UA-59049186-1 What's Going On Isn't Really Named Hulk Hogan - Good if it Goes

What’s Going On Isn’t Really Named Hulk Hogan

Monday, the Washington Post profiled PFT Commenter. The article was positive towards Barstool, so naturally, Tuesday, Deadspin had to put their two cents in and Laura Wagner wrote a not-so-flattering article that revealed PFT’s real name. However, everyone who cared to know and had thirty seconds free to do a Google search already knew what his real name was, so they just ended up looking stupid. I’m not linking to the article, because they don’t deserve it. Posting articles bashing Barstool for any offense, no matter how small, has become sort of a theme for Deadspin because they know they’ll get clicks when they do that.

PFT posted an article of his own in response to the Deadspin piece in which he asks that people not go after Laura Wagner, so out of respect for him and because she’s already getting enough crap on Twitter from people who didn’t listen to PFT (seriously, guys knock it off), all I’ll say to or about Wagner is that this was really dumb and really petty and she needs to be better and smarter than this.

To Deadspin as a whole, I would like to ask just what was this supposed to accomplish? If you want to write a hit piece on Barstool, there’s no shortage of legitimate fodder. Even if you somehow manage to exhaust the existing supply, all you have to do is wait a half-hour or so and Portnoy and/or one of the multitude of nimrods under his employ over there will give you a refill. Why they chose to go after the one guy over there that even a good number of people who hate Barstool like and who hasn’t done the type of stuff people take issue with Barstool doing is beyond me, especially because a) the article that the Deadspin piece was a response to quotes Drew Magary praising PFT and b) they really didn’t have anything on him. Anyone at Deadspin who thought PFT’s real name was some big revelation must have been pretty surprised when Hulk Hogan sued their former parent company and they found out his name really isn’t Hulk Hogan, but rather Terry Bollea. The Deadspin article says PFT has committed no major crimes; the worst they have on him is that he replied “no comment” to a question about whether or not it was okay for Portnoy to continue to harass Wagner. Anyone getting bent out of shape over that answer doesn’t seem to grasp that “no comment” there roughly translates to “I know my boss is an idiot and I can’t defend his actions, because it would be, at best, unwise and, at worst, a breach of contract to explicitly say that.”

When Barstool says or does something idiotic, they deserve to be called out for it. When you pull bush league stuff like this, though, in the short term, it gives them the high ground in the feud, and in the long term, it damages your credibility. This is Barstool Sports you’re feuding with. They’ve set the bar pretty low. Quit limboing under it.

Twitter: @KSchroeder_312

E-mail: schroeder.giig@gmail.com

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