Barstool Sports fired its host Ben Mintz after he used a racial slur while reading rap lyrics during a livestream, company founder Dave Portnoy announced Wednesday. Mintz said the slur out loud while reading the lyrics of the Bone Thugs-N-Harmony song “1st of tha Month” on Monday. “This morning, I made an unforgivable mistake slipping on air while reading a song lyric,” Mintz later tweeted, saying he had “never felt worse about anything.” “I apologize for my actions. I am truly sorry & ashamed of myself.” Portnoy later said the decision to fire Mintz was made by Penn Entertainment, the company that owns Barstool Sports. “I hate the decision. I disagree with the decision,” Portnoy told the New York Post. He said Penn’s decision was informed by fears that not doing so could imperil the company’s gambling licenses. “I would not have made the decision,” Portnoy added. “But I don’t deal with the things Penn deals with in terms of state regulators etc.”
