El Prez interviews El Prez
We’ve done lots of fake interviews over the past few years. But today I’m happy to report that we have a real interview for people to chew on. Yup, it is my privilege to sit down with the owner and founder of Barstool Sports. Yes, the man that legions of Stoolies know as El Presidente has agreed to sit down with himself and answer all the nagging questions that the paparazzi is dying to know.
Barstool: First of all, thank you for sitting down with us El Presidente. I know you’re a busy man so let’s get right into it. How did you come to be known as El Presidente?
El Pres: I picked up the nickname about two years ago. Basically I got into an argument with one of my buddies about something stupid and I told him that it was foolish to argue with me because I was the CEO of a major metropolitan newspaper and he was just a sales guy. He responded by saying I wasn’t a CEO since Barstool Sports wasn’t incorporated. I’m still not sure if this is true or not, but I settled for him calling me El Presidente. I told this story on Random Thoughts one day and the nickname stuck.
Barstool: What is up with all the fake interviews that you guys do? Is this because you’re too lazy to get real interviews?
El Pres: I wouldn’t say it’s because we’re too lazy although that may play a small part in it now. But during the past couple years we have actively tried to interview Pete Sheppard, Bill Simmons, Theo Epstein, among others and all of them said no. Heck we even tried to get Kelly Barons and she didn’t even have the dignity to respond to us. So after trying to jump through hoops to try and get interviews with D list celebrities we just said screw it. We’ll fake interview them and answer the questions the way we think they would if they actually let us talk to them. People seemed to like it so we stuck with it. Don’t get me wrong, I’d still love to get real interviews, but it sucks wasting time kissing people’s asses just so they’ll give you the time of day.
Barstool - Ok, having said that if you could get a real interview with anybody and you knew they’d truthfully answer all of your questions who would it be and why?
El Pres - I’d definitely interview Nomar. First of all, I have a man crush on him and second of all I’d love to hear the real dirt on everything from Larry Luchinno to Steve Buckley and what losers both of them are.
Barstool: Ok, let’s forget the boring questions and get right into what everybody wants to know about. Do you get to go to all the photo shoots?
El Presidente: Yup. I think I’ve only missed two of them since we started.
Barstool: Lucky freaking dog. Have you ever hooked up with any of the girls?
El Presidente: First of all, I’m not single and I’m sure my girlfriend is going to read this article so I’ve got to be careful what I say. But no I’ve never hooked up with any of the girls. It’s almost embarrassing, right? I feel like anybody else in my position would be getting laid every two seconds by the hottest chicks in Boston but it ain’t happening for me. And to be honest even if I wasn’t single I’m not sure I would have been able to make anything happen. The girls never flirt with me. I think they just view me as the weird creepy guy who doesn’t say too much in the corner.
Barstool: Speaking of the First Lady, what does your girlfriend think of your job?
El Pres: She’s real cool with it. Keep in mind I met her through the paper so she knew what I was doing. And as far as I know she’s not jealous at all. She knows I’m just trying to pay the bills and get us out of Abington. And I don’t think she thinks I have any game anyway so it doesn’t matter.
Barstool - So seriously, none of the girls have ever thrown themselves at you?
El Pres: Nope. The closest any girl has come to making a pass at me is by sending pictures of herself and her girlfriend in a lingerie pillow fight. They wanted to be on the cover. But this was before I met them so that doesn’t really count. I wish I had better stories, but I don’t.
Barstool: A chick sent a picture of herself in a lingerie pillow fight? Was she hot? Does that happen often?
El Pres: Yeah, she was real cute. I wouldn’t say we get pillow fight photos alot, but we certainly get tons of photos sent to us of chicks in bikinis, lingerie and other sexy positions.
Barstool: So is that how you find the girls for the cover? They send in pictures of themselves going nuts and stuff?
El Prez: Well this summer we did Cover Model Contests at Waterworks every Friday Night. The winner of the contest automatically got the cover. But, yes, usually we just have girls send us pictures of themselves. Or if we see somebody really hot out at a bar or something we’ll ask them if they want to do it. Believe it or not being on the cover of Barstool Sports has become a hot thing to do in the bar industry. Lots of girls want to do it. I think they think we’re Maxim and I’m not going to tell them any differently.
Barstool: So who is your favorite cover girl of all time?
El Prez - Oh man, that’s a tough one. I love all our cover girls. I really think we’ve gotten lucky in that we’ve had beautiful girls from the get go. But I guess since I took a truth serum at the beginning of this interview I’ll tell you three of my favorites. I guess Morgan, Allie and Nikki are some of my favorites.
Barstool -Alright let’s move on. If you could change one thing about Barstool Sports what would it be?
El Pres - I’d love to make the cover glossy. I think of all the papers in Boston we’re the only one where it matters. I mean who cares if all the boring pictures on Stuff@Night and Improper Bostonian are glossy. We have scantily clad women on our cover. They need to be glossy, but it’s too expensive for us right now. Also, if we went glossy I think even more girls would want to do the cover. Maybe then they’d start shamelessly throwing themselves at me. I think the rule is that chicks don’t put out for news ink covers, but it’s a whole new ball game for glossy covers.
