Dave Portnoy Claims Bosses Forced Him to Fire Employee Ben Mintz for Singing N-Word During Live Podcast

Barstool Sports President Dave Portnoy claims he was forced by parent company PENN Entertainment to fire longtime employee Ben Mintz for singing the n-word during a live podcast.

The incident took place on Monday edition of Mintz’s podcast, Wake Up With Mintzy, where he was rapping lyrics off his phone and said the n-word. Mintz, a professional poker player, also co-hosted the popular podcast Cracking Aces, also produced by Barstool. Mintz was immediately apologetic and took to Twitter to discuss the situation directly.

“This morning, I made an unforgivable mistake slipping on air while reading a song lyric. I meant no harm & have never felt worse about anything. I apologize for my actions. I am truly sorry & ashamed of myself,” Mintz wrote.

On Wednesday, Portnoy announced that after speaking with Barstool’s new parent company, PENN Entertainment, which acquired the brand in February 2023, no apology would save Mintz’s job.

Portnoy uploaded an “Emergency Press Conference” to announce that “Ben Mintz has left the building.”

“He read it. He knew he fucked up. He’s been super apologetic, like in shambles, basically. I think anybody who watched the clip was like, ‘There’s no way he meant to do that.’ He’s just not the brightest bulb to ever come down the pipe. And he just screwed up. And he knew he screwed up. And there was no hatred behind it. No nothing. Still awful, but not in my wildest dreams did I think I’d be sitting here being like, we had to fire Ben Mintz,” Portnoy said.

He revealed that the parent company PENN Entertainment felt differently about the entire situation.

“I’ve been fighting tooth and nail — this is the wrong decision. But PENN operates in a world that we don’t operate in it. They are highly regulated by the government. They’re issued licenses for gambling that just as easily as they’re issued, they can be pulled back. And for anybody who has followed any of the states and Penn trying to get legalized and things like that, one thing’s clear. A lot of people hate my guts. They fucking hate me. They hate Barstool. And they look for any lever, any excuse, anything to cause problems for us and pull the licenses,” he explained.

Portnoy said PENN Entertainment has a zero-tolerance policy and believed it could lead to more damage to the business as a whole if it was not addressed.

“I still disagree with it, and maybe I’m naive. I’m like, there is just no way anybody can look at that clip and think the punishment fits the crime. It makes my skin crawl, thinking a guy would lose their job on an innocent mistake,” Portnoy said.

As Barstool fans reacted to the shocking news, many began to call Portnoy a sell out for bending to the whim of PENN Entertainment. This prompted another video reply from the Barstool President.

“So I get every Tom, Dick, and Harry since this Mintzy thing be like, ‘Prez you’re a sell out. You’re a sell out. Hey Prez, you sold out.’ Well, as the kids say, no doy, no fucking doy,” Portnoy said.

“I sold out. You’re just figuring that out. I start a company and I fucking sold it the fuck out. Made hundreds of millions, made millions for everybody… Yeah, we sold the fuck out. And that’s what you do when you’re an entrepreneur,” he said.

“You start this little company, you dream one day, you sell the fuck out. So no doy — still means this decision sucks. I hate it. Makes me want to puke. But guess what? When I sold out a couple words, a couple things, it is very clear. You say these things, those decisions are no longer mine. I can’t protect you. You know why? Because I sold out. No fucking doy,” Portnoy concluded.

Watch above via Dave Portnoy on Twitter.

Have a tip we should know? tips@mediaite.com