SPORTS SPOTLIGHT Q&A: John Feitelberg, Fall River native and major player at Barstool Sports

Fall River native John Feitelberg has made a career, quite a successful one, out of not just being himself but sharing himself in cyber-space. His spaceship is the immensely popular and increasingly diverse Barstool Sports. Perhaps best known as a blogger for Barstool. Feits, as he’s known to his almost 300,000 social media followers, shares his thoughts on this amusing world we live in via videos and podcasts, as well as through blogging. He’s also heavily into the merchandising aspect of Barstool Sports, which started as a print publication in Greater Boston but has morphed into a multi-media monster based in New York City, where Mr. Feitelberg lives in a cool Murray Hill apartment. OK, he actually lives on his smart phone.

Feits, who turns 30 this Tuesday (Aug. 14), is the son of John (Hub International) and Polly Feitelberg and grandson of Joseph Feitelberg (Feitelberg Insurance founder) and the late Judge John H. O’Neil. Young John is a Tansey Elementary School alum but attended high school out of town, at Portsmouth Abbey, where he got to go to school six days a week. Yeeaaa! The former Raven was legitimately excited about playing the Q&A game with his old hometown newspaper. We'll see how he feels after it runs. (Almost forgot, here are his social media handles: @feitsbarstool on Twitter and @feitelberg on Instagram.)

Herald News: Briefly, describe just what Barstool Sports is?

John Feitelberg: Boy that’s a tough one. It’s certainly a company unlike any other, I can guarantee you that. I guess I’d say it’s a cross between a massive multi-media company and a high school gym locker room. But, like, in a good way.

HN: What part of your career do you most enjoy?

JF: Any part where I get to tell stories. There are a lot of different people at Barstool who have different jobs and different aspects of the job they thrive at, but storytelling has always been my favorite part. I don’t have the opportunity to write as often as I used to, so nowadays that’s typically through the podcast. But occasionally I’ll have the chance to sit-down and really write a personal story that I’m passionate about.

HN: How much of your time does your job require?

JF: It’s beaten into you pretty early at Barstool that it’s a 24/7/365 job. Whether you’re at the office writing or recording, being active on social media at night about whatever game or show you might be watching, or just searching for tomorrow’s stories and show topics it’s pretty much your entire day.

HN: What piece of John Feitelberg work – whether blog, video or podcast – has resulted in the most feedback or reaction?

JF: I’ve been lucky enough to do this for almost 10 years now so I’ve forgotten more feedback than I remember, but the things that stick out are probably Saturdays are for the Boys, which was a national phenomenon for about two years that everyone from mega celebrities to sports teams to the Governor of Texas to regular college kids adapted as something of a mantra. The Blackout Tour also garnered quite a bit of national attention and reaction. On a smaller scale there was a video I did about how much I dislike cyclists and let me tell you, the cyclist community is apparently a tight knit one and they didn’t care much for that.

HN: How many followers do you have in various social media?

JF: Roughly 300,000. It’s 270,000 but I rounded up to seem cooler. Actually it’s 267,000, I did the round up to seem cool thing again.

HN: Are the Barstool John Feitelberg and the real John Feitelberg the same person?

JF: Yes. Some people at Barstool have characters and schticks and things like that, I’ve probably even tried it a time or two, but I’ve realized that just being myself is what works best for me. Of course there are times I’ll say or do something I wish I hadn’t but I think that’s a pretty normal human reaction, so they’re very much the same.

HN: Does the scope of Barstool and its growth blow your mind?

JF: Without a doubt. When I started at Barstool I was working from a terrible apartment and making about $400 a month, and some months we didn’t have enough money to get paid so you’d just get a phone call from Dave where he said, “Hey I’ll get you back when I can.” He always did, but it’s wild that that was once a reality and now we have a downtown NYC office and people in the streets want to take pictures with us.

HN: How would you describe your position at Barstool? Soldier? Middle management? Upper management?

JF: I really don’t know, which is perfectly Barstool. Everyone here more or less works for themselves so I guess I would say I’m the CEO of me.

HN: Is there a lot of teamwork at Barstool, or is it more a bunch of individuals contributing their own things?

