Selling out was way more expensive than Berry Tramel ever imagined!
Last week, The Frontier published an update on the Sellout Crowd saga.
They reported that Big Dog Media LLC – a company with questionable lending practices that's backed by Bob Stoops, Toby Keith’s estate, and some dude named Hunter Miller – is suing the Four Horsemen of Sellout Crowd – Mike Koehler, Kris Murray, Berry Tramel, and Mike Sherman – for about $600,000 in unpaid debts.
The financial backers of the failed Oklahoma sports media startup Sellout Crowd claim the website’s founders owe them more than $600,000 in unpaid principal and interest payments, according to a lawsuit filed in Cleveland County court this week.
Big Dog Media LLC is suing Mike Koehler, who launched the site, co-founder Kris Murray, writer Berry Tramel, and editor Mike Sherman, who all signed agreements in 2023 guaranteeing a $1.5 million line of credit with a 12% interest rate.
The lawsuit includes loan guaranty agreements signed by Tramel, Sherman, Koehler, and Murray, making them personally liable for the debt. The loan agreements allow Big Dog Media to collect all or part of the outstanding debt from each individual. The agreements were signed on Sept. 5, 2023.
When The Frontier published their long and meandering Rise and Fall of Sellout Crowd back in July, they tried to make Berry Tramel out to be a victim who was duped by a conniving and conning Mike Koehler.
They did it again in this follow-up:
Tramel told The Frontier earlier this year that Koehler said the site’s investors wanted Tramel and Sherman to have an ownership stake in the company. Tramel said he did not realize he was signing his name as a guarantor to the loan.
The lawsuit filed by Big Dog includes the six-page guarantee agreement that Berry Tramel not only signed but had notarized.
I know I’m not a folksy sports writer who made an awful late-stage career move and is now facing bankruptcy, but I’m pretty sure even Dexter Manley would know he was signing a guarantee agreement.
Check this out:
Yeah, outside of putting “Guarantee Agreement” in flashing lights and getting Toby Keith to sing a rendition of the loan terms to “Red Solo Cup,” I’m not sure how they could have made it clearer to Berry that he was signing a “guarantee agreement.”
“This is a loan. A binding note. That you are sign-innnnnng. Proceed to partyyyyy.”
Mike Koehler is the villain in the Sellout Crowd saga, but are we seriously supposed to believe this well-read, college-educated newspaperman with a Roget-level vocabulary didn’t know he was guaranteeing a loan?
I call “Bullfeathers!” on that one.
Whether Berry knew or didn’t know what he was doing, it still sucks he’s in this situation, and I genuinely feel bad for the guy. Sure, as opposed to other failed sell-outers, he may have landed on his feet in quicksand at The Tulsa World, but he was definitely duped and led on by some loansharks and clueless nincompoops.
As a result, I thought I would help Berry out and share 7 ways he can raise more money to pay back his loan.
1. Get A Second Job at Taco Bell
Back in 1997, during a bleak and depressing era of OU football, Berry Tramel wrote an epic takedown of former Sooner coach John Blake, accurately comparing the coach to an in-over-his-head manager-in-training at Taco Bell who was put into a situation where he couldn’t succeed.
Although I’m sure most Taco Bell managers would have the smarts to read the contracts they sign, maybe they’ll show a little compassion and hire Berry as a part-time employee, where he can whip out Dorito Tacos, Seven Layer Burritos, and Mexican Pizzas for the hungry masses, all while earning extra scrilla to pay back his debts.
2. Schedule a Pay-Per-View Fight with Russell Westbrook
I don’t think Russ feels too bad for Berry – the former MVP has admitted he doesn't like the guy – or would want to help the guy get out of his financial bind, but I also don’t think he’d turn down the opportunity to have 30 seconds alone with old Boomer in the octagon.
3. Become Bob Stoops’s Biff
If he hasn’t already, Berry Tramel should try to replace James Hale as Bob Stoops’s biff. You know, talk him up, wash his car daily, overhype his recruits, etc.
It wouldn’t be that big of an adjustment for the old sports scribe. Berry was always friendly to Bob when he wrote for The Oklahoman, and you could tell he really admired Stoops as both a man and coach. Basically, instead of comparing Stoops to a Taco Bell manager, he would make him out to be the manager of a well-oiled Chick-Fil-A, equally able to coordinate a drive-thru line and fry a sandwich, and always responding to Thank You’s with “My pleasure in a great way.”
4. Print T-shirts with His Old College ID on Them
I’d buy one!
5. Wash Dishes at Toby Keith’s “I Love This Bar and Grill”
I know cash is king, but maybe Toby’s heirs would trade out 10 years’ worth of hard labor removing chicken fried steak residue from plates in exchange for Berry’s cut of the loan. Who says no?
6. Sign Up for the Fat Jack's Betting Service
Sure, the Fat Jack's – or as I think he's now called, Ozempic Jack – betting service is probably a bigger swindle than a $20,000 Sellout Crowd banner ad, but at least the Fat Jack makes money.
7. Get a $ 1.5-million loan from Mike Gundy and Garth Brooks to start an ambitious sports journalism website with a flawed, unsustainable and very behind the times business plan
Perhaps the easiest way for Berry to repay his debts to the Big Dog Sooner mafia is to go to a rival gang – the Poke-A-Holics.
Seriously, you don’t think Garth and Mike would like to stick it to Bob Stoops and Toby Keith’s heirs by stealing Berry for their own doomed sports media start-up? Just like Bob has his Conversations with Coach YouTube Show, Mike Gundy can start his own OANN-style political piece called "Musings From The Mullet."
If Berry does go this route, my only advice is to read all the loan documents before signing them.
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Stay with The Lost Ogle. We’ll keep you advised.
