About this time last year I was exposed to business end of Barstool Sports.

It was the night the Sox clinched the American League Pennant. I was in my dorm room, half-watching the game, half-cruising the Internet. When they finally won, I started to pay attention to their celebration, much like any other modern skip-the-bullshit type would(although it pains me to admit that I was half-watching a Sox game for the sake of my credibility as a Bostonian). As the Sox celebrated their bid to the World Series, spraying champagne and beer all over each other, I noticed one player donning a soon-to-be signature look, a look that I think I helped him elevate to the limelight to the utmost of its potential. I am talking about Jonny Gomes’ combat helmet. In an interview following their ultimate victory over the Cardinals in the World Series, he explained that it was a gift given to him from an army master sergeant that wore it in Iraq.

Gomes had already debuted the helmet in their victory over the Rays in the ALDS, but not many people digested it beyond the fact that it was hilarious that a situational hitter was wearing an army helmet with bright red Oakley ski goggles. The second I saw him wearing during the celebration of the ALCS, I KNEW I had to jump on the opportunity to capitalize before someone else did.

A couple days prior to that night, I had won a contest in my dorm for designing our building’s t-shirt. It was a pretty simple concept, very easily executed; just an outline of our Residence Director’s face detailed by his very distinctive facial hair and eyebrows. Again, super simple idea, super easy to make, it probably took me a cumulative forty-five minutes between the thought and execution processes. Got a free t-shirt out of it too.

I pulled up the file I had been using as a template for the building t-shirt and mocked up a similar style shirt that instead had Gomes’ distinctive features, including the army helmet and goggles. It was a simple concept, and a simple process of execution.

As a 20 year old Sophomore in college in the Greater Boston Area, who the hell else was I supposed to reach out to other than Barstool? I decided to wing it and email their suggestions address hoping for the best.

October 9, 1:41AM

Prez,

I came up with this design concept for a shirt. Very current, very relevant, very profitable. I am looking to shop the design around, and as a long time Stoolie, I figured I would come to you before anyone else. Take a look at the design, and if you like what you see get back to me. If I don’t hear from you within the next few days I will look for other options to sell the design, but please do not miss out on this opportunity.

Attached with the email was a very rough first version of my idea with a poorly established watermark that read “Adrian Frattini Design.” I had no intention of “shopping it around”. Hell, I had no one else to shop it around to. It needed to be a Barstool shirt. I also never expected him to respond, so I tweeted a picture of the design at him within the same minute that I emailed him in hopes that he’d notice me.

But response came almost immediately. I am still not quite sure if I was speaking with Dave Portnoy, or one of his minions throughout the entire interaction.

October 9, 1:45AM

Love it. How much you want for it?

Awesome. I got what I wanted. I designed a Barstool shirt, but here was my first mistake.

October 9, 1:46AM

Be honest with me, how much of a profit do you think you would make off of these?

In hindsight, I think this is where it started to go downhill. He knew that I was in the palm of his hand from that point on because I had no idea what was left versus right in the world of designing anything, let alone designing t-shirts.

October 9, 1:49AM

A lot. But the hard part isn’t the design. The hard part is having an audience to sell it to. Like I could have my designer do this in 5 minutes and sell it tomorrow. But since you sent the idea I’d rather buy it off you.

By that point, Dave Portnoy had seen more adversity than a standard blogger should. Lawsuits from feminists, boycotts by ESPN. What started out as a gambling insight newspaper with a local hot chick on the cover was now one of the most controversial websites on the Internet. He was battle tested. He knew that I would do whatever he told me to as long as he had leverage. Well boy did he have leverage. He was quick to flaunt how disposable my name was in this whole process, but kept my loyalty by expressing the importance of the integrity of my idea. On top of that, he was ambiguous about the price. He wanted me to name my price so that he would be able to counter and negotiate on his terms if need be. Lucky for him, I expedited the process by letting my lack of experience and eagerness to see my idea get published screw me out of a shitload of money.

October 9, 1:52AM

I’d be willing to sell it to you for 500 if you gave me a ton of exposure and came back to me for designs for shirts down the road. I am a Sophomore Graphic Design Major at Stonehill College looking to establish a portfolio for myself and this could be a very beneficial relationship for both of us.

I was in it for the money from the beginning. I would not have even thought of bringing the idea to the Stool in the first place, had money not been the driving force behind my idea. I was (still am) a broke college student just looking for money to buy beer. The part about building a portfolio and a name for myself wasn’t a lie though. I recognized the value of a connection with Barstool Sports in regards to my aspirations to be a designer. I must confess, I have since reconsidered my aspirations to be a designer. I no longer aspire to be a designer. But at the time, building a portfolio and making a name for myself was a huge priority of mine.

