and more their content and I could do without their outrage over everything anymore.
To be brutally frank Deadspin is everything that's wrong with sports these days. Every time I make the mistake of clicking a link to a DS piece I'm treated to humorless outrage, comment threads full of people that take sports way too seriously (and not in a positive way), and just really toxic people for whom the Gaylord Perrys of the world are "literally worse than bin Laden!!!". Fuck Deadspin.
 

Red(s)HawksFan

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So they wanted a show with Barstool in the name, hosted by guys from Barstool but wanted to distance it from Barstool's site and content? And were shocked when they couldn't pull it off? What kind of dream world do these ESPN idiots live in?
 

JCizzle

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I wonder who the internal criticism is from, they've had some of ESPN's biggest personalities on their show and clearly have the strong backing of people like SVP and Russilo
 

DJnVa

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I wonder who the internal criticism is from, they've had some of ESPN's biggest personalities on their show and clearly have the strong backing of people like SVP and Russilo
Well based on twitter, the internal stuff was led by Sam Ponder.
 

Rusty13

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This is pretty pathetic, IMO. ESPN continues to step on rakes as they head down a downward spiral.
 

kelpapa

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Well based on twitter, the internal stuff was led by Sam Ponder.
Yea, Portnoy had a post and a video from a few years ago where he calls Ponder a slut, or alludes to it. She started a Twitter fight with Big Cat about it, accusing him of saying it. He didn't, but she was still pretty bullshit about Barstool employees working at ESPN.
 

Captaincoop

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I have always found Barstool pretty childish and stupid, but seriously, ESPN...you hired them and didn't see this coming? Mickey Mouse must be furious that he lets these guys spend his money.
 
Aug 24, 2017
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Exactly. Barstool panders to the lowest common denominator male (just peruse the posters here that love them in the other thread) but it shows a total lack of...well, anything resembling cohesion at ESPN.
 

kenneycb

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Exactly. Barstool panders to the lowest common denominator male (just peruse the posters here that love them in the other thread) but it shows a total lack of...well, anything resembling cohesion at ESPN.
So you've never actually listened to PMT and are just making broad brush assumptions about the show. Just want to clarify.
 
Aug 24, 2017
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I have never listened to the show and am making broad brush assumptions. Is it available via Podcast? If so I'll make you a deal. I will listen to a week's worth of episodes and give my honest opinion. If I have been steered wrong by the common assumption that it is trashy bro-culture then I will absolutely make amends.

Edit - Ok, found it. So I admitted in another thread that I find Michael Rapaport to be a guilty pleasure so I've downloaded that as my nightly episode tonight. I don't follow the NFL so I'm going to have to skip the very latest one which is about Week 7, but I've subscribed for a week.

Edit 2 - Fuck, the description of the website is a "men's lifestyle blog." What the hell have I gotten myself into?
 

Nator

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I have never listened to the show and am making broad brush assumptions. Is it available via Podcast? If so I'll make you a deal. I will listen to a week's worth of episodes and give my honest opinion. If I have been steered wrong by the common assumption that it is trashy bro-culture then I will absolutely make amends.

Edit - Ok, found it. So I admitted in another thread that I find Michael Rapaport to be a guilty pleasure so I've downloaded that as my nightly episode tonight. I don't follow the NFL so I'm going to have to skip the very latest one which is about Week 7, but I've subscribed for a week.

Edit 2 - Fuck, the description of the website is a "men's lifestyle blog." What the hell have I gotten myself into?
The episode from today features an interview with Dan Haren regarding the WS. It's not just about football.
 
Aug 24, 2017
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The episode from today features an interview with Dan Haren regarding the WS. It's not just about football.
This might actually be an interesting thread topic but as soon as the Red Sox are out the thought of baseball makes me sick to my stomach.
 

kelpapa

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Exactly. Barstool panders to the lowest common denominator male (just peruse the posters here that love them in the other thread) but it shows a total lack of...well, anything resembling cohesion at ESPN.
I'm sorry, but what specific posts are you referring to in the other thread? Please clarify who on this site you are calling the lowest common denominator.

