Dave Portnoy of Barstool Sports, who is Jewish, has been contending with antisemitism in his travels around the country. Although he has said he’s accustomed to it, two recent incidents have put the One Bite Review influencer in the news for something other than his opinions on a tasty cheese pizza.
One incident occurred in Philadelphia in May and another followed last week in Starkville, Mississippi.
According to media reports, police in Starkville recently arrested a Mississippi State University (MSU) student, identified as 20-year-old Patrick McClintock, on a misdemeanor charge of disturbing the peace. As Portnoy was shooting a review of Starkville’s Boardtown Pizza & Pints on November 7, someone in the background could be heard saying, “Hey, [Expletive] the Jews. [Expletive] you, Dave Portnoy.”
Portnoy had attracted a crowd outside the pizzeria, and many present began shouting back at the young man: “Get out of here!” “Not cool!” The camera turned and followed the young man as an older man tried to shoo him away.
Portnoy invited McClintock to join him in a conversation, calling, “Come here, come here.” The man did move in closer at one point and spoke rapidly about an “employee” and “handcuffs,” although what he meant is unclear. Portnoy himself appeared to be confused but remained calm and appeared eager to engage the man in conversation. After a few moments, McClintock walked away.
McClintock was arrested three days later and has since reportedly withdrawn as an MSU student. In a video, Portnoy showed a mugshot of McClintock, adding, “Nice hair, you [expletive] loser.”
Portnoy was in Starkville to host a live show leading up to an SEC matchup between MSU and Georgia. While there, he dropped in at Boardtown Pizza & Pints, a Neapolitan-inspired restaurant, and gave it a score of 7.2, although he repeatedly mispronounced the pizzeria’s name as “Boardroom.”
Portnoy later said the antisemitic incident did not mar his experience in Starkville or impact his opinion of the town or its people. “Everybody was super nice and actually bending over backwards during the course of the weekend. Like, ‘We’re so sorry, that’s so mortifying, I wish that didn’t happen.’” He added, “Thanks to the people of Starkville, who [expletive] ran this kid out of town.”
The Starkville encounter was the second such incident reported by the news media this year. The first was connected with Barstool Sansom Street, a drinking spot in Philadelphia owned by Barstool Sports. Customers who order bottle service there can instruct servers to place a few words on a large sign inside the bar. In early May, a customer or customers reportedly requested the words “[Expletive] the Jews” to be placed on the sign, sparking widespread outrage when a video showing the sign went viral.
Two students at Temple University were suspended for their alleged involvement and were under police investigation at the time.
For his part, Portnoy gave a measured—if frequently profane—response to the Philadelphia incident.
“Maybe I can use this as a teaching moment,” he said in a video posted on X. “More importantly, the people who ordered these signs…have agreed—and I’m going to pay for it—we’re going to send them to…Auschwitz, [to] learn a little bit about history and, hopefully, you know, get educated and use this as a teaching moment. So, for everyone who wants these kids’ lives to be ruined, I think you can lay off, and I think [this] is a fair [expletive] trade.”
Located in Poland, Auschwitz was the notorious Nazi concentration camp where more than 1 million men, women and children were killed during World War II.
In yet another X video, Portnoy later said he’d revoked the trip offer for one of the men, identified as Mo Khan, who posted the original video that showed the sign in the bar. In a social media post, Khan said he was acting as a “citizen journalist.” He added that he did “not support the awful message contained in that sign. I made the poor decision to record and upload it….I abhor hate in all its forms. I was raised to respect and be amicable with all people.”
Portnoy was unimpressed and said he called Khan to discuss it. Later, Portnoy, addressing Khan in the video, said, “I’m sorry, man, I tried to throw you a lifeline and make something out of this. And you’re now a citizen journalist, you had nothing to do with it? Buddy, you uploaded a video with a sign, ‘[Expletive] the Jews,’ everyone laughing. You, Mo Khan. You.”
Editor’s note: PMQ Pizza will not repost the videos discussed in this article due to the repeated antisemitic remarks and profanity. You can view the One Bite Review of Boardtown Pizza & Pints here.