The price was perfect. Pres was on the phone with his t-shirt guy the second I named the price. He was buying an idea that would ultimately amass him upwards of tens of thousands of dollars for 500 bucks. But my naivety got the best of me, and my insecurity caused me to bury myself deeper and deeper into his back pocket.

October 9, 2:02AM

I am not trying to play hard ball. If you give me a price that is reasonable, and you can assure me that you will help me get my name out there it’s yours.

I thought that I had lost my chances of making a quick $500, and not having to worry about beer or my cellphone bill for a little while, maybe I’d even buy the new Grand Theft Auto. I was Pres’ bitch.

October 9, 2:05AM

Not sure what you mean by tons of exposure. We have a bunch of freelance designers. We buy the designs. You can use it in portfolio. Say we used it. Reference etc. Not gonna get a ton of exposure on the site though. That’s kind of impossible.

Bullshit. Barstool Sports has one guy. They don’t have a bunch of freelance designers who all put forth the same style of work.

But you can always send us designs and if I like em I’ll pay for em. And again you can use the reference thing.

Also just as an FYI we generally pay 300 bucks for all designs, but I’m willing to do 500 for this one.

More bullshit. But I was scared. Should I reduce my price? Damn he’s a great guy for being so accommodating.

From there, we exchanged contact information. I gave him my address for him to be able to send the check, and then I went to bed.

I woke up the next day to one of my classmates tweeting at me about how I made it on the Stool. Here we go.

October 9, 1:15PM

“Did that Pres Do It Again or Did the Pres Do It Again?”

There it was, my pride and joy, a product of my imagination was racking up views on one of the most popular websites on the Internet. However, there was not much mention of who was behind this. Just a subtle “Thanks to Adrian Frattini for the idea”. But that was enough. Again, I was young; I was getting paid, I was on the Internet, and people I was generating buzz from my peers. Three things that come of extreme value to sheltered twenty-somethings. Sure, there wasn’t much credit being given to where credit was due, but who was I kidding, this was far more than I had anticipated already.

I received a phone call when I was at lunch. It was Portnoy’s t-shirt distributor down in Chicago. Apparently the file that I had sent to Pres the night before was not the correct format for printing, so he needed to me to resend the file in a different format. I jumped on the opportunity to take another crack at the design a provide somewhat of a second draft for them to use. The additions were subtle, but they provided accents to the image that it did not have before. Example, I added a glare to the goggles, and painted Gomes’ skin tan as opposed to the original white. I was confident in my design. I knew it was basic, I knew it could have been a hell of a lot better, but they liked it, so who was I to criticize myself?

It wasn’t until later that afternoon when my friend texted me telling me to go onto the Stool and read the comments on the article for my shirt. As many Stoolies know, the comment section is an absolute warzone, but for those who don’t know, it is a place where every single minute element of a story is broken down and ripped to shreds by trolls sitting behind their computer screens looking to antagonize every bit of data that gets published by the site. With saying that, this collection of comments was brutal. I am not sure if they seemed worse because I simply had pride in the t-shirt, or if they truly were as bad as they appeared, but needless to say, people hated the shirt. Some notable comments directed specifically at me instead of the usual Jewish slurs towards Portnoy were “Quite the artist you are not” and “holy shit prez did you whip this together on ClipArt before you went to bed last night?” and my favorite “if i wore a shirt like that id have to kick my own ass.” I laughed them off. Reactions like these happened all the time. All that mattered was that my shirt was now one of the most popular shirts on Barstool Sports.

October 9, 8:19PM

“Quick Update on the Gomes Shirt – We’ve Made it Look A Bazillion Times Better”

Okay I was in a rush to get this thing up today. Somebody sent me the design and we went with it. Then our normal designer sent us a cleaner version that I think everybody would agree is a better shirt. Weird how that works. I thought I had the perfect shirt and then I saw a perfecter one. So we switched it out. Don’t worry. If you already ordered you’ll get the new and improved one. We didn’t print any of the 1st version. If you still want the 1st one instead well you’re shit out of luck. We will refund you but we’re not making the first one and you should probably kill yourself anyway.

And yes that goes for you too Will (Middlebrooks – who tweeted about how he needed a shirt). We’ll get you the new one too…

What? What just happened. I was sitting at work when I noticed the article. A cleaner version from their normal designer. Huh. Now, I don’t know how much of what he posts to begin with is true, so I wasn’t going to bother feeling betrayed by the fact that he made it seem as though they dealt with freelance ideas such as mine all the time, and I hate to say it, but I loved what he did with the design. But why couldn’t he have come to me and asked me to clean it up? Those changes, although effective, were very doable by someone beyond the comfort of someone that the Pres was used to doing business with. I am sure that he is on contract and that he either makes a salary or earns commission from the sales of each of the shirts. They recognized that I was not aware of such a possibility, and they ran with it.

