Barstool Sports founder Dave Portnoy acknowledged his company’s role in spreading an unfounded cheating rumor about an Ole Miss college freshman.
During an interview with Tom Llamas on NBC Nightly News Thursday, April 10, Portnoy, 48, was asked what he would like to say to the family of Mary Kate Cornett after multiple Barstool employees posted on social media about the allegation that Cornett slept with her boyfriend’s father.
“I would apologize,” Portnoy said. “I get why the family is pissed. I’m sad and I wish we didn’t play any part in it.”
According to NBC News, Portnoy is working to “up Barstool’s editorial standards.”
As for the Barstool employees who posted about the viral rumor involving Cornett, who were not named specifically, Portnoy called them “really stupid.”
“I’ve been doing this a long time,” Portnoy added. “I thought it was clearly a fake story. I thought we were better than that.”
Portnoy said his lawyers have been in touch with Cornett’s lawyers as they attempt to navigate a way forward.
“I think they offered a mediation path or a lawsuit path,” Portnoy explained. “I think we’re going to try to mediate. I don’t know what we did legally wrong. That’s a little different issue. Morally, we were wrong.”
The rumor about Cornett — which she has called “false,” “inexcusable” and “disturbing” — also spread thanks to ESPN personality Pat McAfee, who discussed it flippantly on an episode of The Pat McAfee Show in February.
Cornett and her family have since threatened a lawsuit against both McAfee and ESPN.
During a live show in Pittsburgh on Wednesday, April 9, McAfee spoke about his “current situation” for the first time.
“I have a lot of people saying that I should be sued,” McAfee said. “I want to say this: I never, ever want to be a part of anything negative in anybody’s life, ever. That is not what I want to do.”
McAfee, who is from the Pittsburgh area, said “you f***ing know it that my lawyers are Pittsburgh lawyers and they’re in here tonight.”
He added, “They have a suite here that I have certainly contributed to. They have the same mindset as me, empathy but understanding reality. For that whole thing that’s happening, I didn’t want to add any more negativity as it was taking place.”
Dave Portnoy has had a lot of success — and some bumps in the road — when building his financial empire. Portnoy founded Barstool Sports in 2003 as a weekly print publication. One year after forming the company, Portnoy filed for bankruptcy protection in 2004 after large gambling losses, per The New York Times. Years […]
McAfee called the fallout from spreading the rumor “a terrible situation” and vowed to make “some kind of silver lining” out of the scandal.
“You can have that promise from me,” he said. “It won’t be as impossible to be a fan of mine going forward.”
Earlier this month, Cornett told The Athletic about how her life had been flipped upside down in the wake of the rumor — and vowed to take legal action.
“I would like people to be held accountable for what they’ve done,” Cornett said. “You’re ruining my life by talking about it on your show for nothing but attention, but here I am staying up until 5 in the morning, every night, throwing up, not eating because I’m so anxious about what’s going to happen for the rest of my life.”
