To Put It Simply
On Atlanta United, Barstool, That One Guy, and doing what you think you're not doing.
Atlanta United put out a podcast with the one Barstool soccer writer there seems to be on that website. People were upset about it. They quickly deleted the tweet promoting it, as well as the episode from Apple Podcasts, and presumably everywhere else that does podcasts. You probably heard about this, and I’m not suffering under any illusions that I’m breaking this news to you. This isn’t as much about Atlanta United doing this and then deleting than it is about the writer and his seeming failure to comprehend why people are reacting the way they’re reacting to all of this.
I don’t know this dude. A cursory glance over his Barstool stuff seems to be innocuous enough, even if he seems to take an enormous amount of glee over calling people a “babybackbitch,” suggesting that, like many of the people associated with Barstool, his capacity for humor never grew past watching Stepbrothers at his friend’s Mom’s house in high school that one time. He claims he wants to grow the game. He says that the people who shouted Atlanta down from associated with Barstool are “gatekeeping” and that he’s exposing the sport to thousands of people that wouldn’t be exposed to it otherwise.
Here’s the thing: I don’t really give a shit about any of that. I mostly give a shit about the fact that he can’t understand that yes, when his entire brand is being a Barstool guy, he is synonymous with Dave Portnoy, who does and says racist and sexist things all the time, so much so that you might be forgiven for thinking he is actually racist and sexist. This is the same site that had their black employees do a podcast talking about Dave Portnoy saying the N-word and then titled that podcast the N-word, unbeknownst to at least some of those employees who participated in the conversation. In fact, to even find Sam’s posts on the Barstool website, I had to scroll past several “Barstool Smokeshows” named Sam, which… says a lot.
Maybe Barstool Sam isn’t racist or sexist! Actually, I know for a fact that he believes he is not. He covers the NWSL on the website. How could he be? But he certainly is doing one thing: propping up and supporting a website that was unapologetically built upon racism and sexism and being a place where straight white dudes can party like it’s 1956 or 2013 or whatever. And until something changes about the guy most closely associated with that website, or the way the website continues to put out its content, than nothing he writes about can really change that.
You married up to a site that’s inherently bad. You’re reaping the consequences. You want people to take you seriously? Quit. Start your own thing. You have ten times the followers on Twitter I do. If half of them follow you to the next thing, you’ll be successful. And maybe consider that people aren’t just “virtue signaling” when they’re upset their team is associated with Barstool. Maybe, maybe, those people just care about other people that Barstool frequently targets, tries to humiliate and punish.
IN SUMMATION:
That Feel When Christian Pulisic Bosses the First Half of the FA Cup Final and Then Seems to Get a Really Bad Hamstring Injury But Then It Seems to Not Be as Bad as You Thought It Was
Puma Wins
Love or hate Puma’s kit design philosophy, they’re rarely boring, and OOF these Manchester City kits are GOOD.