0:09

Welcome everyone to the Sports Illustrated

0:11

Media podcast. I am your host, Jimmy

0:13

Traina, Thanks so much for joining me here with my producer

0:16

Brandon Nicks. Good show

0:18

for you. Today we have Ian Rappaport

0:20

of the NFL Network on to

0:22

discuss what his life is like covering

0:24

the league and being a reporterist

0:27

to break transactions constantly, and

0:30

uh. Ian made some very interesting comments.

0:32

I thought about Adam Schefter and their relationship

0:35

and Ian only has one

0:37

phone. A little spoiler there for you, but I want you

0:39

to keep listening, so check that out. A couple

0:41

of things. I didn't get into it last week because I wanted to get

0:43

right into Jim Nance, who was on and

0:46

uh. That was a long interview, hour and fifteen

0:48

minutes. Great feedback, great

0:50

response. We've had great amount of

0:52

downloads to it, so I thank everyone so much

0:54

for listening. It's been interesting because I've

0:57

heard uh A lot of people say they thought

0:59

Nance was as good as they've ever heard. They loved the

1:01

interview, and then I had a handful of people

1:03

saying that like they thought Nance came off a little

1:05

arrogant, a little salty. I thought he

1:07

was real. I didn't take it like that as the host,

1:10

but maybe I should go back and listen.

1:12

But if you haven't listened to Jim Nance,

1:15

listen to it and hit me up on Twitter with some

1:17

feedback because I'm curious, because there's I've

1:19

gotten a lot of mixed

1:21

on people love the interview. The mixed

1:23

reaction comes on what Nance's sort of attitude

1:25

was. Like I, I thought he was great. I

1:28

didn't think he could be more open than he was.

1:30

Got into a lot of stuff. Um,

1:33

so check out Jim Nance and the archives. We also debuted

1:35

our new music last week, new

1:37

intro music, thanks to my producer Brandon.

1:40

I've been begging for new music for weeks months,

1:43

finally got it, so um,

1:45

I should have made note of that last week, but I did not get Brandon.

1:47

You're welcome, thank you, thank you very much,

1:50

and it needed to be done. Um.

1:52

But I wanted to get right into Nance because, like I

1:54

said, that was a long interview, so I appreciate everyone's sticking

1:56

with it. Ian's on for about forty minutes,

1:58

So we'll get you now quick today

2:01

and then next week we'll have Mike bren On from

2:03

ABC Selashes Pianos calling me NBA

2:06

playoffs will call the NBA Finals. So if

2:08

you are not a subscriber, hit the button,

2:11

tap the button subscribe, subscribe

2:14

and subscribe. Alright, no

2:16

more wasting of your time. Let's

2:18

get right to NFL Network

2:20

insider Ian Rappaport on the SI Media podcast.

2:24

All right, joining me now NFL Network

2:27

inside, our first time on the SI Media podcast.

2:29

Very happy he agreed to do this Ian Rappaport,

2:32

who has been busy the

2:34

last week. Ian, how are you? I'm

2:37

good man, thanks for having me my pleasure.

2:40

Are you arrested from the draft? Um?

