Last Black Friday I Met Dave Portnoy at the Liberty Hotel and the Rest is Barstool History!
On November 12th, 2019 at 4:41 p.m. Dave Portnoy quote tweeted Big Cat. I still haven't received those billions of dollars...
8 minutes later he sent me a message. I responded within minutes.
Dave set up a 10:00 a.m. meeting on Black Friday in the lobby of the Liberty Hotel in Boston. It was a couple weeks away and I still wasn't sure it was really gonna happen. I was 63 and had been employed as a Plumbing Instructor for 15 years, changing jobs at this point in my life was insane, but for some reason, it was definitely in my wheelhouse.
I messaged Dave to make sure the meeting was still on and he said it was. I asked him if my son Dylan, the director of the 10-minute documentary "My Dad the Facebook Addict" could come along and Dave said "Sure".
Dylan and I left at 8:00 just in case we hit Black Friday traffic and arrived an hour early. On the ride in we wondered if Dave was actually gonna show up or would we be left sitting in the hotel lobby, pulling our puds? We looked around the lobby for the perfect seats and settled on the back corner by the bar, which was more private. We got two tap waters from the bar and sipped them while we looked up at the upside-down Christmas trees hanging high up in the rafters, wondering if they were a sign of just how this decision may turn my world upside down…
At 9:55 Dave messaged me that he was 5 min away…
He walked into the lobby in exactly 5 minutes, clean-shaven, wearing a white hoody, white pants, and white sneakers. He put his hand out to greet us at the table, and after a brief intro, we started talking. It started as a casual conversation, but quickly became an all-out laugh-fest and at one point Dave said: "Fuck, I shoulda' brought my camera crew, this is gold!" Then he took out his cell and started filming…
We negotiated briefly, no hard-sell, and Dave said he'd send me a contract. I told him I had to honor my contract with the school and give them 30-days notice. On the way home my son saw that Dave tweeted out a portion of the video where I was talking about how I had become a force on eBay, bidding at precisely the right time and stealing auctions with only seconds remaining. Then he announced that hiring me was his "Black Friday gift to the Stoolies".
Black Friday is the one-year anniversary of my first meeting with Dave and a great day to take advantage of the storewide sale on Barstool Merch including two Vindog tees.