Dave Portnoy Tries to Justify Skip Bayless Tweet

Dave Portnoy has weighed in on the Damar Hamlin situation

Dave Portnoy has now entered the fray. The Barstool founder and CEO attempted to help make cooler heads prevail in a video posted earlier this morning.

In case you missed it, Skip Bayless is under the microscope. His initial tweets regarding Damar Hamlin’s freak incident have drawn the ire of pretty much everyone. Even his co-host Shannon Sharpe didn’t want to see him on Undisputed today.

Portnoy tweeted a video explaining why he doesn’t think the hate on Bayless is entirely warranted:

Hotboy Walk #2 – I may be on an island here but I don’t think the #SkipBayless hate from last night is fair. pic.twitter.com/s2mEK6vyun

— Dave Portnoy (@stoolpresidente) January 3, 2023

Obviously, most of what he said isn’t wrong. It does put the NFL in a tough spot in terms of scheduling. The NFL has already confirmed that they will not complete the Bengals-Bills matchup this week. And yes, Roger Goodell is one of the worst commissioners in sports. If there was a three-sided coin, you could determine between him, Gary Bettman and Rob Manfred.

But none of that should matter right now. Hamlin is still in really bad shape. Despite being treated for almost 17 hours now, he is still listed in critical condition.

Here is the Bills’ latest statement from University of Cincinnati Medical Center:

Damar Hamlin spent last night in the intensive care unit and remains there today in critical condition at the University of Cincinnati Medical Center.

We are grateful and thankful for the outpouring of support we have received thus far.

— Buffalo Bills (@BuffaloBills) January 3, 2023

Let’s all try to calm down

No matter how you cut it, Bayless, at the very least, worded his tweet incredibly poorly. Still, I would be far less concerned about how the league re-schedules the game here. What matters the most is Hamlin’s health, and, in my opinion, that will be the priority until more information is revealed.

Something else that’s interesting from the whole situation is the conversation on sports and mental health. Players were clearly not at all ready to play after Hamlin went down. It simply could not be done.

Portnoy has a point here. Goodell probably would shove his kid down a toilet if it helped the NFL, but I think even he should be aware of the fact that 52 other Bills players were in a complete state of panic — and continue to be today. This goes without mentioning the entire Bills coaching staff and medical personnel.

Bayless got a historic amount of heat for his tweet and rightfully so. Human life is more important than sport 100 times out of 100. We need to wait however long it takes before anything else besides Hamlin’s health can take center stage.

I can reason with a lot of things Portnoy said in his video. And like he says, he is not a fan Skip Bayless. However, how can he say that Bayless believes that sports doesn’t matter, even though the schedule concerns he has is one of the first things he tweeted about when Hamlin went down?

Damar Hamlin Needs Your Prayers

At the end of the day, I am sure Bayless is concerned about Hamlin to some degree, but worrying about the schedule is really not the main concern here. I admit, I did get a little fired up on my previous post regarding the Undisputed broadcast today. It is a thin line for Portnoy and how he believes it all went down. I give him credit for trying to weigh in as well as possible.

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