2:45

It's usually it's always a weird thing

2:47

because like you spend me, you know,

2:49

probably two and a half or three weeks before

2:51

the draft, like just on the phone the whole time,

2:54

right, So like you know, I end up with probably

2:56

like thirty pages of notes just

2:59

stop. And so you get so

3:01

used to every time you're not on

3:03

the air, just kind of being on the phone, that

3:06

that transition is kind

3:08

of weird. So like I feel good, I

3:12

got you know, woke up really early during

3:14

the draft. But it's not like your party during that week anyway,

3:16

So I feel arrested. It's just the weirdness

3:19

of not being on the phonecent

3:21

of the time, but that always takes like two or

3:23

three days to get used to. I don't know about

3:25

that that partying thing. If you watch your colleagues there

3:27

on Good Morning Football, they look like they

3:30

especially I mean I may have gone

3:32

out and had a drink with two and they

3:34

have gone to you know, the hot Chicken place

3:37

or you know. I'm just saying, it's

3:39

like usually it's it's

3:41

working dinner. So your god, you have a couple of drinks

3:43

and you talk to sources and you see what the hell is going to

3:45

happen on Thursday and Friday, and you know

3:47

it. It makes for a really

3:49

good week. And I think for me, like this is my

3:52

favorite thing that we do. That's

3:54

like a football community. You

3:56

mentioned your phone. How many phones do you

3:59

have? I only

4:01

have one? Really interesting,

4:04

Yeah, I never butt into the multi

4:06

phone thing. Like it's not like I have more pockets,

4:09

right, so you know I have my

4:11

left pocket is for my wild and

4:13

a couple other sort of things. My right pocket is

4:15

from my phone. Like I don't I'm not gonna put

4:17

it in my back pocket, but you have so what I do is

4:20

I have my phone, I and now have

4:22

air pods. Um, so I can

4:24

tweet while talking to someone, and

4:27

then I have my computer

4:29

where I can text from my computer. So a lot of times

4:31

what it is is talking on the phone

4:34

and then texting or tweeting from the computer.

4:36

Got you, I was gonna say, if you only have

4:38

one phone the

4:40

way you use it, that that thing has

4:43

to be charging seven base. I hope

4:45

you have a good charger at least. Yeah,

4:48

I actually do my life. Got me one of those where

4:51

it's kind of like charges

4:53

by the touch, so it sits up so it looks at

4:55

me, so like my workstation, which

4:57

looks, of course pretty ridiculous. You

5:00

know that I could text them phone

5:02

air pods and then usually

5:04

one ear in from TV and

5:07

then like kind of looking

5:09

around all the time making sure that no one else is

5:11

calling me, your texting me. It's a very weird life, right

5:14

exactly, Like we're going to chat here for about

5:16

thirty forty minutes. Uh,

5:19

you know, are you nervous that you may get an incoming

5:21

text or call that you need to take. I would imagine

5:23

doing podcasts and being sort of out

5:25

of uh not out of pocket, but

5:28

unable to be completely

5:30

on top of the phone for half an hour has got to stress

5:32

you out a little bit. A little

5:34

bit, yeah, I mean,

5:37

but so what I'll do is, like, you know,

5:39

I'll talk and I'll kind of hold my phone, or or

5:42

while someone's asking me a question, I'll kind of check

5:44

and make sure, like all right, is this you

5:46

know, is this text something that I need to take right

5:49

now? You know, because because one thing that's

5:51

kind of weird is and

5:53

people always ask me, like, you know, how do you get your

5:55

stories? Like, you know, how do you kind

5:58

of do what you do and what all of the

6:00

the times it is is a NonStop conversation

6:02

with like a varying group of

6:04

fifty or a hundred or two hundred football

6:07

people, agents, executives, coaches,

6:10

whoever. And so these

6:13

people kind of talk to you all the time, and

6:15

you can never quite tell what's like big

6:18

news or what's just nothing. So

6:20

like there are a couple of phone calls that I will

6:22

take a hundred percent of the time, and

6:25

sometimes it's someone just calling a b S or

6:27

chit chat, and sometimes it's like okay,

6:29

the sky tours a c L you need to report it, and

6:32

you can never tell, so you sort of always

6:34

have to get it or always have to look. So since

6:36

you mentioned that, I'm just I don't know if you

6:38

want to shed light on this. If you don't want to, you don't

6:41

have to. But I am curious, and I think listeners

6:43

would be curious that there's many times where

6:45

something will happen in the NFL, some sort of transaction

6:48

where you know, Joe Smith signs a

6:50

three year deal for a hundred million dollars and

6:52

you and schefter will have it.

6:55

Basically, maybe you want to have it five

6:57

seconds before the other one will have it five seconds

6:59

after. As when something

7:01

like that happens, is it is it usually

7:03

the same source going to both of you? Is

7:05

it both the view following up on a LAE?

