Barstool Sports “Presidente” Dave Portnoy lambasted a political operative connected to controversial Maine Senate candidate Graham Platner after the strategist floated the idea of a Boston sports-themed ad collaboration.
Platner cut an ad targeting private equity firms’ involvement in Boston Red Sox management, as principal owner John Henry II’s Fenway Sports Group includes multiple investors, including private equity firms, while also holding a stake in NASCAR’s RFK (Roush-Fenway-Keselowski) Racing team.
On Thursday, political strategist Jeff Coote reached out to Portnoy to alert him to the ad and ask if he wanted to collaborate with Platner on an effort to call out the rise of private equity in sports and “big bad John Henry.” Portnoy later shared the email chain on X.
“Hey Dave, something different for you,” wrote strategist Jeff Coote, who called the ad an example of Platner’s “populist streak” while commiserating about “s—t people are p—ed off about like the Sox” and Henry.
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After Coote “nudged” Portnoy’s inbox again Friday, “El Presidente” lit into him.
“Hey Jeff. Now this is the Nazi guy right? Yeah I’d be happy to talk to him about that tattoo and him being a Nazi,” wrote Portnoy, who is Jewish.
“I’m not as interested in his baseball takes. Let me know when we can set up some time. Dave.”
When Coote responded, “nice one,” Portnoy replied, “is that a no?”
Coote followed up by saying that if the two sides could find a way to have a productive conversation, he would consider connecting him with Platner.
But Portnoy was not finished.
“What’s that mean? You reached out to a Jew to poo poo a Nazi. I’m not Bernie Sanders,” he said — as the Vermont socialist is also Jewish but has endorsed and rallied with Platner.
“If your boy isn’t a Nazi and can handle me 1 on 1 in a convo set it up. If he can’t you should fire yourself for thinking I’d want to glamorize this clown.”
Platner has drawn rebuke for his chest tattoo of the Totenkopf, a skull-and-crossbones symbol connected to the German Nazi Schutzstaffel paramilitary group.
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After posting the email chain, Portnoy tweeted that he was still wondering why Platner’s campaign would think he would “want to play footsy with a Nazi.”
The ad itself also drew umbrage from Henry’s group, as Fenway-owned New England SportsNet (NESN) pulled it halfway through the Sox’s Friday game against the Minnesota Twins.
The network said in a statement Saturday that it regularly removes ads with “credible concerns” about intellectual property use. While the network did not elaborate specifically, Platner appeared to use the same red font synonymous with the baseball team.
Platner also confirmed the ad takedown on social media.
The spot itself called out Fenway for what Platner called the “private equity curse” on the team.
Platner appeared to further invoke the private equity “curse” by noting on X that after NESN stopped airing the ad, the Red Sox “blew a 4-0 lead.”
A firm called RedBird Partners bought an 11% stake in Fenway in 2021, shortly after the Red Sox traded their star outfielder to the Los Angeles Dodgers in 2020, which Platner referenced:
“Private equity is destroying our favorite baseball team, stripping them for parts — Private equity is buying up our homes our sports and our lives,” Platner said in the ad.
“I will reverse the private equity curse. I’m Graham Platner and I approve this message because I miss Mookie Betts.”
Fox News Digital reached out to Portnoy, Coote’s Slingshot Strategies company and the Platner campaign for comment.
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