I have never listened to the show and am making broad brush assumptions. Is it available via Podcast? If so I'll make you a deal. I will listen to a week's worth of episodes and give my honest opinion. If I have been steered wrong by the common assumption that it is trashy bro-culture then I will absolutely make amends.

Edit - Ok, found it. So I admitted in another thread that I find Michael Rapaport to be a guilty pleasure so I've downloaded that as my nightly episode tonight. I don't follow the NFL so I'm going to have to skip the very latest one which is about Week 7, but I've subscribed for a week.

Edit 2 - Fuck, the description of the website is a "men's lifestyle blog." What the hell have I gotten myself into?
 

jasail

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I've been a Stoolie since Dave was handing out papers outside South Station and I was taking the Red Line into work. I'm not going to deny that an element of the site is geared towards bros. That said, their reputation does not match up with the content on their site. Folks tend to paint broadly and believe that less than 5% of their content is representative of the site on a whole.

There are some good local sports writers. Thorton (while terrible on EEI) does a great weekly breakdown of Pats games, Greenberg does excellent work covering the C's and now the NBA, RA does good with for the B's and I like Carrabis on the Sox. Chaps is also a great contributor both as a humor blogger and with his military/current events podcast.

But among all the various personalities, the Pardon My Take boys are the best. They provide some solid written material, but the podcast is just a phenomenal blend of humor and sports (download, unsubscribe, resubscribe, rate five stars). It provides something that was missing from sports media until they came along (ht to SVP and Russilo who tried it years ago).

As a long-time fan, I have a strange vested interest in their success. They are my guys. While I am never going to be up at 1AM ET to watch a sports show, I was happy (dare I say even proud) that they were given this opportunity.

ESPN is well within their rights to cut the show to avoid controversy. They are a mainstream media company that wants to avoid controversy at all costs. However, they were desperate to appeal more to the M/18-35 demographic and it led to poor decision making. But this should have been figured before they signed the contract. This show should have never been green lit and ESPN looks terrible for it, particularly among that demo.

I feel for the PMT boys, but this won't be their last opportunity. They're too talented and hard working to fail. Plus, according to Twitter, the Mooch will be on soon to discuss jobs you had for less than two weeks and that will be gold.
 

soxfan121

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Skipper had a rethink about Barstool and then cancelled/fired the show.
 

DeJesus Built My Hotrod

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Skipper had a rethink about Barstool and then cancelled/fired the show.
That makes sense as they were mortal locks to start some sort of controversy were the show to continue. The truly silver lining is that the next podcast will have no shortage of material centered around the WWL and their all too brief time in Bristol.

BTW they had Rappaport on last Friday and he had a pretty reasonable take on his rift with Simmons. Then again, I like Rappaport's shtick so I may be cutting him too much slack.
 

jcd0805

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I wonder if they'll still be welcome to sit in on the set with Van Pelt and be on Rusillo's show? I can't get enough Big Cat and PFT, really disappointed their silly little show was cancelled.
 

NickEsasky

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That makes sense as they were mortal locks to start some sort of controversy were the show to continue. The truly silver lining is that the next podcast will have no shortage of material centered around the WWL and their all too brief time in Bristol.

BTW they had Rappaport on last Friday and he had a pretty reasonable take on his rift with Simmons. Then again, I like Rappaport's shtick so I may be cutting him too much slack.
I really don't think the bolded is true. The guys at PMT are hialrious and do satire amazingly well. They also don't really fit the Barstool "mold" that many people have. I can't stand Portnoy and think his reaction last week had a huge part in this ESPN decision, but Big Cat and PFT aren't wired the same way and were unlikely to cause any trouble for ESPN themselves.
 

DeJesus Built My Hotrod

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I really don't think the bolded is true. The guys at PMT are hialrious and do satire amazingly well. They also don't really fit the Barstool "mold" that many people have. I can't stand Portnoy and think his reaction last week had a huge part in this ESPN decision, but Big Cat and PFT aren't wired the same way and were unlikely to cause any trouble for ESPN themselves.
Did you watch the show? Just curious because - and maybe I am overanalyzing things - I thought they were close to the line for something to air on a ESPN property, even at 1am ET.

