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Shaq said he hopes Tom Brady punches Dave Portnoy
Shaquille O’Neal isn’t a fan of recent comments that Barstool Sports head Dave Portnoy made about Tom Brady’s legacy. Shaq thinks Portnoy’s comments warrants Brady punching him in the face.
There has been tons of discourse about Tom Brady’s recent business-decision-motivated-behavior in recent weeks as he’s been engaged in a staged beef with podcaster and wrestler Logan Paul, with reporting that the legendary QB is in talks with the WWE over a “potential partnership.”
Brady and Paul’s on-going performance has included included an on-stage slap that the 7-time Super Bowl champion laid on Paul at Fanatics Fest, and a flipping-the-bird standoff in a suite at the World Cup Final.
Tom Brady and @WWE are in talks for a potential partnership (a WWE run for TB12), I’m told.
It explains all the back-and-forth between @TomBrady and @LoganPaul — the slap, flipping the bird, etc.— michael j. babcock (@michaelbabcock) July 20, 2026
Much of the sports world seemed to have the same reaction to these turns of events, which is one of not understanding why Brady would do low-brow entertainment with Logan Paul as he clearly doesn’t need the money.
Dave Portnoy isn’t a fan either, as he referred to Brady’s post-NFL career as “cringey” and “lame-ified,” adding that it’s ”one of the great downfalls of an icon.”
“At the Fanatics thing, he hits [Logan Paul]. They’re at the World Cup game. He gives them the bird. Logan Paul. This to me is one of the great downfalls of an icon with Tom Brady and the way he is acting post-retirement,” Portnoy said on Barstool’s struggling Fox Sports 1 morning show Wake Up Barstool.
“It’s a legacy that is being lame-ified. I use that word; people are like, ‘What does that mean?’ It means he’s becoming very lame. And it’s a guy who very few athletes — Michael Jordan, Messi, Beckham, Gretzky — like, these are like superstars that seem so above the fray that you don’t want to see them mixed up in all sorts of lowbrow TikTok flag football leagues in Saudi Arabia or whatever it is… Everything about him is cringey right now to me.”
Shaq said he hopes that Tom Brady punches ‘idiot’ Dave Portnoy over his comments about Brady’s post-NFL career and legacy
Portnoy’s comments about Brady are obviously surprisingly given that he partially built a media empire on the back of being an unapologetic Boston sports fan, particularly when it came to the New England Patriots, former head coach Bill Belichick, owner Robert Kraft, and Brady.
While Brady hasn’t responded to Portnoy publicly, Shaquille O’Neal has and he clearly took issue with the
“I’d be glad if somebody punches [Portnoy] in the face. And I hope it’s Tom. Dave talks a lot. He’s one of those lucky guys who had a lot of success. So, he thinks his point of view is important,” O’Neal told Page Six.
“A lot of these people, because they have success, they think they’re celebrities, and they think their word, his word matters. But for him to even mention Tom Brady, what Tom Brady’s doing. What you’ve got to understand about Tom — Tom knows exactly what he’s doing. And he’s doing it so well, you get idiots like Dave Portnoy [expressing] their opinion. But his opinion doesn’t matter, and it never matters. I don’t care how successful you are with selling your company, or buying it back for a dollar. Whoopty freakin’ do. You’re a rich man. Now try being nice. But, again, I’ll be glad if somebody punches him right in the face… He talks too much. And you can tell him I said it.”
O’Neal may be right in principle, but on the other hand, OF COURSE he’s going to defend an athlete doing something for money as he literally has a reputation for taking on seemingly endless brand deals — in fact, Shaq has previously said he has “no idea” how many brand deals he has. When it comes to selling out, O’Neal might be the GOAT.
“Between Tool Shaq (Home Depot), Shaq-A-Licious (Hershey’s), Shaqtin’ A Fool (TNT) and Shaquille O’Deal (Klarna) — and that’s just the tip of the Shaq-berg — the most visible brand in the NBA is 7-foot-1 and 14 years into retirement. Shaquille O’Neal also answers to Dunk Man (Reebok), DJ Diesel (at Wynn Resort) and Chief Fun Officer (Carnival Cruise Line),” the Sports Business Journal wrote in a profile piece about the Hall of Fame big man last year.
Shaq’s past and current brand deals include but are not limited to: The General Insurance, Gold Bond, Icy Hot, Papa John’s, Carnival Cruise Line, Reebok, Walmart, Pepsi, Boost Mobile, Buick, Burger King, Arizona Beverages, Radio Shack, 24-Hour Fitness, Taco Bell, Nestle Crunch, Wheaties, and more.