In the four years of doing Barstool Sports I feel like I’ve pretty much seen it all in terms of getting threatened by different people.   .  I’ve been sued by an angry mom from South Boston because her kid was in the background of a photo.    I had the Bentley Women’s Tennis coach threaten legal action if I didn’t remove pictures of one of his players immediately.   I’ve been contacted by the mother of a bunch of Cheerleaders from Texas when I commented on a story I saw on Fox News.   Basically you name it and I’ve been threatened with it.  But today we hit a new milestone.   We were all set to do a photo shoot this Wednesday with a former Smokeshow of the Day.   That was until I received this facebook message yesterday;

Smokeshow - I wanted to ask you- I talked to my parents last night and they are concerned that if I do this it is going to be a bad idea when I'm trying to find a job this semester. Have you ever had any problems like this? I really want to do it, though.

So I gave her a call to see what she was thinking.   Now keep in mind I could honestly care less whether this girl does the photo shoot.  Don’t get me wrong I think she’s super hot and would make a great cover, but we have a million girls who want to do it.  The last thing I want to do is pressure a girl into doing something she’s not comfortable with when there a ton of girls who are dying to do it.    But like I said this girl seemed really cool and really psyched about it.   Long story short she basically says her dad is nervous and she just got off the phone with him and she wants me to call him to reassure him that Barstool Sports is legit and  isn’t some fly by night operation blah, blah, blah.  So because I like this girl and she really wants to do the photo shoot I agree to give her dad a call.   Big Mistake!    Because it was arguably the most disrespectful 2 minute phone call I’ve ever had in my life.   Here is my best memory of how it went down.  But to be honest it happened so fast it was kind of a blur.

El Pres – Hi this is Dave Portnoy.  I run Barstool Sports and your daughter asked that I give you a call to get you more comfortable with Barstool and tell you more about us and answer any questions you may have because she wants to do a photo shoot with us.

Smokeshow Dad – My daughter will do this shoot over my dead body.  There is nothing to talk about.   I’m already talking to lawyers about how to sue you to get the other pictures you posted of her removed.

El Pres – huh?

Smokeshow Dad - We’re figuring out how to bring legal action against you as we speak.

El Pres – You mean for the smokeshow photos?

Smokeshow Dad – Yes. 

El Pres- I think it would be pretty hard since your daughter gave us permission right?

Smokeshow Dad – She was under the influence when she said yes.

El Pres – Huh? 

Smokeshow Dad – This conversation is over and if you ever talk to my daughter ever again you’ll be hearing from my attorney. CLICK

After he hung up on me I called the girl back who was waiting to hear how it went.  I told her that besides her dad threatening to sue me, forbidding me to ever talk to her again and hanging up on me it went pretty well.  Needless to say the dad and the daughter were on slightly different pages.  Bottom-line is I was set up like a Mothefucker.   Now there is a part of me that doesn’t totally want to bash the dad here.    After all, one day maybe I’ll be a dad and will freak out in a similar situation.   But at the same time if this guy was going to come at me like that he should probably have spent 10 minutes doing some research on Barstool Sports.   Because he would have found out real quickly that one of my absolute pet peeves is people threatening to sue me when I’m 100% in the right.  And in this case I’m 9,0000% in his right.  His daughter knew exactly what she was getting herself into and wanted to do it and still wants to do it.   Plus, she is 21 years old!   I think she can make decisions for herself.  Not to mention the fact that she wants to get a job in sales/finance in Boston.   Do you think being on the Cover of Barstool would help or hurt this girl get a job?  Cmon!   But that's really neither here nor there.   Bottom-line is that this dad should be thanking his lucky starts that I like his daughter and don’t want to embarrass her because I could make this into a fucking horror story for him.    Again I can understand a dad wanting to protect his daughter.  But at some point you just got to let your kids go.  You can’t run her life at 21.    If she wants to try modeling than that’s up to her.    But whatever you do don’t threaten a smut publisher because you can’t control your daughter.  Because that’s how you turn a non issue into a major clusterfuck.

PS  -   I totally deserve a big slice of blame pie for this incident as well.  I mean what the fuck am I doing calling girls dads?   That’s not in my job description.  I’m so fucking stupid.    From now on Rule #1 at the Stool is no calling Daddy. You’d think after four years I’d know better.   

Double PS - How awesome would it be if the chick still does the cover? I hope she does.