Barstool Sports is a pop culture blog that covers trending news and viral stories, often related to famous athletes and coaches. Founded by Dave Portnoy of Milton, Massachusetts, the blog is a self proclaimed enemy of the NFL. Portnoy, along with his Barstool colleagues, are banned from attending NFL events and often receive widespread media attention for getting thrown out of sports events. This is due largely in part to the controversies the blog has had in the past connected to the NFL, according to the New York Post .
Portnoy often engages in strange, satirical protests against the NFL. In 2015, he was famously arrested with three of his other Barstool colleagues when they handcuffed themselves together outside of the NFL headquarters. The protest was in response to the Deflategate scandal involving Tom Brady and the New England Patriots. Brady was accused of orchestrating the deflation of footballs to provide leverage leading to a victory over the Indianapolis Colts.
Portnoy wasn’t supposed to be anywhere near the Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta on Sunday. Nevertheless, he simply couldn’t be deterred. He dressed up in a disguise of sunglasses and a fake mustache in hopes of attending the game incognito. However, he blended for mere minutes before being recognized. Before long, videos and pictures were swarming social media of him sneaking around the game and security was quickly informed.
Barstool’s Dave Portnoy manhandled, carried out of Super Bowl https://t.co/sQDXtUmiKr pic.twitter.com/qmoi6jk5hD
— New York Post (@nypost) February 4, 2019
The controversial blogger clearly wasn’t trying very hard to go unnoticed, even tweeting live updates of the game from his seat. Perhaps he should have attempted to stay more under the radar, having just been thrown out of the Super Bowl media night earlier in the week. During that occasion, he and a colleague gained entrance into the event with the use of fake press passes. He received only a criminal trespassing warning from police.
Before long, Portnoy was captured on video being physically removed from his seat and taken out of the stadium. Fans soon caught wind of what was going on and swarmed around to take pictures as he was handcuffed. Portnoy was later arrested and taken to jail. Surprisingly, he made it out of jail before the game had even ended, as he was only too excited to share on social media. In a video he shared Sunday evening, he explained that he was kept in a holding cell and that his jeans were ripped in the process.
“Emergency press conference – I walked right of jail to find out the Pats made history! #STILLHERE,” he wrote.
