ESPN host Sam Ponder is calling out the controversial history of the network’s newest partner, Barstool Sports, after the site published a blog post about her that made sexist remarks and attacked her religious beliefs in 2014.
Ponder took to Twitter on the eve of ESPN2’s premier of late night sports show ‘Barstool Van Talk’ where she blasted the show’s co-host Dan ‘Big Cat’ Katz and first accused him of authoring the post.
The 31-year-old host of Sunday NFL Countdown shared screenshots of the shocking blog post, which was headlined, ‘Sam Ponder is in her ivory tower looking down at all the blogs who decided to disagree with Ray Rice KO’ing his wife.’
The post, which she first accused Katz of writing, also had an editor’s note that referred to her as a ‘bible thumping freak’.
ESPN host Sam Ponder (above) is calling out the controversial history of the network’s newest partner, Barstool Sports, after the site published a blog post about her that made sexist remarks and attacked her religious beliefs in 2014
Ponder took to Twitter on the eve of ESPN2’s premier of late night sports show ‘Barstool Van Talk’ where she blasted the show’s co-host Dan ‘Big Cat’ Katz (above) and first accused him of authoring the post
The blog entry proclaimed that her number one priority is to ‘make men hard’ and her ‘entire career and livelihood is based on appealing to guys.’
‘Welcome to the ESPN family @BarstoolBigCat (& welcome to all ur minions who will respond to this so kindly),’ she sarcastically wrote in first tweet along with the screenshots to welcome Katz.
The mother-of-two then tweeted: ‘Don’t feel sorry for me. I have a voice. & even though it can be scary to use it sometimes, (as all my DMs right now confirm) if those of us who have a platform don’t use ours, those without one may not use theirs either.’
Katz denied writing the post in question about Ponder and said: ‘I honestly think you have me confused for my boss Dave.’
The 31-year-old host of Sunday NFL Countdown shared screenshots of the shocking blog post and tweeted: ‘Welcome to the ESPN family @BarstoolBigCat (& welcome to all ur minions who will respond to this so kindly)’
The mother-of-two then tweeted: ‘Don’t feel sorry for me. I have a voice. & even though it can be scary to use it sometimes, (as all my DMs right now confirm) if those of us who have a platform don’t use ours, those without one may not use theirs either.’
Ponder did clarify on Tuesday that Katz did not write the blog post, but instead the president, Dave Portnoy, of the site did along with Feitelberg.
‘I was wrong in thinking @BarstoolBigCat wrote that article & called me a sl*t repeatedly. He just continuously laughed along. It was the PRESIDENT of @barstoolsports who said these things. Happy to clarify,’ she tweeted.
ESPN’s EVP Burke Magnus told USA Today that the ‘the comments about Sam Ponder were offensive and inappropriate, and we understand her reaction. She is a valued colleague and doing a great job for us.
‘As stated previously, we do not control the content of Barstool Sports. We are doing a show with Big Cat and PFT, and we do have final say on the content of that show.’
Ponder (right) did clarify Tuesday on Twitter that Katz did not write the blog post, but instead the president, Dave Portnoy (left), of the site did along with Feitelberg
‘I was wrong in thinking @BarstoolBigCat wrote that article & called me a sl*t repeatedly. He just continuously laughed along. It was the PRESIDENT of @barstoolsports who said these things. Happy to clarify,’ she tweeted
Katz said that he defended Ponder at the time, but a Twitter user found an old recording from 2014 between Katz and Portnoy who suggested that Ponder ‘sex it up and be sl***y’.
He also claimed during the conversation that ESPN was trying to find ways to fire her.
‘Let’s go on this rant for a second. There’s no one worse right now than Samantha Ponder,’ Katz said.
Ponder did receive support on Twitter from her colleague Sage Steele. ‘Regardless of which person at Barstool wrote this, its disturbing in so many ways. Stay strong, @sam_ponde’, Steele tweeted
‘She is the absolute worst. I hate-follow her on Twitter. I can’t even stand her. Every time she tweets I want to puke all over my computer.’
He added: ‘Show me one person who likes Sam Ponder. I don’t even think Christian Ponder likes Sam Ponder.’
Ponder did receive support on Twitter from her colleague Sage Steele.
‘Regardless of which person at Barstool wrote this, its disturbing in so many ways. Stay strong, @sam_ponde’, Steele tweeted.