Total Pro Sports
NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport has been accused of badmouthing fellow insider Jordan Schultz and “damaging” his reputation.
It became clear that there was no love lost between the reporters while the NFL Scouting Combine was underway after they had a tense exchange at a Starbucks in Indianapolis. Coincidentally, Jordan is the son of billionaire Starbucks owner Howard Schultz.
It’s reported that Schultz approached Rapoport after they shared opposing reports on supposed interactions between Tom Brady and Matthew Stafford during free agency.
Schultz broke news claiming that Brady, a colleague at FOX, had hosted Stafford at an exclusive ski resort in Montana to discuss a potential move to the Las Vegas Raiders. Rapoport later reported that no such meeting took place.
According to Schultz, he’d been hearing rumors for a few years regarding Rapoport, who had apparently been “bad-mouthing him, accusing him of offering Starbucks stock or Uber stock in exchange for information.”
“Ridiculous things of that nature,” Schultz noted. “Total blasphemy, dumb, unfounded — and yet very damaging.”
Schultz decided to speak to the NFL Network insider at the Combine and happened to see him at a hotel Starbucks.
“You know what you did,” he claims to have told Rap. “This has got to stop.”
“And I was very clear, if you have a problem with me, just talk to me,” he added.
The exchange lasted all of 90 seconds but prompted an investigation after Rapoport reported it to his boss, with league security reviewing it.
“I hadn’t heard that Jordan was accused of offering Uber stock as an incentive for scoops until he was screaming in my face at the now-infamous Starbucks,” Rapoport said in a statement.
They have both stuck to their guns where it pertains to the Brady-Stafford saga.
“I’ll let any football fan be the judge of that,” Schultz said. “I know what I was told.”
