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Dan Katz, better known as Barstool Big Cat, made a stunning revelation this week. During a recent episode of The Yak, Katz took a moment to speak to his viewers to tell them that he didn’t actually grow up in Chicago, where most of his favorite teams reside, but is actually from Newton, Massachusetts.
“I don’t know why I’ve been ashamed of this for a long time…I think a lot of people know, originally from Newton, Mass, I was born there…I shouldn’t be ashamed of something like this. but I have been and it’s stupid and I need to say it all so it gets to a point where it doesn’t bother me anymore”
Katz explained the origin of his Chicago fandom, which has been a huge part of his personality over the years.
“Born there (Massachusetts), lived there until I was 18, moved when I was 18 in 2003, went to school in Wisconsin…Moved to Chicago after college in 2007…I do have some family from here that I would visit once a year, loved the city of Chicago…rooted for Boston teams and Chicago was kind of my second teams, so Michael Jordan was my favorite player growing up.”
“I’ve been a Bears fan, like I’ve said they were always my second team, so I’m not going to say they were my first team growing up, but they’ve been my only team for whatever, 13-14 years.”
👀👀 @BarstoolBigCat tells all about how he grew up in Massachusetts 👀👀 pic.twitter.com/AXaQSnRJTa
— Viva La Stool (@VivaLaStool) January 9, 2025
Sports fans ripped into Katz following his revelation.
‘Hate to say it but this confirms Big Cat is a total fraud. If myself or any of my friends went to college out of state then dropped all their New England fandom, they would get ripped to shreds about it for the rest of their life.” commented one fan.
“I feel like I’m losing my mind. This dude is THE Chicago sports fan at a major media company and he literally became a Chicago sports fan to get a job at that company. He’s the Rachel Dolezal of sports media” said another fan.
At the end of the day, most people won’t care that Big Cat didn’t grow up in Chicago, and his podcast numbers will prove that.