Pizza Hut's temporary 'Hut' rebrand for the NFL season gets Dave Portnoy's endorsement; the Barstool founder sees an opportunity to steer ad dollars to his media company.
Pizza Hut, the Yum! Brands chain, will go by “Hut” for the next 25 weeks, covering the 2026 NFL season. Dave Portnoy, the Barstool Sports founder and “One Bite” pizza reviewer, called the move “brilliant” and pitched the chain on shifting advertising dollars to Barstool.
“At first, I didn't really get it,” Portnoy said on Fox Business’s “Varney & Co.” Friday. “We do business with Pizza Hut. And we want them to spend lots of money with Barstool. So I think it's a brilliant move. Whoever came up with that, I like it.”
Portnoy said the rebrand made sense because football season is starting. The word “Hut” echoes the quarterback cadence. “They're thinking smart,” he said. “They gotta find some new media vehicles that cover football, and maybe do a little bit of an ad spend to let people know what's going on so they don't get confused.”
Host Stuart Varney replied, “And Barstool Sports is ideally situated to pick up a little pizza business, right?”
Pizza Hut announced the temporary name change Wednesday. The company posted on social media, “You can just call us HUT for the next 25 weeks.” A banner covering the word “Pizza” on a restaurant in Plano, Texas, showed a football graphic. Pizza Hut, headquartered in Plano, also swapped its social media profile images to a logo without “Pizza.”
The rebrand is a marketing play tied to the NFL season, a period when pizza chains typically see higher orders. Pizza Hut is owned by Yum! Brands, which also runs KFC and Taco Bell.
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