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Ian Rapoport Sternly Responds to Mike Mularkey Tricking Him With Fake Report: 'Not Funny'
NFL Network insider Ian Rapoport learned alongside the rest of the sports world this week why he got an infamous report wrong back in 2018.
Following the 2017 NFL season, the Tennessee Titans fired coach Mike Mularkey after a 9–7 season that ended with a divisional-round loss to the New England Patriots. But before he was canned, Mularkey—who knew he was going to get let go—called Rapoport and told him that the Titans were giving him a contract extension instead.
Given that the news was from the man himself, Rapoport went with the report. The very next day, the Titans fired Mularkey, making Rapoport appear rather foolish.
"Pretty funny for them, I guess, if you don't care about accuracy and taking somebody's reputation and rubbing it in the mud," Rapoport said Friday night on the NFL Network. "Everyone said Mike Mularkey is a good guy. He always was to me. I liked him, thought he was very respectable.
"That was not cool. Not funny. I was a younger reporter then. The amount of online hate and ridicule I got because Mike Mularkey thought it'd be funny to get back at his old boss—it was not fun. ... I don't blame Mike Mularkey, but I want to. That was not cool, and it was not funny. We should treat truth better than that."
Years ago, Mike Mularkey thought it would be funny to lie to me to get back at his #Titans bosses. It was not funny.
— Ian Rapoport (@RapSheet) November 23, 2024
With one of the biggest mysteries of my career solved, I responded on The Insiders. pic.twitter.com/chrJll1T6b
After being fired by Tennessee, Mularkey spent one season as the Atlanta Falcons' tight ends coach in 2019 before retiring from coaching in '20.
Rapoport, meanwhile, has been working at the NFL Network since 2012. That report straight from the source is definitely one he still wants back.
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Tom Dierberger is a staff writer and editor on the Breaking and Trending News team at Sports Illustrated. He joined SI in November 2023 after stints at FOX Sports, Bally Sports and NBC Sports. Dierberger has a bachelor's in communication from St. John's University. In his spare time, he can be seen throwing out his arm while playing fetch with his dog, Walter B. Boy.