7:08

How does it happen when you get the

7:10

same thing at the same time. Um,

7:14

that's a good question. I mean sometimes there are, like

7:17

you know, I would say, like somewhat frequently there

7:19

are people who have texted both of

7:21

us just like one

7:24

after the other, or people will you know,

7:26

because a lot of times like what what he

7:28

does a good job of him and I think I do a good job

7:30

of is knowing what stories are coming,

7:33

like knowing what contracts are coming. And I

7:35

think you know I could tell that

7:37

he and I were both on the Frank

7:40

Clark trade this past week, so

7:44

you know we I mean, I could just I

7:46

knew he was on it, and I knew I was on it, and

7:48

I had the terms beforehand,

7:50

and I was, you know, fairly certain

7:52

he probably had the terms to you sort of just wait

7:55

till it's done to report it, and

7:58

you know I so I reported it that they're

8:00

deep in talks and getting closer. I went on TV,

8:02

I said it's done, and when I said

8:05

it's done, he tweeted it's

8:07

done, basically exactly the same time. So my

8:09

guess is he and I were both on it, and we're

8:11

sort of waiting for the same words from the same people,

8:13

and that you know, that happened, and now

8:15

we each have a different people and there

8:17

are some stories that one of us will have just completely

8:21

out of the blue or whatever. But I've

8:23

never actually talked about this, nor probably whatever.

8:26

But um, I just this

8:28

is my sort of supposition that looks

8:30

like we're usually sort of on

8:32

a lot of the same stuff, and so people

8:35

will be like, all right, because you're on it, here's

8:37

this, and then they'll they'll give it to both of us, or

8:40

you know, me him and someone else, or

8:42

me him and a local reporter or two

8:44

or whatever it is. But usually like if you're

8:46

on it, people are pretty good about

8:49

being like, well, since you knew this

8:51

was coming, here's this story. Since

8:54

you said, um, obviously

8:56

you've never spoken to him about this. I'm just curious

8:58

what is your relationship? Is it a

9:01

healthy rivalry? Would you say your friends?

9:03

Are you competitive? How do you view

9:05

because you guys are and you can say the local

9:07

guys they do get stories, and but you guys are the

9:09

top two. There's I don't think anyone will question that.

9:12

So I'm curious what your personal relationship

9:14

is. Do you hate his guts?

9:16

It's I would say very professional,

9:19

um, cordial, you know, like we sat

9:21

across from each other on

9:24

on our plane on the way back from Nashville,

9:27

and and if I'm

9:29

crazy like it, didn't see them awkward or weird. Like

9:31

we kind of you know, chit chat and um,

9:34

you know, there's been a couple of moments where we sort

9:36

of like commiserated about the

9:38

same you know, person who

9:41

feels a certain way about both of us or something

9:43

like that. Um,

9:45

you know, and so like it's weird because you

9:47

know, there are definitely things that only he and I

9:50

can relate to, or maybe just a smart

9:52

small handful of people. Um.

9:54

But you know, we're also extremely

9:56

competitive. Um and so

9:59

I imagine we're probably never going to be

10:01

friends, nor could we be. But uh,

10:05

I think that there's a

10:08

pretty good respect there because you're right, like, there's

10:10

not a lot of guys that do it, and

10:13

you know we also as much as

10:16

I and I'm sure he hates, you

10:18

know, crediting someone else with a big story like we

10:20

both do it, you know. So that's

10:22

sort of to me, like that's

10:24

kind of like, here's the respect, you know,

10:27

like the credit when you break a

10:29

big story here, you know, as first reported

10:31

by whoever. Um. So I think that's kind of

10:34

Um, that's kind of where that comes from.

10:36

I'm debating in my head. I have

10:38

to pause getting a call and trying one

10:41

second leave

10:43

it roll and leave it rolling, because

10:45

let's see how long it takes. I'm

10:47

here with my producer Brandon. This is an NFL

10:49

call, and when I ask him right away who it was, I

10:53

want the listeners to know that he's taking a

10:55

call in the middle of

10:57

the podcast. So it has to be a good one.

11:00

Let's see now, if he's going to keep me on hold for a

11:02

while, then maybe we get like

11:04

a trade or a signing coming. The

11:06

fact that he hasn't been back already could be about

11:08

his aluminum siding. Ian said, he may have

11:10

to take a may have to let the people

11:13

into fixes aluminum siding. So this call could

11:15

be that or could be NFL related. What

11:19

I'm thinking by the length it's NFL related.

11:24

I'm gonna see if it's it's

11:27

a big thing. I'm gonna try to get him to break

11:29

the news right here on the SIME Media podcast. Since

11:31

he's putting me on hold while we're taping, he

11:34

also could be listening to this whole thing. Let's

11:39

see. Maybe

11:44

it was Belichick. Maybe

11:46

it's the NFL about Tyreek Hill. It's

11:51

gotta be big. All

11:53

right, it's gone on too long. We'll probably have

11:55

that at this out. That's

11:57

okay. Was that an NFL call? No,

12:01

it was the siding guy. I

12:04

was telling funny is

12:06

funny? Yeah? You can hear me? Okay,

12:08

right, yeah, yeah, yeah, I I was. I was talking

12:10

to the listeners while you were on all I said, maybe it's like

12:12

something, Maybe it's Belichick. Maybe it's something about

12:15

Tyreek kill, but it's about the aluminum signing.

