Barstool Carl's Exit From 'Red Line Radio' Got Messy — What Happened?

The Barstool Sports The Mid Show, known previously as Red Line Radio, included four Chicago-based hosts — Ryan “Barstool Chief” Brandell, Eddie Farrer, Dave “White Sox Dave” Williams, and Michael “Barstool Carl” Sterk. However, after spending a decade with the team, Carl announced he was leaving Barstool Chicago.

While the departure seemed amicable initially, a few damaging allegations from Carl regarding his co-hosts went viral and severed his relationships with Chief, Eddie, and White Sox Dave.

So, what happened with Barstool Carl? Here’s all the drama that went down between the Barstool Chicago fam.

In January 2023, Chief Eddie, White Sox Dave, and Barstool Carl gathered for what their fans thought was a typical episode of their podcast. But once the hosts began wrapping up the show, Carl used the opportunity to share a significant move he had kept from longtime viewers.

The baseball expert announced on the show that he was leaving Red Line Radio to move from Chicago to Arizona. Carl explained that he and his wife were moving to Arizona for baseball’s Spring training, meaning he would leave Red Line “indefinitely” to cover baseball on his own platform.

During Carl’s declaration, his co-hosts were seemingly on board for him to do what felt best for his life and career. Following Carl’s last day, Eddie, Chief, and Dave changed the show’s name to The Mid Show and released new episodes throughout 2023.

The vibe between Carl and his former co-hosts didn't last long. After Carl left, he began discussing his exit with the show’s fanbase, known as “stoolies.” In May 2023, a stoolie screenshotted a DM conversation between them and Carl and posted it on Reddit. The exchange showed Carl sharing his side of why he left. He said he could no longer deal with the “toxic bulls--t” that occurred in his final years on the show.

Barstool Carl also accused his co-host, Chief, of trying to take one of his sponsors away from him, stating Chief told the team Carl “can’t be trusted.” Carl wrote that he reportedly found out Chief tried to get him “fired” from the show two years before he left. Eventually, Carl said he had to follow his dreams and distance himself from what the show had become.

“I could have made a monster story,” Carl said in his messages to the fan. “I’d rather just do my own thing and have my fun and not even be close to the toxic bulls--t.”

Soon after Carl’s DMs with his fan circulated on Reddit, it made its the rounds on Twitter. Following the online banter, Chief, Eddie, and White Sox Dave spoke out on air about the Barstool drama for the first time.

During what the co-hosts admitted was an uncomfortable conversation, they discussed the events leading up to Carl’s exit. They stated that the public DM wasn’t the first time Carl had aired out the team’s dirty laundry to fans via private messages. White Sox Dave recalled several occurrences when his arguments with Carl turned physically violent.

Chief also addressed Carl’s firing claim and denied having any say in getting him fired from their show. Chief noted that his co-host’s “manipulation” and “erratic” and “bad behavior” was why they decided to part ways.

“It wasn’t a spur-of-the-moment thing; it was a thing that we had been dealing with essentially every day or 95 percent of days, going back to 2018. And it just got to the point where in December, the three of us decided we didn’t want to continue on the way that we were continuing.”

Chief added that the group agreed to give Carl a proper sendoff with his move to Arizona, which he called a “storyline” that covered what was going down. However, the three hosts said Carl ruined the plan by discussing their issues publicly.

“It's a damn shame because we wanted this to be done and over with when we decided to do the split from Carl last December,” White Sox Dave wrote in his description of the May 2023 episode of The Mid Show. “Unfortunately, that wasn't the case.”