Barstool - Do you have any regrets with anything you’ve done with the paper?
El Prez - Hmm, I can only think of one really. We had a writer, Kevin Henkin writing for us when we first started. It was the days when I used to bash the Boston Metro on a daily basis. (I still think the Metro makes people dumber, but that’s a different story for a different day) Anyway, Kevin wrote an article for the Metro while he was still writing for us. Basically we had a conversation and decided that it would be best if he didn’t write for us anymore. There were no hard feelings, but I couldn’t say that the Metro’s content sucked and then have one of our writers writing for both publications. Anyway, almost a year passed and then I saw Kevin wrote an article for the Boston Sports Review. I absolutely trashed him saying we fired him because he sucked and that the BSR was reduced to picking up our scraps. It was mean. But before I matured into the outstanding young man I am today, I used to fly off the handle with anything regarding the BSR and poor Kevin Henkin got caught in the shrapnel.
Barstool - Man, that’s some cold shit. Let’s stop making you look like a jerk. What is your proudest moment in the brief history of Barstool Sports?
El Prez - It’s got to be when we got our hands on the John Dennis voicemail that he left for Ryen Russilo threatening to kick his balls into his head because Russillo supposedly hit on his daughter at a party. That sort of put us on the map. I also loved watching WEEI squirm as they tried to act like nothing happened for the first 48 hours. Also, I got a kick out of how pissed WEEI was about the whole thing. They were somehow mad at us instead of John Dennis. It was as if we were the first people ever to make fun of somebody for making an ass out of themselves in the history of mankind.
Barstool - What’s your biggest Pet Peeve with the paper?
El Prez – Honestly, there are too many to mention here. This would turn into a 9,000 word rant. I guess one pet peeve is that as much as I love the chicks on the cover, I hate when it overshadows the writing. We have great writers. They are the best in the city without a doubt. I just don’t like when people act like we’re 100% about the girls when we have both. We’re a 5 tool newspaper. My other pet peeve is when advertisers place dumb ads in competitor’s publications. For example Suffolk Downs ran ads in Stuff@Night. I still have nightmares about that one.
Barstool - You keep mentioning some of your competitors. You might as well tell us what you think about them all.
El Prez - Sure. First of all, I only consider other free newspapers/magazines as our competitors. And that’s only because they are going after the same advertising budget that we are. But as far as competing for readers we don’t compete against anybody. Nobody does anything remotely similar to us which is a good thing and we’re the only publication that can honestly say that. Anyway, if I wanted to advertise to hippies who go to underground music shows in Central Square and drink microbrews I’d advertise in the Weekly Dig. If I wanted to advertise to hippies from the 60’s I’d advertise in the Boston Phoenix. If I wanted to advertise in a coupon book I’d go into Stuff@Night. And if I wanted to advertise to chicks who think Boston is L.A or New York I’d advertise in the The Improper.
Barstool – Sticking with advertisers, who is one advertiser that doesn’t advertise with you, but should?
El Prez - This is a no brainer. Foxwoods and Mohegan Sun have no business not advertising with us. They just throw their money away in the Improper. Barstool Sports started as a gambling paper and everybody who gambles in Boston reads it. It just makes no sense to me. I lose more money gambling with them myself each year than they’d spend with me in 10 years of advertising
Barstool - Speaking of gambling, how’s that treating you?
El Prez - Ah, I knew you’d get into this. Gambling is clearly my vice. I love when people email me that I gave them a bad pick and they lost like 10 bucks on the game. Listen, buddy I just lost an Escalade so don’t talk to me about 10 bucks. Seriously I’ve lost thousands upon thousands of dollars gambling over the past few years. It became a real problem. I’m in retirement now so that’s good.
Barstool - Do you think that you guys have been true to your mission statement? As a reminder according to your website your mission statement is for the “newspaper to be fun to read and that all the stories will be written from the heart and that there will be no hidden agendas or politics involved in anything we discuss.
El Prez - Yeah, I think we’ve definitely lived up to that. We still don’t tell any of our writers what they should write about. And as far as I know, none of our writers have ever written or said anything for shock value which is what we want. We’re not trying to be a guest on WEEI or draw attention to ourselves. We just write what we feel, regardless of what people think or want to hear and it’s working pretty good so far.
Barstool - So what’s your exit strategy for Barstool Sports?
El Prez - Exit strategy huh? Big words! Honestly, I’m not sure what our exit strategy is. People are always amazed that I don’t have a clear cut vision for where I want to take the Stool. But the bottom line is that I didn’t start Barstool Sports to become a billionaire. I started it because I hated my job and wanted to find something that I enjoyed doing and could make a living at. And if things continue to progress for us like they did this past year then I think I may have a good shot at accomplishing that. Besides that my only goal is to make sure I take care of all the people who have helped us get this far to begin with.
Barstool – Okay El Pres, I’ll let you go as I know you need to go shopping for white pants for the Ultimate White Party. And let me just say that nothing screams “By the Common Man for the Common Man” more than a tight pair of white pants where your junk is all mashed up.