12:18

Uh yeah, And like I would say, like

12:20

one of the weird things about my job is

12:23

everyone always assumes it's a source, and a lot

12:25

of times it is. But sometimes

12:27

there are real life things that have to happen, and people

12:29

always are very weird about it, you know,

12:32

like, yeah, he should happens. I mean, you gotta

12:34

live your life and deal with you know, doctors

12:37

and how stuff and car

12:39

pulling if you have kids. And my wife

12:41

is currently shopping for a boat tie for me for the

12:43

Derby, so I need to handle the aluminium

12:46

signing guy, Okay,

12:48

I mean you really should handle both. If I'm being

12:50

honest, I'll go get your own boat tie and come on, don't

12:52

you want to? I mean she's going she's

12:54

got to get a hat, so she's up.

12:57

Bow tie makes sense? Is this your friends?

12:59

Derby? It is?

13:01

Okay, it's exciting. Now. I saw I'm

13:03

gonna go way off the reservation and they won't get

13:05

back to it. But I saw that, like all the Patriot

13:07

bros. Are gonna be there, right Brady

13:10

gronk Amin, Dola Edelman,

13:12

do you know you're a far Patriot

13:14

beat. Reported you have a relationship with those

13:16

guys, will you will you hang with them

13:19

or will they shun you?

13:22

No? I mean I have you know, I'm friendly with a lot

13:24

of those guys. Um I

13:26

would Now, when you cover the Patriots

13:29

is different, and you know for other teams,

13:31

like there are players that I'm friendly with when

13:34

you cover the Patriots, At least the way I did

13:36

it, it was definitely an understanding

13:38

that Belichick does not want you talking to the players.

13:40

So like, I would definitely talk to some, but

13:43

I would make sure it was not obvious and always

13:45

like like not like

13:48

I would never if I was real friendly with someone,

13:50

I wouldn't like, you know, go

13:53

hang at their locker for an hour so

13:55

everyone would knew. I would know I was friends him because I would

13:57

just get them in trouble. Now, I mean, I'm

13:59

not a big I'm

14:01

not a big athlete. I'm not a big player guy.

14:04

I mean I'm friendly with some players, but I would

14:06

say I'm more like coaches, GM's agents. So

14:09

like, if I see them, I'm I'm

14:11

sure it'd be good to see him, will say hello and everything,

14:14

but I'm not going to be one of those guys

14:16

that's going to seek out uh

14:18

seek out those does no? I mean, I'm sounds

14:20

like we'll probably end up with some of the same parties. Um,

14:22

so I'm sure I'll say hello, but definitely

14:25

will make a big deal. Do you have a friendly relationship

14:27

with a Mendola him?

14:31

I don't know, great because

14:35

uh we didn't really intersect in

14:37

New England because we know a lot of the same people,

14:39

but we don't know him. If you're friendly with him, I

14:41

was going to say, make sure like you're a good friend and tell

14:43

him to staff Instagram because he can't

14:45

handle it. Well, every

14:49

life is weird, it's uh is it

14:51

is a different deal? That was That was That

14:53

was as good as that was as good of

14:56

a player Instagram meltdown if as

14:58

I've seen in a long long time. I have to

15:00

say, yeah,

15:03

I mean it was it was interesting. Um

15:05

Now, I guess that's what you know when you when

15:07

you're sort of a celebrity who doesn't like being a

15:09

celebrity and you

15:12

have a girlfriend who does like being a celebrity.

15:15

UM, I would imagine that's that's

15:17

difficult and like, you know, it's almost

15:19

like this is and I probably catch like one

15:22

percent of it, you know, like literally

15:24

one percent of what these people deal with.

