ESPN Ends Barstool Sports Partnership After 10 Days; Sam Ponder Speaks Out

On Monday, ESPN announced its cancellation of a partnership with controversial sports news outlet Barstool Sports that lasted just ten days during which one episode aired.

ESPN-Barstool partnership news

“Effective immediately, I am canceling Barstool Van Talk,” ESPN President John Skipper wrote in a statement. “While we had approval on the content of the show, I erred in assuming we could distance our efforts from the Barstool site and its content.”

Barstool has become renown for its uncouth, incendiary and even sexist coverage of sports. The television show on ESPN was based on Barstool’s “Pardon My Take” podcast.

Featuring podcast hosts Dan Katz and the pseudonymous “PFT Commenter,” the first episode aired on ESPN2 last Wednesday at 1 a.m. ET.

Sam Ponder, the host of ESPN’s “Sunday NFL Countdown,” recently tweeted screenshots of Barstool articles that featured vulgar and derogatory remarks about her.

The blog post Ponder shared was taken from a 2014 Barstool post in which the writer told the host to “go f— herself” after Ponder commented about the Ray Rice domestic violence case.

“Welcome to the ESPN family @BarstoolBigCat (& welcome to all ur minions who will respond to this so kindly),” Ponder captioned her tweet.

Katz claimed he did not write the post and suggested it was Barstool’s founder, David Portnoy. Portnoy called Ponder a “slut” and called her daughter “ugly” in a 2014 show.

“No person who watches GameDay wants to see a picture of her and her ugly kid. Nobody cares, Sam Ponder. We want to see you sex it up and be slutty and not be some prude f—ing jerk who everybody hates,” Portnoy says in the clip. “Sam Ponder, you f—ing slut. I don’t want you at these games being super-prude and talking about God and religion and how your kid is so awesome and breastfeeding when I’m watching GameDay.”

Barstool has insulted several other female ESPN employees, and has also lambasted many of the network’s NFL reporters for their coverage of the New England Patriots and Deflate-gate.

After one Twitter user asked why Ponder didn’t raise her concerns in 2014, she replied that she was afraid of reprisals. “I selfishly didn’t say anything 3 yrs ago (or in response to their stuff abt other women) bc like many women in this industry, I was afraid of more attacks from their followers. Working for the same company now gave me more courage,” wrote Ponder.

Last year Portnoy sold 51 percent of Barstool to Peter Chernin’s Chernin Digital Group, at a valuation of between $10 million and $15 million. Chernin brought on a chief executive, Erika Nardini, who previously worked at AOL and other media companies.

ESPN has lately undergone a rough patch. In April, the network laid off around 100 employees and suspended Sports Center anchor Jemele Hill following a Twitter-rant against President Donald Trump and those opposed to NFL players kneeling for the national anthem.

Barstool was denied credentials for Super Bowl LI earlier this year after its staffers protested the NFL’s handling of Deflate-gate, and commissioner Roger Goodell said he was “not familiar” with the Barstool ban. Former Indianapolis Colts punter Pat McAfee — who retired in February — said he planned to work for Barstool.

NEW YORK, NY – APRIL 25: Sportscaster Samantha Ponder poses for a picture as Sportiqe and ESPN host a NBA Playoff Party at Bloomingdale’s 59th Street Store on April 25, 2013 in New York City. (Photo by Mike Coppola/Getty Images for Sportique)