Disney CEO Bob Iger once said that he enjoys watching Dave Portnoy’s pizza review videos.
The Barstool founder does not appreciate his viewership.
Portnoy ripped into ESPN Thursday following the news that the Worldwide Leader and Penn Entertainment mutually agreed to end their 10-year partnership. Portnoy, whose Barstool Sports was previously owned by Penn, saw the end of the arrangement as a massive win for the gambling company.
“It just didn’t work. The deal just didn’t work at all,” Portnoy said. “They paid a lot of money to get results — big results from ESPN — and they weren’t even close. I’d argue [Barstool] was more successful when we were pushing and trying than ESPN was. So I think today’s a good day for Penn after a lot of bad days.”
Portnoy repurchased Barstool from Penn for $1 before the company signed that deal with ESPN.
It’s one of many business arrangements in which his company and the Disney-owned sports network have overlapped, and he has often taken great pleasure in their failures or miscues. He said as much during Thursday’s The Unnamed Show, including taking a pretty personal shot at Iger.
“I despise ESPN, and don’t want anything to work out for them,” said Portnoy. “I don’t like Bob Iger, I’ll tell you that much. Bob Iger said in a New York Times article… ‘a sneaky pet peeve of mine is to watch Dave’s pizza reviews.’ I wish I could take a piece of pizza and slap him across the face with it, so sauce is left all over his face and burns his skin.”
That’s gotta sting for Iger, figuratively and literally, though Portnoy may have internalized the specifics of the Disney CEO’s admission. As part of a rapid-fire series of questions in a NY Times profile, he was asked whether he loves Portnoy’s pizza reviews, and responded, “Yes.” There was nothing about it being a “sneaky pet peeve,” as Portnoy implied.
Portnoy reiterated that he would do a pizza review with Iger, “provided I can slap him across the face with a… scalding hot piece of pizza.” He also claimed that he’s heard behind the scenes that the Disney head honcho has said negative things about Barstool.
“You just hear whispers of things he said about us and Barstool Sports that I don’t care for,” said Portnoy. “I have no confirmation. There’s certain things that I can’t say or won’t say.”
It’s hard to imagine Portnoy is holding back when it comes to what he has to say about ESPN or Disney, but perhaps one day we’ll find out what’s too spicy for even him to share.