The Florida Panthers are headed back to the Stanley Cup Final for the third straight season as south Florida prepares for the challenge of winning a second straight Cup. Keith Yandle played for the Florida Panthers for five seasons of his 15-year career in the NHL as made a guest appearance on The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz Wednesday to discuss the Panthers chances of winning another Stanley Cup. This caught the eye of Barstool Sports founder Dave Portnoy as the Le Batard Show posted a clip of the interview on social media.
Portnoy co-hosted his weekly The Unnamed Show with Ryan Whitney and Kirk Minihane and questioned why Yandle, who now works for Barstool, would appear on Le Batard’s program in the first place.
“Dan Le Batard hates our guts, right?” Portnoy asked. “Isn’t he a notorious hater of Barstool? I’m pretty sure he’s on the record as totally hates us. Well, I’m scrolling across social media, and what do I see? Yandle’s face pops up and he’s chopping it up like he’s best friends. This guy hates us.”
Minihane agreed with the question that Portnoy posed during the segment saying that Le Batard has called Barstool Sports “every name in the book” and would bet his “life” that Le Batard hates the digital content company.
“I’ve never gone on the offense with them,” noted Portnoy about the lack of attacks he’s personally done against Le Batard. “He just hates us and mentions it all the time.”
Yandle received word that the program was discussing his appearance on the Le Batard program and apologized to Portnoy for not knowing there was any beef between the two companies. The former Panther said he was invited by one of Le Batard’s producers to join the program and wasn’t aware of anything previously between the two companies.
Portnoy continually stated that any bitterness between the two started from Le Batard’s side as the Barstool founder said “I’ve never said a word. Le Batard is irrelevant to me.”
Minihane continued to share his experiences with Le Batard when he once worked for WEEI in Boston when his program would play clips of other radio stations that rated better in the Boston market better than Le Batard’s program which aired on 850AM. The former WEEI host said that Le Batard complained to his former program director and was a “baby” about the situation.
The Dan Le Batard Show did not address the comments during their Thursday program.
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10,000 lifetimes might not be sufficient for me to understand the appeal of Dave Portnoy.