Sam Ponder is calling out Barstool Sports founder Dave Portnoy for an abusive blog post he wrote about her in 2014.
Ponder, who hosts Sunday NFL Countdown on ESPN, first mistakenly attributed the 2014 post to the sports blogger Dan “Big Cat” Katz, who is partnering with the network on a new show that premieres Tuesday night.
Welcome to the ESPN family @BarstoolBigCat (& welcome to all ur minions who will respond to this so kindly) pic.twitter.com/AzgfdDx2FK
— Samantha Steele Ponder (@samponder) October 16, 2017
She later corrected herself, noting that it was actually Portnoy who wrote the post—though she didn’t let Katz off the hook entirely.
I was wrong in thinking @BarstoolBigCat wrote that article & called me a slut repeatedly. He just continuously laughed along. It was the PRESIDENT of @barstoolsports who said these things. Happy to clarify.
— Samantha Steele Ponder (@samponder) October 17, 2017
Portnoy did not apologize for the post, in which he called Ponder both a “slut” and a “super-prude” (who knew one could be both?) who has a “job where the #1 requirement is you make men hard.” Instead, he responded to Ponder’s tweets by suggesting that his writing is the kind of “fun” content that makes the sports blog successful.
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I'm very happy that Barstool for the most part is a family. Poke fun, make fun, row together. Maybe that's part of our success?
— Dave Portnoy (@stoolpresidente) October 17, 2017
He also appeared to imply that Ponder is committing libel—though that would require that Ponder’s accusations be false; Portnoy did not deny writing the blog post.
Everybody out here getting mad, committing libel.
— Dave Portnoy (@stoolpresidente) October 17, 2017
