Barstool Sports Saved My Life

Jeff Nadu9/16/2022 3:10 PM

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I'm back. This is my second time working at Barstool Sports. Many of you know my story… I was here once, left in 2021 and now I'm back. This blog isn't necessarily about coming back and making a grand entrance with my life story. But I am happy to be here again.

I titled this what I titled it because I pondered this question recently on a train ride home from HQ. When I worked at Barstool the first time, it all come to in a crazy way. My connection to Barstool goes back to HQ2 before sports betting was even legal. Dave and I met and we kept the lines of dialogue open and he told me I had the "it factor." I at one point in 2019 declined Barstool. I won't get into why, but I did.

Dave contacted me in February 2020 asking me if I wanted to be on Picks Central and do some gambling stuff. I said absolutely and the talks started again. We had agreed that I'd finally start on Selection Sunday in March of 2020. Then the Coronavirus blew in on all of our lives and I was referred to as "patient 400" because of my massive weight at the time and blamed for it by Rico Bosco who hates me, but it was kind of funny. Now obviously I didn't cause a once in a hundred year pandemic to happen but I was bad luck and I was a fat motherfucker. I remember getting the DM from Dave… "We’re stuck till after this thing passes" he told me.

Now obviously I was sick to my stomach. It had been a long road to get to Barstool, really by my own doing. Then this happens? But then I looked in the mirror and I wasn't happy. I was 343 lbs. I was out of control. I took that time and fixed it. Now long story short, this is not gonna be a blog about my subsequent weight loss of 140 lbs, I actually wrote about how I did it in this blog under this when I ultimately got hired in September 2021, when the coronavirs tthing kind of passed.

At that point I was down 80 lbs. Now, I'm down 133 and I've gotten to my original goal, 210 lbs from 343. Is it where I absolutely want to be? No. I could stand stand to still lose 15-25 more. But I'm happy and I still work at it daily. My confidence is through the roof. I wake up with zeal and not like I'm dead. I have fun again, which is something I didn't value or do.

Many people will likely comment and say, "How the fuck did you let yourself get that big?" Well… complacency, laziness and not a care for anything including my health. I care now, I look at life different and realized I didn't wanna be 45-50 years old with diabetes, fat as fuck, and unhealthy.

I look in the mirror most days and am proud of what I did and how I look now. I mean yeah, I have some loose skin, (sorry for giving you a bad image). But I had to be honest. By the way, that's also the reason I wore a dry fit top at Rough And Rowdy, no one necessarily wanted to see that.

I look at that and the loose skin as a battle scar that I can go get "sculpted." It's a casualty of a war that I didn't wanna fight and finally got the gumption to get up and do something and take a moral inventory of my fuckin health. Something we all need to do. If you wanna lose weight and can't, it's not your wife's fault or the guy down the street, it's yours. Take some accountability, do some research and find something for you that works. For me, it was intermittent fasting and daily cardio, which I still do today. Find what works for you.

My weight is continuing to remain the same and my blood pressure is no longer through the roof. I have no cravings for soda or cake or bad fast food. I enjoy how I eat now and still enjoy my favorites. I just now eat a bit different and I compromised. Like Phil Leotardo did with the grilled cheese on the radiator in the can. It's all about accountability, most people don't take it and they settle. I was sick of settling.

I titled this the way I did because, in a way Barstool kind of did save my life, and maybe the Coronavirus did too. That 6 or so months that I was idle made me look in the mirror and say, "time for a change". Who knows where I'd be be if I didn't have the circle of events happen the way they did. I'm lucky enough to do a job that allows me free time, yes but with a normal 9-5 type of job, we sometimes find ourselves running out of time. The time off and having a career that's different allowed me to some dedicate time to daily workouts and to eat at the times I needed to. I told myself when I get that call from Dave, "I wanna look like a different person". and I think I do.

So yeah, I'll be that corny mother fucker and say Barstool kind of saved my life, because in the end with the path I was on, I would've died way too early. Now maybe I still will, but at least I made an effort not to. Also I mean be honest I do look significantly better. Always trying to look better and better, that's the goal now. Christ! How did I let myself get like this? Well, I'm not afraid to show it. That ain't me anymore and it never will be.