Sports reporter Elika Sadeghi is getting torn apart on social media today by the legions of followers of the website Barstool Sports after posting a portion of a contract given to her by the site this past summer while she was contemplating working there. Sadeghi ultimately did not sign on with Barstool Sports.
Barstool Sports founder Dave Portnoy said the portion of the contract in question [which can be viewed here] included “standard, boilerplate language.” Barstool CEO Erika Nardini posted the following on Twitter: “Barstool creates really unique comedy and the nature of that comedy means that we can sometimes easily offend … Today’s leaked section of our contract is signed by every single employee at Barstool Sports to ensure they are comfortable … We have a zero tolerance harassment policy.”
Enduring an onslaught on Twitter, Sadeghi (@steakNstiffarms) tweeted, “I decided to walk, even if they removed [the portion of the contract posted]. How could I work for them, knowing it exists? But would I have walked, if I needed the money? … I made clear why I was walking, that this was offensive. I hope they’ve removed [the language in the contract], but I doubt it, since they didn’t seem to believe me.”
Many Barstool loyalists claimed that Sadeghi was simply seeking attention with her post, to which Sadeghi responded, “I’d think if attention was a priority to someone, they’d have accepted the job that promised it to them.”
“Don’t work there if you don’t like it!”
I didn’t like it, and I didn’t work there. I thought that was clear?
— Elika (@steakNstiffarms) October 11, 2017
Sadeghi has not yet addressed on Twitter if she is going to be working for NEXTVR (a virtual reality live sports events broadcaster) in the future. NEXTVR tweeted early Thursday morning, hours after the Barstool controversy broke, that Sadeghi was joining their team as an announcer.
We’re excited @steakNstiffarms has decided to join us as an announcer & are inspired by her courage and strength to voice her story.
— NextVR (@nextvr) October 12, 2017