15:26

Like I get recognized, but mostly I get like stared

15:28

at. You know. Um,

15:31

but it is a very strange world. And if

15:33

you don't want to be out there, uh,

15:36

you know, I I definitely get it. It was quite

15:38

a way to show the world that you don't want publicity

15:40

and to be in the public eye. Must say that Instagram

15:42

posts do

15:45

agree with that. Yeah, all right, So let's go back to before

15:47

you get that call, you're telling us about your relationship

15:50

with Schefter. I'm just curious for yourself

15:52

personally. What was I'm sorry,

15:54

hold hold on, hold on, okay, okay,

15:57

I'm sorry, Yeah, alright,

15:59

sorry about thought. That's okay, Okay, that's

16:01

okay. So we're talking earlier about your relationship

16:03

with Schefter and and the competitiveness

16:05

there. I'm just curious for yourself, Uh,

16:09

what story that

16:11

you what story that you broke gave you

16:13

the biggest high, the biggest rush when you

16:15

when you sent it out on Twitter, and was

16:18

the one that really uh gave you a

16:20

little adrenaline. Well,

16:23

I think for me, Um, you

16:25

know, it's always it is always odd because

16:28

um, every story you break, there's one

16:30

coming that you're gonna get beat on. It's just you

16:32

know. So every time I'll think to myself

16:35

or God forbid, I'll text like my

16:37

buddies like Garripo and Polisaro work with

16:39

me. You know something that great has happened. They're

16:41

always like stop because you

16:44

know it all it all comes around.

16:46

Unfortunately, UM,

16:48

I would say, I broke

16:51

that Lovely Smith was getting fired,

16:54

and it was kind of like on my like

16:56

trial where they thought

16:58

never thought I was going to be in that, but hadn't officially

17:01

like appointed me that and I hadn't been announced,

17:04

and they were like, we'd like you to do you

17:06

know, the day after the season,

17:09

which we used to call black one day, but we don't anymore.

17:11

Um you know, we'd like, we haven't broken

17:13

a firing in like three years, you know, we'd like you

17:16

to break one. And I worked like crazy and kind

17:18

and I ended up breaking Lovely Smith getting fired, which

17:20

was a big surprise, and for

17:23

me that was like a big even though it's weird

17:25

because it's horrible for him and ended

17:27

up changing his life forever. For me, it was like,

17:30

Okay, I can I can actually do this so

17:32

that was big for me. Um, there's been you

17:35

know, there's been some other I think,

17:38

uh now we can talk about after this the stories where

17:40

I got crushed on, which is not as exciting, um,

17:43

but you know, the

17:46

there's been some others that just sort of stand

17:48

out in my mind. Uh.

17:51

I broke Deshaun Watson tearing his A c

17:53

L, which is terrible, and he's such a

17:55

great kid and I

17:58

know he and I know a lot of the same people, and I

18:00

like the texting people a lot, and so it

18:02

was a horrible story, but no

18:04

one knew anything about it, so it was like a

18:06

complete nutter surprise. And

18:08

I think that was one that just probably went

18:11

the craziest UM because

18:13

he's like, he was like such a rock star

18:15

and having such a great season that

18:18

it was like such a shock and so horrible, So that you

18:20

know, that definitely hit among the biggest.

18:24

I just want to I just want to clarify. I'd

18:26

let me clarify for anyone listening out there is gonna

18:28

then come back and give you ship for this. I just wanted to. And

18:32

the one that gives him the most adrenaline, the most rush,

18:34

he's telling you that Deshaun Watson was one that was

18:36

a big, big in terms of the reaction

18:38

and the surprise. It didn't give you in a rush,

18:40

so don't don't. And

18:43

that's what's sort of weird about it, is like sometimes you have

18:45

to break horrible news. Um.

18:47

Now, I mean I would like there's there's others

18:49

that were more fun. Um.

