Dave Portnoy has become embroiled in a vicious war of words with Abdul El-Sayed after the Democratic Senate nominee’s dig about the Michigan Wolverines.
El-Sayed, the Democratic Senate candidate for Michigan, took aim at Portnoy’s beloved college football team, sparking an ugly exchange with the Barstool founder.
The Senate hopeful, a University of Michigan graduate, mocked the Wolverines’ cheating scandal, which saw the program accused of an elaborate sign-stealing scheme that illicitly filmed future opponents’ sidelines for years.
‘Is Michigan going to win a game without cheating? I say this as a Wolverine,’ El-Sayed said in a clip.
An incensed Portnoy, a renowned Wolverines fan, fired back, branding El-Sayed a ‘terrorist’ in a post on X.
El-Sayed’s Republican opponent, former Rep. Mike Rogers, shared Portnoy’s post and wrote that the media mogul ‘is exactly right.’
Dave Portnoy (left) has become embroiled in a vicious war of words with Abdul El-Sayed (right)
El-Sayed only fueled the feud, retaliating by mocking the 49-year-old Portnoy’s physique and athletic ability.
He shared a video of the Barstool Sports chief struggling to sprint over turf in an indoor facility.
‘Meanwhile, here’s [Portnoy] committing an act of athletic terrorism. Less pizza, more gym, habibi,’ El-Sayed wrote alongside the video.
The NCAA investigation into Michigan surfaced early in the 2023 season amid allegations that the Wolverines used a robust in-person scouting and sign-stealing operation conducted by Connor Stalions, a former low-level staffer. He was suspended by the school and later resigned.
The school was found to have violated the Big Ten’s sportsmanship policy for ‘conducting an impermissible, in-person scouting operation over multiple years, resulting in an unfair competitive advantage that compromised the integrity of competition.’
Michigan lost a share of its postseason revenue for the 2025 and 2026 seasons as part of the NCAA’s punishment for the scheme, which ran from 2021 through the 2023 season.
El-Sayed’s feud with Portnoy comes after he came under fire over his responses to questions about Iran’s regime and Islamist organizations.
The former public health official has made opposing the war in Iran, as well as most US foreign intervention, one of his biggest campaign issues.
El-Sayed took aim at the Michigan Wolverines over the program’s recent cheating scandal
El-Sayed is facing Republican opponent, former Rep. Mike Rogers, in Michigan’s Senate race
In an interview with Fox News’ Martha MacCallum earlier this month, El-Sayed was challenged on his views in a discussion of recent terrorist attacks.
MacCallum quoted El-Sayed as saying that ‘we need to be curious about people who do them, what causes them to do these sorts of things, why these things happen, what happens when individuals who commit these acts are in pain.’
MacCallum then said El-Sayed was suggesting the US has ‘been on the wrong side of our own policies’ and he was claiming that terrorism is ‘our fault.’
‘No, it’s not – the victim is never at fault, and terrorism is wrong no matter who perpetrates the terrorism, who it is perpetrated against,’ El-Sayed said, before pivoting to Iran.
‘War is a system of violence, when you think about a war we shouldn’t be fighting, like the war in Iran right now.’
In a social media post earlier this month, President Donald Trump targeted El-Sayed directly, referring to the Democratic nominee as ‘Mohammed’ and alleging he ‘goes back to the days of the Jihad’.
‘He is a Radical Extremist, Terrorist Sympathizer,’ Trump wrote on Truth Social.
El-Sayed, who was born to Egyptian parents, called Trump’s post an ‘attack on all of us.’
‘He thinks he can use my name and my faith to distract us from the suffering his policies are inflicting on us,’ he responded.
