Barstool Sports CEO Dave Portnoy said he will not “bend the knee” nor apologize in a video posted Monday in reaction to “cancel culture” pressures over resurfaced years-old remarks the businessman made about famed anthem kneeler Colin Kaepernick.
The remarks, which can be viewed below, were quote-tweeted on Sunday by former SportsCenter anchor and left-wing activist Jemele Hill, who ironically was subsequently called out over a past “transphobic” comment.
In the four-year-old clip, Portnoy jokes that he first thought Kaepernick was Arab and an “ISIS guy” when the then-NFL quarterback started his national anthem protest.
Responding to the backlash, Portnoy asserted in a video “press conference” post that he will not “bend the knee,” nor will he apologize for the comedic years-old remarks, which he said was “literally a joke from ‘The Office.'”
The 43-year-old also emphasized that culture progresses, as do sensitivities, making the retroactive judging of years-old content by present standards nonsensical.
“I’ve been doing this for two decades,” Portnoy says in the video (transcript via Fox News). “I’ve made fun of every group of people, every race, every creed, every culture — you name it, we’ve made jokes about it. So if the No Fun Club, if the cancel culture wants to go back blog by blog, video by video, day by day, week by week, month by month, year by year, decade by decade and comb through everything we’ve ever f***in’ said and done, yeah, you’re gonna find a few jokes that missed the mark, that things if they are said today, you’d be like, ‘How’d they f***in’ say this? What are they, idiots?’ But times change, sensitivities change, cultures change. When you’ve been doing it as long as we have, things f***in’ change!”
“I’m not gonna apologize, I’m not gonna bend the knee,” the CEO said. “The thing people are coming after now, the Kaepernick thing, it’s like literally a joke from ‘The Office.”
“There isn’t one person I’ve ever worked with, who has worked for me, we’ve done business with, interacted with who will ever back up anything these haters say,” Portnoy contended. “Not one, and I’ve worked with thousands and thousands and thousands of people,” Portnoy insisted. “Instead, they just throw rocks and darts from behind bushes and I turn around like, ‘Do you want to talk about it because I can explain my thought process and defend myself.’ They never do. Nope. They just want to run and hide. Throw darts, run, and hide. Well, f*** you.”
“Whenever they try to cancel us with movements that pop up every couple of years, it only makes us stronger because normal people want to escape for a couple of f***in’ seconds from this f***ed-up world,” he told critics.
“When you’re miserable and dead and f***in’ doing your own thing, in the next decade we’ll still be here doing us. You’ll still be losing sleep about it. That’s just how it goes. You see this mug? Ain’t going anywhere,” the Barstool founder ended the video.
WATCH (warning: language):
Emergency Press Conference – Cancel Culture Is Coming For My Head pic.twitter.com/FS3SCMd0BP
— Dave Portnoy (@stoolpresidente) June 29, 2020
🗣 Unearthed: Racist Bartstool Sports Segment on Colin Kaepernick and Arabs (Part 1 of 2) #ExposeBarstoolRacists pic.twitter.com/bvsnhA0fmZ
— Resist Programming 🛰 (@RzstProgramming) June 28, 2020
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