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By Nick Mordowanec
Staff Writer
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Internet users are saying Barstool Sports "sold out" after one of its popular personalities was fired after reading rap lyrics containing the n-word.
Ben Mintz, who has more than 117,000 Twitter followers and is now the former host of the "Wake Up Mintzy" show, used the word Monday while reading the lyrics of the Bone Thugs-N-Harmony song "1st of tha Month."
"This morning, I made an unforgivable mistake slipping on air while reading a song lyric," Mintz said on Twitter. "I meant no harm & have never felt worse about anything. I apologize for my actions. I am truly sorry & ashamed of myself."
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The announcement was made by Barstool founder Dave Portnoy, who tweeted an "emergency press conference" video via Twitter.
"He rapped a racial slur; he turned white as a ghost," Portnoy said Wednesday in a five-plus-minute explanation. "You could tell instantly, 'Oh my God, what did I do?' It was like a Ron Burgundy moment."
Portnoy told the New York Post that he "hates" and "disagrees" with the decision made by Penn Entertainment, which acquired 36 percent of Barstool Sports for $163 million in 2020 and later bought the rest of the company for an additional $388 million in February of this year.
Penn is the parent company of Barstool and The Score, another sports-related entity. It operates numerous casino, racing and entertainment entities, as well as online gaming and sports betting gambling operations—the latter of which Barstool and The Score are involved.
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Portnoy blamed Penn for Mintz's firing.
"I'm stunned by it. I've been fighting tooth and nail...to keep Ben and say this is the wrong decision," Portnoy said on Twitter. "But Penn operates in a world that we don't operate in. They are highly regulated by the government; they're issued licenses for gambling that just as easily as they're issued could be pulled back."
Mintz tweeted Wednesday that he is "in good spirits."
"I am def an idiot but I am also a resilient one," he wrote. "Will have a long video tomorrow thanking everyone. Way way too grateful to be too down."
Newsweek reached out to Barstool and Penn Entertainment via email for comment.
Reactions to Mintz's abrupt departure have called out Barstool and Portnoy, as well as American "culture" for not giving Mintz the opportunity for redemption.
"You are not an idiot. Our culture is dismal," Gary Sheffield Jr. tweeted. "Singing along to a song is not offending black people. Let's be honest about who this really bothered."
Charlie Kirk, the conservative founder of Turning Point USA, tweeted that Barstool should feel "shame."
"There once was a time when performing artists dreamed of fans all across the country singing their lyrics, word-for-word," Kirk wrote. "In today's America, over 50% the country will get fired if they sing the lyrics of your average rap song, word-for-word."
Barstool employee Brandon Walker tweeted in defense of his now former colleague, writing, "I hate this decision. There's not a mean bone in [Mintz's] body. There's not a racist bone in his body. He's a genuinely good human being who made a mistake, and innocent mistakes shouldn't bring a man down like this."
One Twitter user compared Barstool to ESPN, writing that "the company everyone used to love has turned into ESPN taking orders from the suits."
Portnoy published an additional video related to the attacks on him and Barstool.
"So I got every Tom, Dick and Harry since this Mintzy thing saying, 'Pres, you're a sellout. Hey pres, you sold out,'" Portnoy said. "You're just figuring that out? I started a company and I...sold it...out. Made hundreds of millions, made millions for everybody that grinded.
"Yeah, we sold...out because that's what you do when you're an entrepreneur. You start this little company; you dream one day and you sell it...out. ... Still means this decision sucks. I hate it, it makes me want to puke."
He added that "those decisions are no longer mine."
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