JF: There’s a lot of teamwork on the separate teams. There isn’t a ton of interaction between the individual podcasts, kind of like how at a football practice there’s not often a ton of interaction between the offense and the defense, but there’s a lot of teamwork within those subgroups. The producers, video, cameramen, and talent (for lack of a better word) are talking almost all day every day.

Occasionally there will be something that the whole company will rally behind, like a show or advertising deal or something like that, but it’s largely smaller groups all working toward the same goal.

HN: Do you jump out of bed at 3 in the morning to work on an idea that just popped into your brain?

JF: I’m probably up at 3 in the morning more often than I should be, but yeah when I am in bed that happens often as well. Sometimes you just get an idea and you can’t sleep until you flesh it all out. Then you finally get to bed, wake up, and hate it.

HN: What makes a blog or podcast successful? Is it just content?

JF: Authenticity. That’s the name of the game in anything, isn’t it? People can tell when you’re trying to be something you’re not and they’ll always rail against fakeness. Unless you’re authentically boring then I don’t know what to tell you. Try accounting, I guess.

HN: What percentage of your work is satirical, or at least humorous? Are there times to be very serious?

JF: I honestly don’t know, which I understand is a crazy answer. I’d say it’s all humorous but at times also serious? On our podcast we talk about life a lot, and life’s both serious and hilarious, to me often at the same time, so the lines tend to blur. I’d say 70 percent of the time we’re flat out just joking around and having fun, 30 percent of the time we’re being serious but laughing while doing it.

HN: Criticism of Barstool (ex. blackout parties/underage drinking), has it been fair?

JF: It’s a mix of both. There are certainly times when it starts fair but, I think like a lot of media coverage these days, people notice it’s getting clicks so everyone picks up on it, with each subsequent outlet trying to one up the last headline and make it more inflammatory, then it spirals out of control and gets pretty ridiculous.

HN: What do Grandpa Joe and/or your parents think about the vulgarity and saltier aspects of some of your Barstool content? Polly ever yell at you?

JF: Everyone thinks it’s great. Papa Joe has told me to ease up on the F word once, and I took that to heart, but I haven’t gotten any spankings from any of the upper management Feitelbergs just yet.

HN: What are your responsibilities relative to the Barstool merchandising, and how big is that getting?

JF: I really like merchandising so I spend a lot of time on it. I just enjoy trying to think of stuff people will enjoy wearing. I’ve helped create everything from tank tops to sweatshirts to pants, tshirts, sweatshirts, mugs, flasks, pool floats. I don’t have an official merchandising position but we’re lucky enough to have a brand that people like to represent so I have a lot of fun trying to make new things that they’ll have fun with.

As for its size, it’s massive. Merchandising accounts for about half of our business and at times, years ago, was the only thing keeping us afloat.

HN: What’s your favorite dinner food? Junk food?

JF: I’m basically a human Hungry Hungry Hippo and just eat whatever’s closest to me, so it’s tough to have a favorite. Pizza, Thai Drunken Noodles, burgers, Sour Patch Kids, little white balls that are pieces to a children’s game, whatever.

HN: What do you enjoy doing in your limited free time?

JF: Absolutely nothing and it’s heaven. Most weekends I’ll just lay on the couch and watch Netflix until I have to be at work again.

HN: What is your favorite TV show?

JF: It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia.

HN: What is your favorite book?

JF: Anything by David Sedaris but Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim is my favorite.

HN: Whom do you most admire?

JF: I know it’s a fufu answer but my mom and dad. Years ago I probably would’ve said Tom Brady or the guy who invented Netflix, but as I’ve gotten older and not much wiser it’s impossible not to admire how much they’ve done for me, my brother, and sisters.

HN: Who is the most famous person you’ve met as a result of your Barstool career?

JF: Probably Taylor Swift? Or Gronk? A Rod was the most stunning though. He was a human cruise ship who just sucked everybody into his wake. He had a magnetism that everyone in the office just had to be near. But he was the only one wearing a suit so maybe that’s cheating.

HN: iPhone or Android?

JF: Come on iPhone. I thought about getting that google phone last year but I cannot be a green bubble guy.

 

HN: Whom in the whole world would you most like to hit in the face with a pie?

JF: My co-host, Kevin Clancy.

If bored, email Greg Sullivan at gsullivan@heraldnews.com. In Twitter Village, he hangs @GregSullivanHN.