For the first time in nine years, Dave Portnoy was allowed inside an NFL stadium after his ban was lifted. The $150 million booster had hoped to watch his beloved Patriots lift their seventh Super Bowl championship. But what transpired was a systematic 29-13 breakdown of the New England Patriots that left Portnoy heartbroken and absolutely livid at quarterback Drake Maye on his Instagram story.

“We’re past the loss, it’s 4:27 and 29-7, I honestly thought we’re gonna make a run now. Really, I was like, ‘Oh my god, we’re gonna do it again,'” said the $150 million media mogul. “After we got the ball back after the touchdown, we’re driving, Drake throws a horrible interception. We had no business to win the game.”

Defense, unbelievable. Offense? Horrible. Drake Maye has to be hurt, right? Has to be hurt. I hope he’s hurt,” Portnoy continued. ” This Super Bowl is now the fourth loss in this dynasty era, not including Green Bay and Chicago. It never gets easier. Offense, just the worst offense I’ve ever seen.”​

The interception Portnoy referenced came at the absolute worst time for New England. They were 22-7 with just over four minutes remaining in the fourth quarter. The Patriots had just scored and were driving with a glimmer of hope.

Then Maye stepped up in the pocket and tried to launch one downfield. Seattle safety Julian Love read it perfectly. And in one swift motion, Love picked it off and effectively ended any chance of a Patriots comeback.​

Dave Portnoy had dropped $450,000 on 10 luxury suite seats at Levi’s Stadium. And all he witnessed was the utter demolition of his team on the biggest stage. Maye had been sacked seven times. He threw two interceptions (one returned for a score), lost a fumble, and completed just 27 of 43 passes. New England’s offense had been utterly dominated by Seattle’s No. 1-ranked defense.

And Portnoy was kind of right. Maye admitted he’d received injections in his throwing shoulder before kickoff. He told reporters, “I shot it up, so not much feeling.” Despite being listed as questionable throughout the week and missing practice time, the Patriots had removed him from the injury report entirely before the game. But watching him throw weak, inaccurate passes all night explained a lot about why the offense looked so anemic.

However, the good news is Dave Portnoy suddenly went from nihilistic to optimistic in one of his many IG stories simply because he’s not letting one bad night ruin the hype. Shortly afterwards, he hopped onto X and posted Drake Maye’s taking accountability in the post-presser with words of hope.

Portnoy’s Change of Heart

But soon enough, Dave Portnoy had a change of heart when he watched Drake Maye’s postgame press conference. The QB sat at the podium and was visibly fighting tears as he spoke about how proud he was of his team.

“This team is something that I’m just glad to be part of,” Maye said, choking up as he talked about the “great people” who support the Patriots. He paused multiple times, struggling to compose himself. He added, “I love this team, love those guys in that locker room. I’m willing to leave it all on the field, and I know many guys did that tonight, but we just came up short.”

Seeing his quarterback genuinely devastated by the loss completely changed Portnoy’s perspective. The Barstool founder took to X with a completely different tone. “This is all I needed to see. That my guy cares as much as we do. We’ll be back. Nobody expected us to be here. The future is still so so so bright,” Portnoy wrote.

It was a remarkable 180 from Portnoy. But seeing Maye’s tears was enough for him to remember the bigger picture. The Patriots had gone from 4-13 two years in a row to Super Bowl contenders in year one under Mike Vrabel. And Drake Maye, despite one horrible night, was still the future.