I agree they are far more subtle than their Barstool colleagues but they still get into territory that might easily offend those looking to be offended. And I say that knowing that the goal was to reach an audience that ESPN so desperately seeks these days.
 

luckiestman

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To be brutally frank Deadspin is everything that's wrong with sports these days. Every time I make the mistake of clicking a link to a DS piece I'm treated to humorless outrage, comment threads full of people that take sports way too seriously (and not in a positive way), and just really toxic people for whom the Gaylord Perrys of the world are "literally worse than bin Laden!!!". Fuck Deadspin.

I would like to subscribe to your newsletter.
 

kelpapa

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Two relevant twitter threads for Sterger:

People are going after Spain and retweeting a lot of stuff from pre 2012 for her as well.
 
Aug 24, 2017
397
I have never listened to the show and am making broad brush assumptions. Is it available via Podcast? If so I'll make you a deal. I will listen to a week's worth of episodes and give my honest opinion. If I have been steered wrong by the common assumption that it is trashy bro-culture then I will absolutely make amends.

Edit - Ok, found it. So I admitted in another thread that I find Michael Rapaport to be a guilty pleasure so I've downloaded that as my nightly episode tonight. I don't follow the NFL so I'm going to have to skip the very latest one which is about Week 7, but I've subscribed for a week.

Edit 2 - Fuck, the description of the website is a "men's lifestyle blog." What the hell have I gotten myself into?
I've listened to three episodes now. They are really smart, funny (very quick, the chemistry between them is fantastic) and host the kind of sports show that has been missing for years. I'm not a sports radio dude so it won't be in my regular rotation but the show is great, I understand why people like it and I was an ignorant buffoon to just hear "Barstool is stupid fraty humor" and assume it was true without every listening.

BTW my joke about the posters in that thread was just that, a joke. TFP, in particular, has been one of my favorite posters on this site for years. I still like to be funny.
 

johnmd20

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BTW my joke about the posters in that thread was just that, a joke. TFP, in particular, has been one of my favorite posters on this site for years. I still like to be funny.
Man, if that was a joke, it certainly didn't wear joke clothes, look like a joke, or act like a joke.
 
Aug 24, 2017
397
That's the brilliance of the joke. It's so intricately disguised as rude trolling for no reason in order to seek attention and elicit a reaction to feel that one is actually existing that most people miss the George Carlson-in-his-prime level comedic chops.
 

Marciano490

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Two relevant twitter threads for Sterger:

People are going after Spain and retweeting a lot of stuff from pre 2012 for her as well.
Ponder is right to be aggrieved by what Portnoy said about her, but she's said a lot of dumb stuff on her own, too. If I had a twitter, I'd only ever tweet out the time and temperature. Once a day. Nice and smooth.
 

kelpapa

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I've listened to three episodes now. They are really smart, funny (very quick, the chemistry between them is fantastic) and host the kind of sports show that has been missing for years. I'm not a sports radio dude so it won't be in my regular rotation but the show is great, I understand why people like it and I was an ignorant buffoon to just hear "Barstool is stupid fraty humor" and assume it was true without every listening.

BTW my joke about the posters in that thread was just that, a joke. TFP, in particular, has been one of my favorite posters on this site for years. I still like to be funny.
What was your screen name before and how did you get a lifetime membership on an account that was started two months ago?
 

Average Reds

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Has any UNC fan been banned lately to come back as someone new?
You know, I don't really have a problem with old members coming back with new identities after they've been banned. But one would think that they would learn from the experience and avoid sliding back into the old ways that led to the banning in the first place.

Anyway, thanks for the heads up. Should have put it together on my own.
 

