Here's What Happened at Barstool in Philly and What Founder Dave Portnoy Said in Response

When a video went viral of a person holding an antisemitic sign at Barstool Sansom Street in Philadelphia on May 3, 2025, many were left wondering what happened. However, the video, which quickly made the rounds online, left little to the imagination. The following day, the Barstool location in Philly was closed. So, what happened and what has Dave Portnoy, founder of Barstool Sports, said about it?

Although Portnoy isn't physically at all locations of the bar, which gained its name from the company known for funny viral videos and, yes, pizza reviews, he is still involved in them in some way. Following the incident, he released a statement about Barstool in Philly being closed and what happened. But shortly after the incident, more details emerged, and he continued to share his thoughts on social media.

A video went viral in the late hours of May 3 of someone holding a sign at Barstool in Philly that said "f--- the Jews." The sign is one often featured at the bar, and the message changes often, though it is always in reference to something much more light-hearted and far from hate speech. The explicit sign went viral in a video someone took and shared.

According to CBS News, a Temple University student is the individual who held the sign up inside the bar. The outlet reported that the student was suspended after being identified in the video.

Although the student's name was not immediately revealed to the public following the incident and the temporary closing of the Philadelphia location of the Barstool Sports bar, their face is visible in the video. It's not clear who first shared the video online featuring the hateful rhetoric. However, it was posted in the Instagram Stories of a user by the name of Mo Khan.

Later, the organization StopAntisemitism shared to its Instagram account that two employees were responsible for the sign at the Barstool location. The nonprofit wrote in a post that the two employees who were found responsible for making and displaying the sign were fired shortly after they were identified.

Following the Barstool incident, Portnoy made multiple Instagram posts where he addressed what happened and shared his disgust at the situation. He initially said in a video that he would make it his "life's mission to ruin these people" in reference to the two students involved in the sign at Barstool.

He later posted another video to share his plans to force those responsible to learn about the seriousness of their actions.

"We're going to send these kids to Auschwitz and they're going to do a tour of the concentration camps in Germany, and hopefully learn something and hopefully they think twice, and more importantly, other people see it's not like words you're throwing around," he said. "To me, that's a fair outcome of this event."