Barstool Sports Controversy
So what would people say was the #1 story the past couple weeks in Boston was? Was it the Nor’Easter that hit us Friday? Was it the NCAA tournament? Was it St. Patrick’s Day? Well if I had to cast my ballot I think I’d go with “Sexy BC Law Student” poses on the cover of Barstool Sports and all hell breaks loose. Yup, in case you’ve been living in a cave, the Stool became the topic of water cooler conversation this past week when the BC Law community freaked out about our last cover which featured a current BC Law student (Adrienne). And who better to give his take on this whole situation than the man with the master plan…El Presidente himself. So here goes nothing.
Ok, the controversy began a few days after our last issue hit the streets. A couple law websites including a BC Law School blog posted the pictures of Adrienne. Now this isn’t that unusual. Lots of times other websites will take pictures of our cover models and post them on their site. This is kind of how the internet works. And nothing attracts attention/perverts like pictures of scantily clad hot chicks. But what made this different was that this time the reason the other sites were posting the photos wasn’t so they could ogle at Adrienne, but rather to attack her. Apparently the geeks over at BC Law either are intimated by pretty girls, jealous of pretty girls or have flat out never seen one before. That’s the only conclusion I have for why they got their panties in such a bunch about the fact that one of their classmates posed for our cover. The Superfans somehow believed that Adrienne posing for Barstool would tarnish the image of BC Law and hurt their chances at landing a job. Furthermore, people were saying that Adrienne had flushed her own career down the toilet. In fact the BC blog had about 30 pages worth of comments on this issue with people either bashing Adrienne or trying to defend her. It got so bad that the website actually deleted the entire threadand Adrienne was called into the Dean’s office to discuss the whole fiasco. Now from what I gather the Dean was actually on Adrienne’s side and really didn’t see what the big deal was. She agreed that what Adrienne does with her god given gifts is up to her. And for that I say god bless her.
Anyway at this point, I kind of thought that this little web controversy would be as far as this story went. I mean it’s not like the Stool is Penthouse or anything like that (Not yet at least). The whole thing just seemed so ridiculous to me. But I guess the first inkling I had that maybe I was wrong was later in the week when Adrienne called me and told me a couple reporters had contacted her and asked to speak to her about the controversy. Still I really didn’t think anything would come of it because Adrienne didn’t want to talk about it. In fact she absolutely refused to discuss the issue. And trust me when I say I tried to get her to open up. I mean what kind of smut publisher would I be if I didn’t try to milk this story for all it was worth? So I tried to wine and dine her. I tried to reason with her. I tried to beg her. But to Adrienne’s credit she didn‘t fall victim to any of my pleas or my considerable charm for that matter. She held firm in her stance that she wasn‘t going to talk about it. Therefore, from my perspective it was all but a dead issue and it remained that way until last Thursday Night.
Last Thursday was when we had our “Meet the Model” promo at Whiskeys on Boylston Street. (As a reminder, our Meet the Model promo is when we go to a different bar every two weeks and give people the chance to meet our latest cover model.) Anyway, as I was hanging out by myself inside Whiskeys waiting for Adrienne to arrive, I noticed that there was a Boston Herald photographer in the house. Using my finely tuned detective skills I overheard the photographer ask the bar manager when Adrienne was going to arrive. My original thought was that Whiskey’s had called the Herald to generate a little publicity for the event. But boy was I wrong. Apparently the Herald had decided that our little law school controversy was a major scandal. God love the Herald! And to that end they sent a reporter to Whiskey’s to interview Adrienne and get her thoughts on the whole situation. But this guy had no idea what he was walking into. I mean if I couldn’t get Adrienne to talk by basically offering to do anything including letting her sleep with me, what chance did this guy have? The answer is that he had no chance. For 15 minutes the reporter peppered Adrienne with one question after another and Adrienne just stared his ass down refusing to even blink. It got so awkward that I finally stepped in and told the reporter that she wasn’t going to budge and to leave her alone. Of course I was secretly rooting for Adrienne to spill her guts the whole time and hopefully mix in a couple tears as well, but it never happened. Instead the reporter was reduced to asking me a couple questions about the whole ordeal and I just tried to give him as many outlandish quotes as I could in the 1 minute he gave me. But when he left the bar, I figured nothing would come of it since Adrienne didn’t cooperate at all.
