Top 7 Nardini Quotes Cut By HBO Real Sports For Being Too Positive And Supportive
It’s beneath Erika to post this so I’m going to do it for her. After reading the full transcript and listening to all of the recordings from every interview the women at Barstool did with HBO, I’m fully convinced that dealing drugs is a more honorable line of work than media video editing/producing.
7.
“My initial thoughts when I heard about Barstool and Chernin, was that I thought Chernin was brilliant to find Barstool, and i thought Chernin was brilliant to invest in someone like them. I thought they were going to pick a male CEO, with an MBA. I didn’t think I was that person, but i thought this thing was electric. I thought these people could share their point of view, and it was radical. I thought Barstool would win.”
6.
“On a Saturday morning in August I bought five “Free Brady” t-shirts. I didn’t feel like Barstool Sports was selling to me, i felt like I was a part of something when i bought those shirts, it was the jankiest website of all-time but i didn’t think of that. The t-shirt was an anthem. I just felt part of something bigger.”
5.
“We are on the path to do $100 million dollars in revenue. We’re growing so fast and in unique ways, I’m very proud of the company we built, and to say that that’s nothing, and I’m not capable or responsible for any of those things, and that I’m here just because I’m a woman, is infuriating.”
4.
“I have poured myself into this company for the last three years, and I’ve loved every second of it. And to write that all of that and say I’m here just because of my sex, it kills me. It infuriates me. I’m not good at window dressing – if i’m here as window dressing for this company then I have failed.”
3.
“Dave not being who Dave is would be damaging to our company, and I’d never ask him to change that for a television show that airs at 1 in the morning on ESPN2, no.”
2.
“If I was an 18 year old woman right now looking for a job in sports business, I would look around and say, “okay, Jimmy Pitaro is the CEO of ESPN, Eric Shanks is the CEO of Fox, Howard Mittman is the CEO of Bleacher Report, Steve Burke is the CEO of NBC, SB Nation is Jim Bankoff, you can go all the way down the list… then you see little old Barstool Sports, that has a woman CEO, and when you look under the hood, the CRO is a woman, her name is Deirdre Lester, our CFO is a woman, Wajeeha Ahmed, our head of production and talent Jen Simons is a woman, and if I was 18 maybe i’d say hey, I can do it too.”
1.
“If you were Ria you went to apply to ESPN, Turner, Fox, Bleacher, or any of the places we’ve mentioned, Ria would probably have a producer assigned to her if she was infinitely lucky, and if she had made it to the top. That producer would probably be a man, and he would say ‘Alright Ria, here’s where you’re going to sit, here is what time you show up, here is your script, you have a minute and a half to talk about this, and then we’ll call you again if we need you.’
But at Barstool, we brought Ria in as an intern, and we gave her a mic, we gave her a camera, we gave her access to the blog, and we let her go. She is the quintessential example of someone who has taken a free, open, and creative environment and made it her own. She has done that from the support and resources from Barstool, but Ria is who made Ria successful because she had the drive, the DNA, the work ethic, and the wherewithal to know she wanted to make her own entertainment show.
I remember the day we put her on radio the first time, she had no idea what to do but she went and figured it out. I think the opportunity for a young person to be given autonomy, freedom, and creative support, and get pushed by some of the internet greats we have here, led to Ria being one of the biggest success stories of Barstool Sports.”
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Viva.
PS,
Enhance. Enhance. Enhance.
[Full editorial disclosure: I did not get 26 year old staff writer Laura Wagner’s approval on these quotes and whether or not they are the correct way for Chief Executive Officer Erika Nardini to feel as a woman.]