‘When Did Flattening The Curve Turn Into Finding The Cure?! Barstool Sports Founder’s Spectacular Tirade ON COVID-19

Emergency Press Conference - When Did Flattening The Curve Turn Into Finding The Cure pic.twitter.com/ZaSTxL6Tuc

— Dave Portnoy (@stoolpresidente) May 14, 2020

“All we ever heard, for forever, was, ‘flatten the curve,’ ‘flatten the curve,’ ‘make sure there’s hospital beds.’ We’re there!” said. “Now all of a sudden, it’s like a 180. That’s like taking a cross-country flight, six hours. Five hours and a half go by, they get on the intercom and they’re like, ‘Oh, just kidding, we have another 10 hours.’ You can’t do that! People have been mentally preparing, we’re doing what you ask. We’ve done exactly like you said, now you’re changing the rules.” “And what about people who own businesses?” Portnoy said. 

“You can’t say closed indefinitely. Imagine working for a year, five years, ten years, two decades, grinding your fingers to the bone to build your businesses — Barstool, thank God, will be alright — I’m talking about other businesses. People who have jobs and have worked their whole f*cking lives to put food on the table and create a happy living. Advertisement - story continues below They’re just gonna go out of business? They’re just gonna’ wake up whenever this thing ends, when the mayors say them they can go back to work? Work to what? Your company is gonna’ be out of business, the economy is gonna be in the sh*tter, there’s gonna be no jobs, how the f*ck are you gonna’ pay for your family, put food on the table, all that sh*t? What are you doing? You gotta’ give these people a choice.” 

“If you told me, because of corona, I lost Barstool, I had to get a nine-to-five and start f*cking over, I’d rather die of corona, seriously, or at least take my chances,” Portnoy said. 

“I’m not saying everyone would do that. I would. But if I’ve dedicated 20 years of my life, I don’t wanna start over. I’ll f*cking deal with corona. You can’t just make everybody stay inside and basically start over. It’s insane. Like, what the f*ck do they think is gonna’ happen?” 

“At some level, we’ve done what you asked us to do,” he said in closing. “If you’re that scared of corona, stay inside. … There’s risk. We’re Americans, you have to take risks. If people want to go out, they can go out; if they wanna’ stay in, they stay in.”