In a video, founder Dave Portnoy called Tinker “the white supremacist crap girl.”
The Metropolitan Riveters’ Saroya Tinker was the first NWHL player to speak out after Barstool CEO Erika Nardini posted a video targeting women’s hockey journalists. For that act of solidarity, Tinker, one of the few Black players in the league, became a focal point of criticism from a site with a well-documented reputation for racism, sexism and targeted harassment.
In her tweet, posted Monday night, Tinker pushed back against Nardini’s claims that Barstool’s involvement in the NWHL would be an overall good, noting that the site’s past history of propping up racist behavior was not welcome anywhere within in the league.
“WE, as a league do not want support from ANY openly racist platform. Point blank,PERIOD. If you, as the CEO cannot recognize that your platform promotes that of white supremacy & only further divides the athletic community, perhaps we need have a conversation. Pls keep your money,” she wrote.
Tinker is no stranger to standing up for her convictions. A day earlier, she, along with a handful of her Riveters teammates, took a knee during the national anthem to protest racial injustice. She has long been outspoken about the difficulties of battling racism within the sport, and has been at the forefront of making women’s hockey a more inclusive place.
Her rejection of Barstool prodded a few of her white teammates, like captain Anya Packer, to speak up. The NWHL also issued a somewhat lacking statement that called out Nardini’s video.
“I don’t find the association healthy to the objectives that we’re trying to do,” NWHL commissioner also Ty Tumminia said.
For her tweet, and for what she subsequently spurned into action, Barstool reverted to the ugliest parts of their often used playbook.
Under the guise of standing up for Nardini, Barstool founder Dave Portnoy went after Tinker and the NWHL. In a video posted late Tuesday night, Portnoy called her “the white supremacist crap girl” and said she was “done” in the league.
“A player in the league, in the NWHL said that Barstool is white supremacist [sic] and doesn’t want to be associated with us, you should be in jail for that,” Portnoy said of Tinker.
The popular morning radio show Barstool Breakfast addressed the NWHL’s tweet also, saying the league needed to “be kissing [Nardini’s] skis.”
“There’s no white supremacy here,” host Willie Colon said. Colon didn’t acknowledge Portnoy’s past use of the N-word, his doubling down on a refusal to apologize, and that Barstool had a podcast which used the N-word in its title.
On KFC Radio, another popular Barstool property, the host went on a 9-minute rant about Tinker and the NWHL calling then, “these [expletive] pussies” and “[expletive] losers who can’t hang.”
Within hours of Tinker’s tweet, Barstool had turned themselves into the victims of the discourse, using the opportunity as the perceived aggrieved party to sell hoodies for an imaginary Barstool Women’s Hockey League. This is a practiced routine for Barstool, where in, rather than addressing the valid criticism against them, the site retreats to an alt-right playbook of deflection, double speak and victimhood.
While the NWHL and many of Tinker’s teammates have stood by her, the support hasn’t been unanimous. The NWHL, like the rest of hockey culture, has its own internal issues to work out in terms of supporting Black players who condemn racism.
Tinker’s teammate Kelly Babstock, who appeared on Nardini’s Token CEO podcast, liked Portnoy’s tweet and several replies. Riveters director of hockey operations Gabrielle Gjelaj also supported Nardini on Instagram.
Another former NWHL player for the Boston Pride, Katie Burt, also stood by Portnoy.
The divisions within the league are hardly unique to women’s hockey but they highlight the burden placed on Black players. Tinker had to be the first to stick her neck out and take on Barstool, and she continues to stand at the forefront, absorbing their attacks. Even players who say they support Tinker, like Packer, haven’t specifically come out and condemned Barstool.
The silence has been noticeable and telling.
Also missing from this conversation are the voices of male hockey players, whose words could go a long way towards stemming the tidal wave of harassment coming towards Tinker, the NWHL and female hockey reporters. As of now, none of the players who say they support women’s hockey have spoken publicly. Barstool’s hockey podcast, Spittin’ Chiclets, issued a weak ‘both sides’ statement, saying they supported the NWHL and Nardini.
According to reports, the NWHL has been “working the right way” to address the issue, but the lack of a publicly unified front has only emboldened Barstool, who thrive on manufactured controversy. Rather than engage in Twitter wars, Tinker has instead thrown her attention and support behind raising funds to get more Black women involved in playing hockey.
Barstool has used that internal division to its own spurious ends, generating revenue and publicity at the expense of a Black player brave enough to speak the truth. Tinker is taking most of the heat for her principled stand and it’s well past time that the entire hockey community rallied on her behalf.
