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Mintzy's Broken Ankle Has Turned Into a Barstool Institution

By Bush Staff·2 min read
Mintzy's Broken Ankle Has Turned Into a Barstool Institution
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Ben Mintz broke his ankle on The Yak and somehow turned it into the biggest running storyline in the building this month.

It started as a normal Yak taping. Ben "Mintzy" Mintz showed up in a wheelchair, got wheeled around the studio under the GET CHARGED UP banner, and by the time the segment wrapped, the injury had basically become the whole episode. The problem: almost nobody in the building believed him.

Viva La Stool
Viva La Stool
@VivaLaStool

This might be Mintzy’s best appearance on The Yak

A man in a black polo pushes another man wearing a cap and green t-shirt in a wheelchair across an indoor sports court, passing under a banner reading GET CHARGED UP inside a facility branded with Planet Fitness and DraftKings signage, as another man on crutches walks alongside.

That skepticism is basically the whole engine of this bit. The hosts spent more time riffing on how young Mintzy looked in the chair than taking the injury seriously, and he had to sit there and defend himself on mic instead of just getting sympathy.

Viva La Stool
Viva La Stool
@VivaLaStool

“I’m not faking anything” -Ben Mintz

Three men sit in armchairs on a podcast set with headshot microphones, hats mounted on the wall behind them and a U.S. map backdrop; the man in the wheelchair speaks into a mic, then covers his face with his hand.

The Yak crew leaned all the way in anyway, running the actual injury clip with a #MintzyStrong tag slapped on it like it was breaking news out of the trainer's room. Somewhere between the crutches, the cast, and the hospital-room shots, the story stopped being a bit anyone could dismiss.

The Yak
The Yak
@BarstoolYak

The video of Mintzy injuring his ankle is not for the faint of heart #MintzyStrong

A man in a wheelchair with his leg extended appears to be putting on a shoe on a set with cast members seated in armchairs, in front of a backdrop covered with baseball caps and a hand-drawn US map.

The saga didn't stay confined to the studio. Mintz posted about wheeling himself to Walgreens for pain meds, needing a stranger to push him up a sidewalk incline, and having to figure out a shower cap situation for his soft cast before he could bathe. Meanwhile the NYC office got its own moment of realization, reacting to the news that he actually did break it despite security footage that showed nothing conclusive.

Viva La Stool
Viva La Stool
@VivaLaStool

The NYC office finds out that Mintzy had in fact broken his angle despite seeing nothing on the security footage

People in an office setting sit and stand near cubicles, with a TV screen showing blurred/pixelated content mounted on the wall; the space has industrial ceiling ductwork, a green protein/nutrition bag visible on a cubicle wall, and various office equipment.

By the time the injury made its way to the Chicago office in a wheelchair, with one leg bandaged and extended, the same conspiracy theories popped right back up. People assumed he was working some angle to get out of something rather than accept a guy just genuinely hurt himself.

Viva La Stool
Viva La Stool
@VivaLaStool

We had a man down in the Chicago office this week, and people assumed Mintzy was plotting to get out of something. @ColdStone

A man in a green t-shirt and cap sits in a wheelchair, one leg extended and bandaged, being pushed by another man in a bowling alley/lounge area with a golf simulator screen and stage with a drum kit visible in the background; earlier he stands in an office kitchen area holding a bag while talking.

The line that best sums up how fast this all went sideways came from Mintz himself, reflecting on the gap between his old life and his current one: one day running a marathon, 8 months later getting wheeled in somewhere in a wheelchair. It's the kind of quote that turns a running gag into something a little more human.

Viva La Stool
Viva La Stool
@VivaLaStool

“One day you’re runnin a marathon, eight months later you’re getting wheeled in here in a wheelchair” -Ben Mintz

A man in a green shirt and cap is wheeled in a wheelchair by another man down an outdoor accessible ramp and into a building lobby with a hallway and a potted cactus visible.

Even Dave Portnoy has weighed in with support, which is usually the sign a bit has graduated into full company-wide canon at Barstool. Whether Mintz is milking it, telling the truth, or some combination of both barely matters anymore — the #MintzyStrong tag has legs, the office keeps finding new ways to clip it, and until that ankle actually heals, this story isn't going anywhere.

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