From July 2023 until a couple of weeks ago, country rock phenom Zach Bryan and podcaster Brianna LaPaglia, the Barstool Sports podcaster known as Brianna Chickenfry, were the royal couple of the sports-betting, fantasy-football-loving internet for bros and the women who love them. But when the emotionally-heavy romance came to an end suddenly last month, all hell broke loose, and what was an apparently acrimonious breakup has played out in public, with poems on Instagram and podcast appearances. Now, Dave Portnoy, LaPaglia’s Donald Trump–loving boss and podcast cohost but not a musician, has released a pair of diss tracks aimed at Bryan. The first, called “Smallest Man,” was removed soon thereafter because of a copyright issue. The second, “Country Diddy,” has raised the stakes considerably, saying Bryan emotionally abused LaPaglia. (Portnoy, LaPaglia, and Bryan did not respond to Vanity Fair’s request for comment.) And now, social media feeds have been filled with reactions to the drama—whether you like sports betting or Dave Portnoy or not.
Bryan and LaPaglia broke up on October 21, according to Bryan, who posted a statement to his Instagram Stories the following day. About an hour later, LaPaglia posted that she was “feeling really blindsided right now.” On her own YouTube channel, she said that she didn’t know Bryan was planning to share the post that day. “We broke up yesterday,” she said. “So I wasn’t ready to do anything publicly.… I wanted to handle this as a human first.” LaPaglia subsequently took a break from her podcasts, while Bryan continued to post about his upcoming concerts and a trip to Oklahoma to visit his mother’s grave.
Pornoy, the self-appointed “king of the Swifties,” first commented on the breakup by posting a screenshot of the Taylor Swift song “The Smallest Man Who Ever Lived.” Then, the day after the election, Portnoy released “Smallest Man” in which he calls Bryan a “liar” and a “douchebag” and makes insinuations about his sexual health status. The title seems to be a Swift homage, but the song itself is not. A version featuring fellow Barstool podcaster Josh Richards was removed, according to Portnoy, because of a copyright claim from Warner Music Group, which Portnoy says signed Richards to a record deal. Portnoy later reuploaded a solo version.
On November 7, LaPaglia returned to BFFs, the podcast she cohosts with Richards and Portnoy and claimed that Bryan had asked her to sign an NDA following the end of their relationship, but she turned it down. “After everything was done I was approached by his team and I was offered a lot of money, like a big lump sum of money and a few options,” she said. “I would have had to sign all of my experiences—everything that I am—away to this person. They would have been monitoring everything that I do and at the end of the three years, I’d receive like that big lump sum of money.”
On Sunday, Portnoy uploaded “Country Diddy,” which referred to the NDA that LaPaglia claimed she was offered and to Bryan’s 2023 arrest. “I’m the one problem you can’t pay to go away,” Portnoy said. “Your personality is a narcissist starter kit.” LaPaglia later shared the song’s album art to her Instagram account, calling it “LETHAL” and adding “Everyone needs a Dave.”
Throughout the breakup, Bryan has continued posting to his Instagram account but hasn’t commented on LaPaglia’s claims or Portnoy’s music. To honor Veterans Day, he posted a photo of himself in a Navy uniform. (Bryan enlisted at age 17 and served until 2021, when he was honorably discharged to pursue his music career.) “Happy Veterans Day to all the people I’ve served alongside past & present,” he wrote. “My life’s greatest honor is being in the company of heroes all these years. You’ve shown me what true men and women look like and you’ve shown me what it means to put something above myself.”
