Dave Portnoy is relieved a partnership with Bill Belichick didn’t end up working out.
In addition to his appearances on Omaha Productions’ “ManningCast” with Peyton and Eli Manning and “The Pat McAfee Show,” Belichick has a show on SiriusXM, another one with Underdog Fantasy and is a panelist on “Inside the NFL” on The CW.
On “The Unnamed Show” with his co-hosts Kirk Minihane and Ryan Whitney, Portnoy talked about how this ubiquity would’ve meant that Belichick wouldn’t have been as good a fit at Barstool.
“We did talk to him. We were trying to get him to do a show,” Portnoy said, as covered by Awful Announcing. “In hindsight, thank God we didn’t. … He is doing so many things. And I think he’s great at ‘ManningCast’ and a lot of the clips I’m seeing. The show that we would’ve had, he’s doing with [Matt] Patricia and with Underdog. That show, to me, is a dud.
“That’s the one. And we were late to the game. But we were talking about it … It was super late in the game … I actually saw him the other day. I spoke at an Axon Conference — our friend Josh [Isner], and he was there as well.”
Barstool Sports was founded in Boston, and Portnoy ingratiated himself with Belichick, Tom Brady and Robert Kraft over the years as he fervently “defended the wall” for the Patriots — including a trip to jail for protesting Brady’s Deflategate punishment at NFL headquarters in New York.
Belichick won six Super Bowls with the Patriots in a legendary tenure that spanned from 2000 through last season.
On his podcast, Portnoy explained Belichick’s motivations for taking on so many media gigs.
“My interpretation of him when I was talking about him was he was not money motivated; he was intelligence motivated to show he’s still got it with football — and he wants to get back into coaching,” Portnoy said. “That was my interpretation.”
Portnoy also delved into why he thinks Belichick’s rapport with the Manning brothers is successful.
“Belichick has all the back rivalry stuff that he drops in the ‘ManningCast,’ like the crowd noise in Indianapolis and things like that,” Portnoy added. “It’s very entertaining. … And he takes shots at the Pats non-stop.”