Barstool Sports President Fulfills Promise, Donates $20,000 to THON
UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — President of Barstool Sports Dave Portnoy came through on his promise to donate $20,000 to THON during Penn State’s White Out Weekend.
Portnoy made the announcement during the Barstool College Football Show, which took place hours before the White Out game.
Before the show, Portnoy previously declared that he would donate the money if the Donald P. Bellisario College of Communications Dean Marie Hardin agreed to debate him.
In an interview with NBC, Hardin had commented about Barstool on its appeals to traditional masculinity, leading Portnoy to refute her comments and extend a challenge to Hardin to have a debate with him about her comments: a challenge that he hasn’t backed down from.
While Portnoy did come through on his promise to donate the money to THON, some, including sophomore Connor Griffin, say that Portnoy may have gone a little too far.
“The way that he was making it seem in the past when he first threw up the idea of a $20,000 donation, it seemed like it was just a ploy to get Dean Hardin to agree to do a debate, and I wasn’t necessarily a huge fan of that,” Griffin said. “I would’ve loved to see a debate between Dean Hardin and Dave Portnoy, but for him to use THON and childhood cancer as leverage in getting a debate, I thought that was a little too immature.”
Even though Hardin never responded to Portnoy on the topic, some, including freshman Ben Geller, respect the move in making the donation.
“Obviously it’s for a good cause, and a lot of people participate, and it’s a big student-driven thing, so he’s helping the students,” Geller said. “He’s helping the entire cause and there’s nothing bad about that.”
Portnoy arrived to State College wearing a shirt directed at Dean Hardin.
Logan Bourandas is a freshman majoring in broadcast journalism. To contact him, email lxb5412@psu.edu.
