A Note from MutStack Owner Dave Portnoy
Mutt Stack stock is at an all-time high after he correctly called Glenny out in Surviving Barstool. I may take Mutt Stack public.
Wow. Wow. Very nice of the owner to say. My 1-year anniversary with Barstool comes up in a few weeks, so let’s try to stay hot here. And let’s start this with the call Dave and the rest of America is talking about.
The answer, of course, is yes.
As I wrote last week, ref hate is fair game - both in sports and in Surviving Barstool. My coworker Nicky Smokes didn’t like my call. He’s 100% wrong, but that’s okay.
That said, the people who were critical of me not being involved enough in the first three episodes are huge losers. Respectfully, of course. Who wants a ref show? Not me.
Spoilers ahead if you have not watched Episodes Four and Five.
My friend Kirk is hosting a Surviving Barstool Wrap-up show, but I was not invited on. So, like last week, some thoughts from the ref’s perspective on the two episodes we just watched.
Episode 4: The ONE thing you can’t do in Attack and Defend is step off your mat. Glenny Balls stepped off his mat. I made the call. It was one of my main focuses as the ref. We told these guys 100 times - DON’T STEP OFF THE MAT.
Replay confirmed I made the right call. My father, Dan Mutnansky, used to call himself Eagle Eye because of his great eyesight. Turns out the apple does not fall far from the tree.
As you saw in the episode, Dana was very mad. As was Tate. But that call - the correct call - didn’t really cost them. Their team sucked in the second half and got off nine shots in total. Tough to blame the ref there.
In real time, Dana seemed more mad. Then after the game when they lost. Tate, too. That might have just been my anxiety in the moment. Because it was a close call. I think MikeyBets (love that guy) has video of me doing the 1000-yard stare after the match, still thinking about the call.
I was sitting in a door between the four guys in front of me, GoPro on my chest, locked in on the players’ pads. I couldn’t see the shooters (or Feits stepping off his mat), but I don’t know how to fix that with the way the game is set up. A great game, by the way.
I forgot Rone mocked me with the fake $100. Very funny. Shoutout to TJ for getting the shot of Glenny’s foot clearly off the mat. The first time I saw how close it was was Sunday night on the show. Bad job by me on that inadvertent whistle, but I got this call right, and the video tells the story.
Episode 5: I told you guys, I did not hang out with the players outside of games. So in real time, I 100% thought Marty was hurt.
I took a knee, the way kids do in sports when someone gets hurt. Seriously. Like, I went up to him multiple times in the hours after the game, while he was in the wheelchair, to ask how he was and credit him for being so tough. I feel like a moron.
There was not much for me to do in this game, and I think you see me for like two seconds. My job was to make sure the first person who caught the ball shot it. They did. I think the Barstool Breakdown Crew brought up a fair question - where was the ref with the injury timeout?
100% fair criticism. I should have run over and waved my arms for an injury timeout. I was just too concerned for my friend. My weakness? I just care too much. Bad, bad job on my part here.
This is one of the games I would have LOVED to play, as a former high school basketball player who scored 22 career varsity points.
Fun couple of episodes that combined have about 1 million views on YouTube, and I’m sure tons more on Rumble. The season has been great, and I’m looking forward to Episode 6 Sunday Night.
P.S. Shoutout Feits for the Mut and Merloni plug. This was hilarious.
Meanwhile, the Red Sox are about to be a lot better. College sports stink. A must-see for horse racing fans. And a MutStack Notes where I find myself very mad at WEEI’s Ted Johnson.
All ahead in Friday Four-Pack #185.
Yes, My Boss Dave still owns MutStack. But it remains free to subscribe and have it emailed directly to your inbox every Friday.
100% Free. Still.
On how to improve the Boston Red Sox…
New angle. I would not be booing Rafael Devers tonight at Fenway.
Also, buy the MutStack T-Shirt here.
On the state of college sports…
The best college baseball basketball coach on the planet called this a long time ago.
"Can a player that only played three years of football and then enters the NFL draft, can they leave the Arena League next year and go play? Can they leave the CFL next year?…If someone in the Big Ten needs a left tackle or something if a guy gets hurt, can you pull a guy off a practice squad of an NFL team? Can a guy from the Browns next year come back and play left tackle somewhere? This (expletive) is absurd."
This was Hurley earlier this year, lamenting the legal loopholes that let former college athletes go pro, then return to college. It’s impossible to follow, as more and more players are granted waivers to return to college sports after being rostered on a professional team. We saw it this past college basketball season.
And as he predicted, it hit college football this week, with a judge granting over a dozen players an injunction to come back from NFL rosters to play college football or enter the transfer portal. Like ex-Ole Miss TE Dae’Quan Wright. He’s on the Browns roster, but he's set to enter the portal today.
The NCAA created a rule that allows players five years of eligibility, starting in 2027. But it doesn't cover players who previously had only four years. As I read it, those players are now going to court to fight for their 5th year waiver and are getting it.
This first batch of players is just from one state (Louisiana). Other states will likely issue similar rulings or temporary restraining orders (TROs)/preliminary injunctions against the NCAA on eligibility for high school class of 2022 athletes.
From CBS Sports
While there were players who’d signed NFL contracts who hoped to explore a return to college, there were reservations about being the first one to file a lawsuit in order to try to regain college eligibility.
Now, players don’t have to worry about that.
That has many around the front office space expecting the developments on Wednesday to -- as one personnel staffer put it -- “open the floodgates” for these types of lawsuits.
