Beef created
Barstool Sports owner Dave Portnoy has once again dived into his box of shock-jock tricks to create a beef with NFL all-time great Tom Brady.
money whore”
Fresh from calling Brady “a money whore” last week on a Barstool podcast, Portnoy on Monday claimed Brady will pocket $75m for playing a marquee game of flag football in Saudi Arabia.
“Anybody who’s like, ‘This was normal,’ it wasn’t. It was weird.” Portnoy made the comments on his Monday breakfast show ‘Wake Up Barstool,’ which shared a clip of the $75m claim:
Co-host of the Fox Sport TV show, Greg Olsen, questioned the figure, to which Portnoy responded: “Yes. That’s what I was told.”
Portnoy has built a career out of courting controversy, and in making the flag football claim, has drawn Brady into a response on X, with the NFL icon accusing Portnoy of fabricating the claim.
“Who cares about facts right?”
The shock jock from Swampscott, Massachusetts, however, took Brady’s rebuttal as a chance to invite him on the TV show to settle the issue.
Show goes on
Brady will join a host of NFL luminaries including Christian McCaffrey, Saquon Barkley, Tyreek Hill, Odell Beckham Jr., and Rob Gronkowski in March 2026 for the standalone Fanatics Flag Football Classic event in Riyadh.
Following his $75m claim against Brady, Portnoy asked ex-Tampa Bay Buccaneers coach Jon Gruden “what’s your number” to gauge how much Gruden would demand to participate in Saudi Arabia.
“If I could coach Tom Brady in flag football, I’ll do it for free” replied Gruden.
Brady, who also works for Fox Sports as an analyst, questioned Portnoy’s claims, asking: “Are we just picking numbers out of a hat and reporting them?”:
Portnoy’s response to Brady’s retort was that $75m “was the number I was told” and that Barstool had previously invited him on the show to discuss the Riyadh event.
“I feel like I trusted the people who told me but either way I’d rather the number in public be higher rather than lower.”
“The door is always open,” Portnoy added, once again inviting Brady to appear on his show.
Flying the flag
According to Brady, his decision to come out of retirement to play in Saudi was driven by his passion for the “fastest-growing sport in the world.”
“I want to help continue the global movement and momentum that our game is having.”
“It felt like the perfect time for me to hit the field again,” Brady said.
