There was a visceral reaction to a tweet from FOX Sports personality Skip Bayless last night as first responders performed CPR on Buffalo Bills defensive back Damar Hamlin after he collapsed during Monday Night Football. Barstool Sports founder Dave Portnoy says he doesn’t understand the hate Bayless is receiving.
Bayless’ tweet centered around the reaction the NFL would have to potentially postponing the game and what it would mean in the playoff picture, before ending the tweet with “which suddenly seems so irrelevant”.
Portnoy tweeted a video discussing his thoughts on the matter, which defended Bayless.
“I don’t give a f— about Skip Bayless. Skip Bayless basically tweet a couple of minutes — maybe 10 minutes after — something to the effect like ‘You know the NFL is sitting at the headquarters wondering about the playoff implications of this huge game, which now suddenly seems so irrelevant.’ People are coming for Skip Bayless’ head. It’s trending almost as much as the injury. Listen — again, I’m not a Skip Bayless guy — but did he word it wrong? Maybe. Should he have not mentioned anything? Probably. But, I don’t get the rage.
“Are people not getting his tweet? The way I understood it — because you know Goodell from the second the tragedy hit was thinking ‘What do we do? What do we do? This is such a huge f—ing game, what do we do?’ and the way I read Skip’s tweet was ‘You know they’re doing that, and it doesn’t matter. It’s totally irrelevant’. People are acting like he tweeted ‘Roll him off the field, let’s get going’. Skip then clarified ‘I’m sorry if you misunderstood my tweet’. Yeah, I think the entire world misunderstood the tweet.”
Portnoy, who has had various run-ins with NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell, continued to defend Bayless, claiming Goodell is is guilty of the thinking the way many are accusing Bayless.
“He’s taking some shots from the entire internet right now, and I’m not sure why. I think he was saying none of it matters and by the way, if you don’t think Goodell — if he had his way — would have rolled Damar off the field and kept going, you’re crazy. He’d flush his own kid down the toilet if it helped the NFL.”
