By Dana Rieck
St. Louis Post-Dispatch
ST. LOUIS — Police here are cutting ties with a wealthy fitness mogul after an obscenity-filled podcast rant in which he said women should not be cops and that men could “end their (expletive) life” if the female officers weren’t armed with guns and badges.
Andy Frisella, a St. Louis native and police donor who has found immense success in the fitness industry, voiced those 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.
“Especially when you know that if that person didn’t have a badge or a gun, you could punch a hole through their (expletive) face and end their (expletive) life,” he said while talking about how he felt female officers were always difficult to interact with.
The fallout was swift. 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 publicly condemned the comments and supported the chief’s decision to cut ties.
“His statements crossed far over the line from criticism to sharing violent fantasies of killing policewomen,” St. Louis County police union President Derek Machens wrote in a letter to members on Saturday.
In a 12-minute apology recording Frisella posted on Saturday, he said he regretted the comments. He said he edited them out of the podcast not because of “the heat” he received but because he didn’t want people to think it was acceptable to talk about and behave that way toward police.
“I’m embarrassed that I embarrassed my friends and my family and my business partners and especially my employees who work extra hard to do the best job they can,” Frisella said, “They have nothing to do with what I say. And it’s just embarrassing, and it’s disappointing, and it hurts my heart that I’ve let so many of you guys down.”
The fitness entrepreneur could not be reached for comment Sunday.
Frisella is a St. Louis native who co-founded Supplement Superstore and 1st Phorm nutritional supplements and “has turned himself into a giant in the entrepreneurial world,” according to a 2020 New York Times story about his $100,000 donation to Blues game-night workers during the pandemic.
He created the popular “75 Hard” fitness challenge and has founded six businesses that generate over $200 million in annual revenue, according to one of his websites. His Instagram account has more than 3.3 million followers, and his “Real AF” podcast also has millions of listeners.
In one of his two follow-up recordings about Thursday’s comments, Frisella pointed out that he hosts charity events for police and has given away “collectively, millions of dollars, over the course of our business life” to law enforcement.
A recorded clip of his deleted comments was widely circulated among police officers this weekend. In it, Frisella said a lot of police officers, “especially women officers,” try to emasculate men.
“The quickest way to escalate a situation is to do that to a grown man, you know,” he says to Davione Johnson, who records the podcast with Frisella. “That is why, in my opinion, women shouldn’t be in the (expletive) field and police officers. I just don’t think they should be.”
He goes on to say he could end their lives if they weren’t armed.
Sgt. Jennifer Williams retired last June and has a daughter on the St. Louis County police force. She told the Post-Dispatch on Sunday that she felt his apology was all about a threat to his business and the bottom line — and she was thankful police leadership took a stand.
“This is about finances,” she said. “It’s not about his beliefs. He thought what he said originally was fine. He then doubles down in the second episode, for the most part, saying the same things.”
Machens, the union president, wrote to officers that while Frisella’s financial contributions to law enforcement were appreciated, they “cannot come at the expense of our integrity, our morals, and the respect owed to not only our women officers, but all the members of our police family.”
A day after Machens sent out his letter, St. Louis County police Chief Kenneth Gregory sent an all-staff email calling Frisella’s comments “hateful.” The St. Louis County police chief said that even though Frisella tried to retract them, the department is severing its relationship with him.
“Effective immediately, we will no longer be providing services to 1st Phorm via secondary employment, nor receiving donations of any kind or services from them through fitness and nutrition classes,” Gregory wrote. “The words used by Mr. Frisella in his rant were violent and unacceptable. We all stand together and will not tolerate such hate against our sisters in uniform.”
Frisella’s fitness company, 1st Phorm, provided four free classes to county police staff members in 2023 and 2024, said Sgt. Tracy Panus. She confirmed the department has no ongoing contracts with Frisella’s companies.
Echoing Gregory, St. Louis police Chief Robert Tracy said in a statement that his department is severing ties with Frisella. He said female officers are at the core of the agency.
“Female police officers are valued and respected members of the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department,” Tracy said. “Each day, they risk their lives in service to the city of St. Louis. His overall and disparaging comments do not reflect our views or core values and have no place in the SLMPD.”
Joe Patterson, executive director of the county’s police union, thanked department leadership on Sunday for taking a stand.
“At a time when hundreds and hundreds of police officer vacancies currently exist in our region, women represent the fastest growing demographic of new police officers,” he wrote in a statement. “Current and future women police officers must know we wholeheartedly support and value their commitment in helping to secure the public safety of our region.”
Women make up between 15% and 16% of both departments.
Panus on Monday said 123 of the county department’s 812 officers are women. Mitch McCoy, spokesperson for St. Louis police, on Monday said the city department has 883 officers and about 142 of them are women. Both agencies have also struggled for years to recruit and retain officers.
The city’s police union did not respond to a request for comment.
Frisella first addressed the criticism on Saturday in a 20-minute Q&A-style video that had about 100,000 views as of Sunday afternoon. He walked back his points about women in policing and “took responsibility” for generalizing, without outright apologizing.
“What I really mean is that certain women shouldn’t be police officers, and certain men shouldn’t be police officers,” Frisella said. “And if we’re going to have women be police officers, they should be capable. They should be emotionally stable.”
He said the same goes for male officers.
Frisella then posted a 12-minute audio recording where he apologized. He said he made the comments about women because he had gotten worked up thinking about a traffic stop about a decade ago when two female officers had him “face down on the side of the highway in a suit being berated.” He said a male officer came along, resolved the issue and everyone went on their way.
Williams said something doesn’t sit right with her about his story.
“I can tell you, in my 33 years of law enforcement, that if I had someone out on the ground face down, they’re going with me,” she said. “There’s a reason they’re going with me. And I don’t know of a situation where another officer is going to pull up and go, ‘Hey, you’re going to have to let him go.’”
In the third audio recording, Frisella said his comment was the wrong thing to say.
“I was trying to make the point that women escalate situations sometimes because they are armed, and men do the same,” he said. “It was an unfair comment to me to single out women. ... That’s not what I meant to say. It’s not what I feel in my heart.”
Editor’s note: This story was updated Monday with the number of female officers in the county and city police departments.
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