I was dumbfounded. I had no idea what this meant for me and where I stood with the shirt, nor did I know how to approach addressing it with him.

October 9, 8:26PM

“So where do I stand with this new shirt?”

I didn’t want to allude too much to how upset I was becoming.

October 9, 8:30PM

Still will pay you.

I don’t even think that was Pres. Probably just the guy who fields most of the emails and is paid to sift through and find nuggets like the one I provided them almost 24 hours earlier.

October 9, 8:36PM

Good stuff

Oh well. I guess you win some you lose some. But as I went back to work, the thoughts in my head began to fester, and I began to process the degree in which I had just been screwed.

As a disclaimer for the next few emails, I was incredibly naïve. I had no idea how to navigate my way through a transaction such as this, and I was expecting the guy to be able to level with me and show some compassion.

October 9, 10PM

I wish you would have given me the opportunity to make the changes and improvements to my own design. I agree it wasn’t the best, but I definitely could have given you what you wanted if you gave me a few suggestions. I realize there’s nothing that can be done now, but in the future, if I give you something that you like but want tweaked, let me tweak it so I can still call it my own when it’s all said and done. I really can’t put that on my portfolio now and that’s the only thing I’ve really been stressing since the beginning of our dialogue. I know you’re just gonna think I’m coming off as butthurt because my original got its shit rocked by the Stoolie Trolls, but as an aspiring designer it sucks to see someone else take credit for what was originally mine and what I ultimately inspired.

I said what I needed to say. I knew he wasn’t going to respond. But I still kept refreshing my email. Waiting for some words of empathy, some offering of compensation, but I got nothing.

October 9, 11:21PM

I’m probably blowing you up with emails, I could care less if you read or respond, but I just want to be heard. I think I deserve some form of extra compensation considering the fact that the main reason I agreed to your deal without putting much thought was because I thought that this would be very beneficial for my new career.

Little did I know that the slightest mention of wanting more would subject me to the beating that I was about to receive.

October 9, 11:46PM

Bro stop. I’ll say it once. Just stop. You didn’t even get me the files correctly. Our guy had to redraw yours. It was amateur hour. You clearly have no clue what you’re doing with this shit yet. The 2nd design was a billion times better than yours. The idea wasn’t rocket science.

I was already paying you more than I already pay all our other designers just because you wouldn’t shut up in the first couple emails. I still said

I’d pay you even though I didn’t use the design and had to pay the new guy as well.

Bottomline is you sent me a design out of the blue. I could have just had it redrawn in 20 minutes without giving you dick. Welcome to the real world. I didn’t ask for you to send me that or tweet me it. You did that on your own. I didn’t have to give you jack but I said I would and I am.

Bottomline is some other guy smashed your design. I wasn’t gonna hold you hand and tell you how to make yours better. Grow up. What you’re doing now is sabotaging any chance you ever have of doing anything with us every again in the future.

Ever seen the movie Rudy? Because right now you’re biggest benefit to me is I don’t give a fuck about you.

Dumbfouned.

To his credit, he was right. I was an amateur, and he honestly could have just ripped off my idea and ran away with it without ever having to worry about me ever again. I was convinced that my fame on the Stool would now be an article that broadcasted the transcripts of my emails with the typical elpresidente “Look at what this dickhead was saying last night” reflection. My disparity with this situation up until now was that this story had not been told. That people beyond our inner circles were not informed of the nature in which one of our beloved guilty pleasures runs their business. This is not an attempt to exploit Dave Portnoy or the rest of Barstool Sports. In fact, this is a gesture of respect for maintaining this apparent mindset in every transaction you have ever made for the Stool. Do I agree with it? Not necessarily. Do I have to? No.

A few days later, Barstool posted a picture on Facebook. It was Will Middlebrooks being interviewed on Kevin Millar’s talk show on MLBtv wearing one of Jonny Gomes’ Barstool Shirts. But instead of the new and improved design, there was my design, on international television. Now, I may never receive any form of compensation from this, but that was the best outcome from the shambles that my ego was left in. My shirt was the one that received the exposure instead of the final draft of the shirt that was sold to the rest of the world. The integrity of my idea was shared with the world.

I eventually received a check in the mail for $500 from the man himself. I was able to pay for a bunch of beer and buy the new Grand Theft Auto.

Thanks for teaching me a valuable lesson, Dave. While I may still resent you, you humbled me, and you taught me what to expect in this world. I admire what you do, and am proud to say that I am still an avid reader of Barstool Sports.