Barstool Sports owner Dave Portnoy said this week that he wants to apologize for his site’s role in peddling a false “vicious rumor” about a college freshman that she says “ruined” her life, acknowledging that he’s also been in talks with the young woman’s attorneys.
Portnoy’s apology comes after ESPN star Pat McAfee briefly touched on the situation, saying he wants to find a “silver lining” weeks after amplifying unsubstantiated internet gossip that Ole Miss student Mary Kate Cornett had slept with her boyfriend’s father.
Cornett and her family allege that they were victims of rampant harassment following McAfee’s on-air remarks and have promised to hold him and other sports talk hosts that spread the vile rumor “accountable,” which includes Barstool personalities KFC Barstool and Jack Mac.
The 19-year-old student says her life was turned upside down in late February after false claims about her sex life began circulating online, only for them to be quickly picked up by McAfee. Attributing the claims to “everybody on the internet,” McAfee and his self-described “stooges” spoke at length about the salacious story while broadcasting from the NFL Scouting Combine.
“Some Ole Miss frat bro, k? Had a K-D (Kappa Delta) girlfriend,” McAfee exclaimed, without mentioning the girl at the center of the rumor. “At this exact moment, this is what is being reported by … everybody on the internet: Dad had sex with son’s girlfriend.”
In short order, the two Barstool hosts referenced the rumor on their social media accounts, allowing it to gather steam online. The posts have since been deleted.
Speaking to NBC News about the role his site had played in promoting the falsehood, Portnoy said he understood why Cornett and her family are “p*ssed” over a situation that she feels “practically ruined” her life.
“It’s a vicious rumor,” he noted. “I’m sad, and I wish we didn’t play any part in it.”
He also admitted that the statement he gave to Rolling Stone in February denying that Barstool was involved in peddling the rumor, claiming the site’s editors felt the story was “fabricated,” was inaccurate.
“Yeah, I thought they were really stupid,” Portnoy told NBC News when asked what he thought about his colleagues boosting the story. “I thought we were better than that.”
Adding that he wanted to “throw up” when he realized Barstool was attached to promoting the rumor, Portnoy said he would like to “apologize” to Cornett while pointing out that he’s already been in touch with her lawyers. According to the Barstool founder, her legal team has offered two paths toward a resolution — mediation or a lawsuit.
“I think we’re going to try to mediate. I don’t know what we did legally wrong. It’s a little different issue. But morally we were wrong,” Portnoy said. “I was bragging that morally I thought we were right.”
Still, Portnoy also acknowledged that he’s not quite sure “how you put the toothpaste back in the tube.” Cornett, meanwhile, told NBC News that McAfee’s segment and the subsequent posts by other prominent sports personalities resulted in her receiving “thousands” of harassing messages as part of a “coordinated” cyberattack.
“I thought it was absolutely ridiculous that an ESPN sports broadcaster would be talking about a 19-year-old girl’s ‘sex scandal’ that was completely false,” she said, adding: “It’s awful, and having your life ruined by people who have no idea who you are is the worst feeling in the world.”
During a live event on Wednesday night, McAfee — for the first time since Cornett threatened to take legal action — briefly alluded to the controversy by referencing the defamation lawsuit he faced from Brett Favre, which was later dropped.
“I’m cool with Brett, just like the current situation that is happening, where I have a lot of people saying that I should be sued,” he told the crowd. “I want to say this: I never, ever want to be a part of anything negative in anybody’s life, ever. That is not what I want to do.”
McAfee added: “And for that whole thing that’s happening, I didn’t want to add any more negativity as it was taking place, like I did. We will try to figure that out and make some sort of silver lining in a very terrible situation. You can have that promise from me. It won’t be as impossible to be a fan of mine going forward.”
ESPN has repeatedly declined to comment on McAfee’s comments and Cornett’s threat of a lawsuit.
