Fans Saw RA's Departure From Spittin' Chiclets' Podcast Coming — "I Feel for the Guy"
"He was spiraling."
Published June 19 2025, 3:04 p.m. ET
In the world of Barstool Sports podcast hosts and employees, everyone knows everyone. It's a fairly tightly knit community, run by their meticulous founder and occasional rabble-rouser, Dave Portnoy.
So when one of the podcast hosts goes missing, it's immediately noticeable.
Not just because fans notice their absence, but because the energy shifts when one of the hosts leaves. This is what happened when Brian "Rear Admiral" MaGonagle abruptly left the Spittin' Chiclets podcast in 2024.
Here's what we know about the reason that "RA" left the podcast and why Barstool fans saw it coming a mile away.
What happened to RA from 'Spittin' Chiclets'?
The Spittin' Chiclets podcast first launched in 2019. Like all Barstool podcasts, the hosts focus on sports and current event issues, offering their experience and expertise for fans to indulge in as the sports world churns out headlines and notable moments.
But in early 2024, one of the foundational hosts, known as RA, abruptly left the podcast for an extended leave of absence.
Co-host Ryan Whitney explained to fans in an episode of the podcast, "RA’s going to take a little bit of a break from the show for the summer. He never really has had a break.”
Co-host Paul Bissonnette added, "Since this pod started, and he is the Godfather, he hasn’t really been able to get time off. Just given everything that’s going on in RA’s personal life right now, if he wants to maybe divulge a little bit more of the details of that, I just think he needs a little break."
He continued, “He needs to be able to go away and address some of his personal stuff. And we love him. And as I said, he’s the Godfather of this podcast, so we are looking forward to when we come back around for the regular season… he’s going to be rolling back around then. Everybody deserves a break at some point. Some people have been barking online quite a bit about the crazy run that we’ve been on, especially in the last month. And I think, really, we all need a little bit of rest.”
Fans speculated about the reason for his leave of absence before it was even announced.
But as time went by and RA's extended leave of absence continued, fans began to speculate about when or if he might ever return.
Ironically, many fans said that they had seen his departure coming a mile away, citing concerning behavior and mental health theories.
In the years and months prior to RA's leave of absence, Reddit lit up with multiple posts from fans speculating that he was on the way out, especially after RA engaged in a disrespectful back-and-forth with Matthew Tkachuk.
Shortly before the podcast announced RA's leave, one Reddit user posted, "The fact that RA is going to sit there and call himself a 'professional' after getting black out drunk and smoking joints all game is actual laugh out loud comical. You could tell it threw whit and murlys mind into a pretzel. Then the dude slept on the beach."
They speculated that it was "the beginning of the end" of RA's time on the show and added, "I feel for the guy." They concluded that his high-profile divorce affected him "more than he let on," causing him to spiral.
But even back in 2022, one Reddit user pointed out that RA was already seemingly having substance use issues, and that he was both "the glue" of the podcast and "a mess."
With any luck, Brian is taking his time away from the podcast to get everything in order. If fans who admit to loving him were happy to see him take a leave of absence, it was clearly past time for a break.