On last Friday’s episode of the Dave Portnoy Show with Eddie & Company; Barstool Sports founder Dave Portnoy offered an ultimatum to sports gambling handicapper Rico Bosco. The details of the Ultimatum were simply that Rico Bosco had to be present in the Barstool office every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday to co-host Barstool Sports daily gambling show called Picks Central.
If Bosco failed to comply with being present in the Barstool office on Monday, then Portnoy declared that Bosco would be replaced by his longtime sports gambling nemesis named Jeff Nadu. Fast-forward to Monday and Rico was nowhere to be found at the Barstool office.
The highly anticipated confrontation began with the co-host Eddie introducing Rico Bosco by saying “As you can see leading off here there’s a guest in the studio. We have Rico Bosco, who seems very unhappy”. Portnoy would quickly follow the introduction with “He seems unhappy with you Eddie, he called you sandwich boy”.
The contentious conversation continued to escalate after Portnoy said to Bosco “You get away with murder. You get away with more than anybody else. I said exactly what I was going to do. When in the history of Barstool did I do that with any employee where I tell them they have to be here on this day, and just didn’t show up. That’s the end of the company! You can’t respect your coach, you can’t respect your leader, you can’t respect your parents…”.
After a few small back-and-forths between Portnoy and Bosco, Big Cat took a shot at explaining the principle of the ultimatum. Big Cat said, “…we got a horse, we want him to run. Sometimes he walks and sometimes he runs. When we put a carrot in front of you named Nadu-du-du (referencing Bosco’s rival Jeff Nadu) you run faster than any horse I have ever seen in my life. When you eat the carrot you then trot and trot and trot”.
Portnoy followed Big Cat’s analogy by telling Bosco “Your bread and butter is Pick Em’ (Barstool Sports gambling show) and college football”. This is when Bosco finally made an effort in defending his honor by saying “I need an opportunity here”.
He then completely erupted and starting screaming “PICK EM’, PICK EM’, PICK EM’, AND COLLEGE FOOTBALL… OVERLAPPED WITH BENCH MOB (Barstool Sports podcast on college basketball)”. He continued to yell “THEY DON’T DO IT IN JULY. FIND ME A COLLEGE GAME BEING PLAYED RIGHT NOW…”.
The conversation then switched gears to the topic of Rico Bosco making bad gambling picks as of late. To sum everything up Portnoy thought Rico Bosco was becoming complacent. Portnoy wanted to motivate Bosco with the consequence of getting his job taken by a rival handicapper (Jeff Nadu). Only time will tell if Rico Bosco finally learned the lesson that some things are bigger than sports.
