A viral video claimed to show Dave Portnoy being kicked out of a pizza joint – and now the Barstool Sports boss has responded.
In the clip, a man can be seen getting into a heated argument with a pizza shop employee – even being slapped in the face with a slice before being kicked out of the establishment.
Several accounts on X then shared the video on X and claimed the unruly patron was Portnoy, who has of course become famous for his pizza reviews.
But the sports media titan quickly denied he was the man in the video – while reveling in the fact that the viral clip was making his name trend on X.
‘Momma there goes that man again! The haters are so obsessed with me they make me go viral even when it’s not even me. That’s true power!,’ he wrote in response to the clip.
‘I’ve become a myth, a spook story that criminals tell their kids at night. “Rat on your pop, and Portnoy will get you!’
Dave Portnoy denied being the man in a viral video of a man being slapped with a piece of pizza
Portnoy also shared a screengrab which showed him at No. 2 in the trending category as of Sunday night.
While the man in the video didn’t look a whole lot like Portnoy, fans – and even AI – was convinced it was him.
Fans shared responses of X’s AI, Grok, saying that the video featured Portnoy.
Other fans still believed it was him even after he said it wasn’t.
‘That’s definitely @stoolpresidente, he can deny it all he wants. The level of embarrassment,’ one wrote.
‘Even grok says it’s you. How could a computer be wrong?,’ another added.
And a third said: ‘Damn, I was hoping it was you because that pizza slap was EPIC. You clown.’
Portnoy has been kicked out of at least one pizza establishment before, as he was booted from Goodfellas Distillery in Lexington, Kentucky in 2018.
In that situation, Portnoy was asked if he had permission to be filming by a staffer before being told to leave.
He later gave the establishment a 0 rating in his vaunted series of ‘One Bite’ Reviews.