With the news arriving that Barstool Sports founder Dave Portnoy has re-taken full control of the company, former blogger and host Ben Mintz (a.k.a. Mintzy) has made a return.
Mintz was fired from Barstool in May of this year, back when it was fully owned by gambling company PENN Entertainment, for saying the N-Word on camera while reading out a rap lyric.
Mintzy posted an apology on his Twitter account after the word was aired. But despite that and the pleas of Portnoy and others within Barstool to keep him, PENN fired Mintz.
But after the news of Portnoy’s takeover broke, the Massachusetts native revealed that Mintz would be returning to the company.
Portnoy and Mintz posted videos of both their sides of the same phone call – revealing that he was returning to Barstool.
Ben Mintz has returned to Barstool Sports after Dave Portnoy’s re-acquired the company
Portnoy revealed he bought back the entire company and has full control over it
Mintz and Portnoy each posted their sides of a phone conversation agreeing to his return
WARNING: VIDEOS CONTAIN EXPLICIT LANGUAGE
Mintz received backlash when he said the N-word on his show, ‘Wake Up Mintzy,’ while rapping the song ‘1st of Tha Month’ by Bone Thugz-N-Harmony on May 1.
Mintz posted on Twitter after he read the lyric, saying, ‘This morning, I made an unforgivable mistake slipping on air while reading a song lyric. I meant no harm & have never felt worse about anything. I apologize for my actions. I am truly sorry & ashamed of myself.’
Two days later, Barstool President Dave Portnoy posted a video to Twitter, announcing that the company had fired the host.
Portnoy added that PENN Entertainment had forced him to fire Mintz, claiming the decision was not his.
He claimed that the call was made, despite him, Barstool CEO Erika Nardini and longtime talent Dan Katz insisting that Mintz had made an honest mistake.
‘I hate the decision. I disagree with the decision. I would not have made the decision. But I don’t deal with the things Penn deals with in terms of state regulators etc,’ Portnoy told The New York Post.
‘Penn paid a lot of money for Barstool and they have to make the best decisions to protect their business. I trust and respect [Penn CEO] Jay [Snowden] that he makes what he thinks is the right move and that’s all you can ask for. Doesn’t mean I’ll always agree but again he deals with things I don’t have to think or deal with.’
Portnoy added, ‘It makes my skin crawl thinking a guy would lose their job on an innocent mistake. Yes, horrible, but clearly no intent … It’s everything I’ve stood against for 20 years.’
Mintz had apologized for the slur on Twitter, insisting he meant no harm
Portnoy said at the time that parent company PENN Entertainment fired Mintz, not him
In the aftermath of the incident, Portnoy decided to keep Mintz on his personal payroll.
Mintz was offered a job to be a spokesperson for another one of Portnoy’s companies, Brick Watch, which he accepted over other offers.
On Tuesday, Portnoy revealed that he had bought back all of Barstool Sports from PENN – who revealed they had entered into an agreement with ESPN.
Portnoy hinted that the company would begin pivoting back to their old content – the raunchy, irreverent and oftentimes problematic work they became infamous for.
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