TFP

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And Big Cat and PFT addressed it on today's PMT. Sounds like it was a pretty coordinated effort by some people within ESPN to take this down, and those people certainly don't have a moral high ground to stand on based on stuff from their past. ESPN leadership unsurprisingly didn't have the spine to stand behind their original decision to put this on the air. Everyone agreed that none of the stuff was new and if ESPN had a problem with it, they never should have greenlit the show in the first place.

I think they both come out of it looking very human, humble, and decent based on their reactions. They both seem like genuinely good people who wanted to make people laugh and are angry, heartbroken, and embarrassed at how this week went. I definitely feel for them. I would encourage folks interested in this to listen to the first 30 mins of today's Pardon My Take and judge for yourselves.

I don't really feel bad for Portnoy, ESPN, Sam Ponder, or any of the other supporting actors in this saga, at all.
 

PaulinMyrBch

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I’m guessing the ESPN brass knew what they were doing but the Disney brass was not particularly familiar with the Barstool content. Once it got relevant, they shut it down and the ESPN brass had to fall on the sword. But no matter what, ESPN erred here. Either not knowing or not being transparent with Disney.

I was actually surprised when I heard the show was announced as an ESPN slot. I legit thought it doesn’t mesh with the mouse and princesses. Take Sam Ponder out of the equation and it was still an odd move.
 

kelpapa

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And Big Cat and PFT addressed it on today's PMT. Sounds like it was a pretty coordinated effort by some people within ESPN to take this down, and those people certainly don't have a moral high ground to stand on based on stuff from their past. ESPN leadership unsurprisingly didn't have the spine to stand behind their original decision to put this on the air. Everyone agreed that none of the stuff was new and if ESPN had a problem with it, they never should have greenlit the show in the first place.

I think they both come out of it looking very human, humble, and decent based on their reactions. They both seem like genuinely good people who wanted to make people laugh and are angry, heartbroken, and embarrassed at how this week went. I definitely feel for them. I would encourage folks interested in this to listen to the first 30 mins of today's Pardon My Take and judge for yourselves.

I don't really feel bad for Portnoy, ESPN, Sam Ponder, or any of the other supporting actors in this saga, at all.
The whole episode was great. Dan Patrick was awesome. I thought the most interesting part discussed was about the name. Pft said he was against barstool being in the name, but big cat was not. That was a recent change that was pushed for by Portnoy. If barstool isn't in the name, they might still have a show.

Also, big cat(I think) talked about why he mostly stayed silent while Portnoy was tweeting last week. Seemed like that could be something that pisses him off as he looks back on it.
 

JCizzle

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I don't really feel bad for Portnoy, ESPN, Sam Ponder, or any of the other supporting actors in this saga, at all.
This is where I'm at too, it was unfair of Ponder to blame Big Cat for stuff that Portnoy wrote - even refusing to back down when people pointed out that she was clearly wrong. It was even stupider for Portnoy to say those things about her. I do feel bad for the PMT crew because they weren't held responsible for their own actions - they should be judged by that, not by the actions of other employees at their company.

I think everyone should have just handled it better by reaching out to BC/PFT directly - they could have diffused this whole thing with a five minute phone call.
 

allstonite

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I was actually surprised that they more blame on Portnoy than I ever thought they would, PFT more than Big Cat obviously. Good for them. He brought his company pretty far but if he can't keep his mouth shut as they're trying to get a wider audience he's going to end up costing a lot of people money. Even when he's right he can look awful.

I was also surprised to hear that it almost got pulled before the first episode aired. To discuss a show for 6 months, have it nearly taken away day of, finally go through with it, and then take it back again is really messed up. The people who don't deserve it got punished the most. ESPN looks awful in all of this even if it was Disney's decision.
 

CantKeepmedown

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I feel bad for both of them, but you have to imagine that some entity will swoop in and pick them up at some point, if they want it. Their podcast is universally praised. And they achieved decent numbers for a 1am time slot.

Big Cat must certainly feel some loyalty to Portnoy, but I wonder how long that lasts. PFT could land a gig anywhere, but probably knows he has a pretty good thing going with Big Cat and has to deal with the Barstool connection, for now at least. It will be interesting to see what their next move is.