Host Sam Ponder Slams Barstool Sports Ahead of ESPN Debut

Ponder isn’t happy about ESPN’s new partnership with the media startup.

ESPN NFL host Sam Ponder is rolling out the welcome mat in a unique way for Barstool Sports after the two companies partnered for the “Barstool Van Talk” show, debuting on ESPN2 on Tuesday night, USA TODAY reports.

Pulling abusive audio and text from 2014 in which she’s called a “slut” who “everybody hates” by Barstool founder and president Dave Portnoy, as well as the new show’s host, Dan Katz, Ponder sarcastically tagged the latter, writing “welcome to the family.” 

This created a back-and-forth between Ponder and Katz, as Ponder incorrectly identified Katz as the author of the article. But Ponder points out that Katz did participate in the verbal “rundown” in which Portnoy and Katz both pull punches — and she ends up encompassing all of Barstool for using misogynistic language they’ve been criticized for using before.

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