St. Louis Fitness Entrepreneur Faces Backlash after Rant Against Female Police Officers

By Dana Rieck

Source St. Louis Post-Dispatch

ST. LOUIS COUNTY, MO — Sgt. Emily Gilyon, a veteran St. Louis County cop, posted to Facebook 15 minutes after she got the text on Friday. Her friend, a former police officer, had sent her Andy Frisella’s latest podcast on YouTube and said, “Listen to this.”

She heard Frisella — a St. Louis native, fitness entrepreneur and major police donor — go on an obscenity-filled rant in which he said women should not be cops and that men could “punch a hole through their (expletive) face and end their (expletive) life” if the women officers weren’t armed with guns and badges.

Gilyon, an officer for almost 25 years, said she was “disappointed and disgusted.” The sergeant tagged 21 regional police departments in her Facebook post. It was shared more than 60 times, and the 90-second video clip has been played more than 7,500 times.

Within hours of her Facebook post, Frisella faced a media firestorm and backlash from the law enforcement community, many of whom publicly vowed to sever all financial and other ties with the fitness mogul.

Frisella co-founded Supplement Superstore and 1st Phorm nutritional supplements and created the popular “75 Hard” fitness challenge. His Instagram account has 3.3 million followers, and his “Real AF” podcast has millions of listeners.

“His supporters keep saying Frisella should be allowed to say what he wants on his podcast,” Gilyon told the Post-Dispatch on Monday. “He absolutely is, but that’s a two-way street. Others are also allowed to voice their opinions even if they are not in line with his views.”

Frisella could not be reached for comment on Monday.

Gilyon said she emailed the department’s human resources director on Friday, pointing out that his company had just hosted a free class on Sept. 6 for officers about fitness and nutrition and that another was upcoming.

Gilyon said this weekend she threw away all of her 1st Phorm supplements, noting that many cops had shopped there because there are not many supplement stores in the area.

“He won’t get another dime from me,” she wrote in her Facebook post.

Frisella voiced his controversial opinions in an episode of his “Real AF” podcast on Thursday, which also happened to be National Police Woman’s Day. The comments came as he discussed last weekend’s traffic stop of Tyreek Hill, a wide receiver for the NFL’s Miami Dolphins, in Florida.

St. Louis and St. Louis County police chiefs condemned Frisella’s rant by Sunday and said they would sever all ties with his fitness companies and donations. St. Louis County Executive Sam Page also condemned the comments and supported the chief’s decision to cut ties. The St. Louis County police union sent out a letter supporting its female members.

Frisella has since edited that portion out of the recording and tried to walk back his comments in two separate recordings.

A new podcast recording was posted to his YouTube channel Monday, although it seemed to be pre-recorded and did not mention the controversy.

“If you listen to his apology, count the number of times he says ‘sorry,’” Gilyon said Monday. “I heard the word ‘sorry’ one time towards the end. He talks about how he is ‘embarrassed and regretful’ and says the words ‘me’ and ‘I’ over and over.”

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