Fast forward to this past Saturday morning, otherwise known as St. Patrick’s Day. El Presidente was fast asleep trying to shake the cobwebs from our March Madness party the previous day. As a side note, I had set the over under of when I’d wake up at 1pm. Unfortunately, I didn’t even come close. My freaking phone wouldn’t stop ringing from 8am right through the morning. As an FYI to anybody who knows me and may be reading this, please don‘t ever call me on the weekend before noon. I don‘t care if somebody just offered to buy the Stool for a billion dollars and the offer expires at 10am, I don‘t want to be woken up. Anyway, as most people know by now the reason for all the phone calls was because Barstool Sports was on the front page of the Boston Herald in big bold letters. It read as follows;
EAGLE EYE CANDY
“BC Law student’s racy photos spark outrage” “Idol” Ayla’s dad did it too, and he backs risqué display”
Jackpot! I mean can you buy better publicity than this? The front page of the freaking Herald! Are you kidding me? I’m still waiting for an invoice from Pat Purcell or something. And while I did feel bad for Adrienne, I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t psyched about the cover. I mean it’s not like I planned it or anything like that. It just kind of happened, but maybe that’s the genius of the Stool? And what kind of El Presidente would I be if I wasn’t there to capitalize on the situation? So when FOX25's Sharman Sacchetti called me later that afternoon to interview me about the controversy I was ready to rock and roll. I quickly hopped in the shower and tried to get my voice to work since it was still in shambles from all the drinking the day before. As a side note, for some reason the First Lady cleaned the apartment like a maniac and got all dolled up like we were going to be on Cribs or something. Keep in mind the interview was like two minutes long and took place outside. Anyway, the Fox25 News interview aired at 10pm on Saturday going head to head with St. Patrick’s Day and the NCAA Tournament. So despite the fact that probably only 3 people saw the story, it still wrapped up the most interesting and well publicized day in the history of Barstool Sports. (2nd place is the day we broke the John Dennis/Ryen Russillo voicemail, when Dennis threatened to kick Rutillo’s balls through his head)
Now I’ve got to be honest. It takes a lot for me to be blown away. But this controversy absolutely floored me. I was and still am shocked how stupid it appears that some BC law students are. Although maybe I shouldn’t be since my dad went there. Anyway, anybody who thinks that Adrienne’s photo shoot is going to hurt her career or BC’s image is nuts. I'm guessing most of the law students haven't been in the real world yet so I'm going to give them a little inside information. Being a hot girl helps. Being a smart hot girl is a lethal combination. So I wouldn't worry too much about how these photos will affect Adrienne. If you really want to be mad at her for something, be mad that with everything being equal she'll get offered a job before you because she has the looks to match her brains. Law is a male dominated field and any guy who says they wouldn't hire Adrienne because of her photo shoot is lying through their teeth. As far as those people who think the photo shoot somehow will taint the image of BC, you got bigger things to worry about like how to stop Roy Hibbert. I mean, I honestly don’t even know where to start with people who are concerned about how this will affect the image of BC Law? It’s like arguing with somebody who says it’s not going to get dark tonight. That individual is clearly insane and there is no point in trying to have a rational conversation with them.
Regardless, I owe these nutbags a debt of gratitude. Because without them this would have never become a big controversy and I’d still be trying to think of a topic to write about for this week’s paper. So to all you BC Law School lunatics, I say thank you from the bottom of my heart. And to all you Stoolies out there, rest assured that I’m racking my brain as I write this article trying to think of how we can create another shit storm with our next cover.
Viva La Stool!!!