“That’s what we’re hoping for,” a Big 12 general manager told CBS Sports. “We need a player or two. Saturate the market, baby.”
Where does this end? Are college coaches going to scour the waiver wire to see who gets cut from an NFL team and start recruiting those players with NIL money?
Gross. I probably sound like an old man typing on a Dell Laptop here, but I hate this. I hate all of it. I hate that players are coming back to college basketball. I hate the constant movement that the NIL money has created. I hate that it does not feel like college sports…at all.
If and when you declare for the NFL Draft, that should be it for your college career. Same for the NBA (I know the NBA lets you research if/when you’ll get drafted, then decide. Fine).
But this new system is tough to follow and even tougher to support as a sports fan. It’s going to chase a lot of good coaches out of college. To quote the best college coach, “This (expletive) is absurd.”
Dan Hurley - right again.
On a great hour with a popular horse owner…
Look, I hate directing you off the Stack for more content. But in this case, it’s worth it if you’re any sort of horse racing fan.
I got My BossDave for an hour on Thursday for the second installment of the Go Go Greys Stable Tour. We did one back in the early spring when there were fewer than 10 horses making up Go Go Greys. Fast forward to Thursday, when we talked about the 27 horses and two broodmares that make up the Go Go Greys Family.
What is refreshing is Dave’s candor when talking about both his horses and the game itself. I got dozens of tweets and texts pointing that out - people IN the game are just not willing to talk about the game the way Dave does. Well, maybe other than Mike Repole.
And we talked about his efforts to buy grey horses, like stakes winner Chunk of Gold. When his bloodstock agent reached out, the owner stopped him before he could even ask and said, “Tell Dave thanks, but we’re not selling,” or something along those lines.
Stable update, new partnerships, some horse names he has reserved, state of the game, why he works with certain trainers; we covered a lot of ground. If it were up to me, we’d do one every quarter. Or season. Hopefully we can do another one in and around the Breeders’ Cup.
Appreciate Dave for taking the hour, and I’ve heard from a bunch of horseplayers and Barstool fans who feel the same way. Hope you’ll check it out.
On your weekly MutStack Notes…
⚾ Very fun Episode 60 (!!!) of Dirty Water - A Boston Sports Podcast. Full Squad show - this Jarren Duran T-shirt is wild. Go watch and subscribe on YouTube, then listen and subscribe wherever you listen to podcasts.
🎙️The 24th annual WEEI/NESN Jimmy Fund Radio-Telethon, raising a record-breaking $7,158,135 for adult and pediatric cancer care and research at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, is to be commended. That’s a monster couple of days, and I suspect next year’s 25th annual will break that record for a third straight year. Big round of applause for everyone involved and everyone who donated,
🎙️ 👎🏻 But a big thumbs down to Ted Johnson. Not for this - he was part of the record-breaking two days in PM Drive for WEEI. But last week, he shredded ex-WEEI hosts, Barstool, Jerry Thornton, Podcasts…played the big radio tough guy. Just went off. Mocked Jerry’s name. Then, once Jerry responded, Ted wasn't on the air Friday. And he’s not going to respond Monday and Tuesday for this great event. I’m told he’s said nothing about it these last two days, after the Jimmy Fund Event.
This is so embarrassing. Ted accuses Jerry of being personal in a blog post he wrote about 20 months ago. Of course, Jerry wasn’t personal at all. Clearly, Ted never read the piece. He lobs all these bombs at Jerry, tries to make it about journalism, and tweets at him at all hours of the night/morning. The station posts the clips looking for engagement. Then when the response is as one-sided as a Harlem Globetrotters/Washington Generals game, Ted goes silent. Clown behavior. 🤡🤡🤡 How could you take him seriously after this?
He needs to apologize to Jerry. He used Barstool and Old Balls for engagement, and he needs to pay his penance. Then we can all move on.
🎙️ One more WEEI note. Posted a clip on X.com this morning and speculated that Rich Shertenlieb might be moving, based on something said on WEEI last night. I’m told that’s not the case. No moves. No WEEI changes. Nothing to see here. I speculated, and it looks like I jumped the gun.
🏇🏻 Next week is Travers week. I am thrilled to say I’ll be part of the Barstool DraftKings Travers Day Live Stream in the backyard at Saratoga. I’m excited, to say the least, Dave, Big Cat, Elio, Rico, Jerry, and myself. Horses, guests, shit talk. I’d like to figure out a way to play a big group Pick 5 into the Travers and root it home. I’ll be in Saratoga all weekend, so reach out if you’re headed there for one of the best racing weekends of the year.
🍨 I mentioned this on KMS this week, but the Ninja Creami is the best Father’s Day gift I ever got. I can’t be alone in how legit it is at making macro-friendly ice cream at home. Mix your ingredients in the morning, freeze them all day, and spin them into protein ice cream at night. easy. Better (and cheaper) than Halo Top. If the Ninja people are reading this, I’m a BIG fan. And boy, would the softserve version be a nice addition to the Mutnansky Kitchen.
🏈 Sports radio. I just couldn't have faked outrage about the Christian Gonzalez contract situation. Hour and hours of BORING contract talk. I change either station if it comes up. Just not that interesting.
That feels like enough Stack for this week.
Good luck with all the bets this weekend. Back on the Barstool Blog for our weekly horse racing missive and Alabama Day handicapping tomorrow.
Thanks for reading. And watching.
Standing strong while Dana was inches away from your face, absolutely lighting you up, was incredible to watch. A lesser ref would’ve buckled under the pressure.
It’s that kind of refereeing that makes me proud to wear my Mut Stack shirt