18:53

Getting the Josh Gordon to New England

18:55

trade um was one

18:57

where I was like, you

19:00

know, it was it was a shock, and

19:03

it was so hard to actually get so

19:06

hard to nail it down and like actually

19:09

figure out what was happening. Did

19:11

I was about it is that because

19:13

the Patriots were involved. Patriots

19:16

were involved, um, and

19:20

I don't think at the time that he had an

19:22

agent, either he had just

19:24

fired his agent or he was not really close

19:26

with one. So and and the

19:28

Patriots were involved, and you

19:31

know the uh, certainly

19:33

the Browns were not you know, really

19:35

helping with information considering their

19:37

relationship with Josh. That was just that was tough

19:39

to actually get um. Sort

19:42

of similar with the during the draft

19:44

a couple of years ago, we broke Marshawn

19:46

Lynch me and Garret Folo did getting traded to

19:48

the Raiders and it was

19:51

so impossible to get because

19:53

he was in Haiti and no one actually

19:56

knew the trade was happening. But no one

19:58

actually knew if he was going to get on the plane

20:00

and fly back to Oakland, because

20:02

if he didn't and he didn't pass the physical

20:05

in time for the draft, then he was going to stay retired

20:07

and there was gonna be no trade. So

20:09

like figuring out whether or not he actually

20:11

got on the plane and then being able to break the trade

20:14

was probably the most

20:17

fun and the craziest at that point. You

20:19

know, again, like my life is weird. So that

20:21

was at seven in the morning and

20:23

you're like, okay, great, we broke the trade. And

20:25

then it's like, okay, you gotta get to a camera.

20:28

So I had to like hurry up and get dressed as fast

20:30

as I humanly possibly could, race

20:33

to somewhere in Chicago,

20:35

I think, and stand in front of a camera at like

20:37

seven fifteen in the morning and

20:39

give me the flip side. Now, what was the story you had

20:42

that you didn't go with for whatever reason? And then

20:44

someone else gets it and breaks

20:46

it while you, you know, may have missed it by

20:48

a few seconds or a minute. Um,

20:52

I'll give you. There's like

20:55

unfortunately, there's there's like, oh, there's a lot of

20:57

it. There's many of the good, like the ones I have had

20:59

the good fortune to rape. There's others were like,

21:01

like, how the hell is this? How the hell did this

21:04

happen? Um,

21:06

I would say the one that's most infuriating,

21:09

like the one I still get pissed

21:12

about just thinking about it now. Um

21:16

was I

21:18

have two boys, four and five, and

21:21

when my oldest was about

21:23

four months five months,

21:26

he was he was very difficult and

21:28

very whiny. I didn't realize at the time. I felt all babies

21:30

were like this, but he was very difficult. Um.

21:33

And I'm sitting on the couch. I'm

21:35

watching college football,

21:37

like a bowl game or something, and after the season,

21:40

and the Bucks are trying to hire a coach, and

21:44

I'm watching with Max, my

21:46

oldest, and he's been

21:48

whining. And I tell Leah, my wife, like I'm

21:50

gonna take Max up and change him. Maybe he needs to diaper.

21:53

So I like, I had put my phone

21:55

down because everyone was texting

21:57

me about a game that I was like ten minutes behind

21:59

because I was watching on TVO. So I

22:01

put my phone on. I took back and stairs and like, shoot,

22:04

I forgot my phone. I'm

22:06

like, Leah, can you bring on my

22:08

phone when you get done washing bottles? She said sure,

22:11

So I changed Max and she

22:13

comes racing up. She said, your phone rang

22:15

twice the same number, and

22:18

like, you know, your heart just like

22:21

stops like shoot, and

22:24

I called person back. I'm like, what's up? Like

22:26

the bucks are hiring love you like, oh

22:29

no, did anyone break it? It goes

22:31

yeah, Glacier, just put it out? Where where are you? I called

22:33

you twice. I'm like, oh my god, And

22:35

you know I had you know, you worked so long for

22:38

these like scoops and

22:40

I missed it because I took my

22:42

son up to change it. And I you know, you

22:45

deal with so many like highs and so many

22:47

crushing lows that I know

22:49

it's like the bad ones are bad. You

22:51

sort of getting numb to it, right a little bit um.

22:55

And that was probably the most upset I've

22:57

been um

23:00

for, like something I worked so long for and then got

23:02

beat on and I was like not

23:04

yelling, but I was really upset. And my wife had

23:06

to give me a stern talking to, like, look if you miss a

23:08

story because you're changing your son like, I

23:10

think you'll be over that. That was probably

23:12

when I thought the worst was that the least dipe you ever

23:15

change. I

23:18

changed the the amount of diapers

23:20

I've changed with like you could.

23:23

You could take those diapers and feel like a frekent

23:25

swimmer. I hope you don't use this against your

23:27

son. And you know your son wants, you know, needs

23:30

to get a car. You so needs to get this. And yeah,

23:32

oh, by the way, no, you caused me the love you smith

23:34

Scoop. No, but

23:36

I will say that I now

23:39

I never put my phone down, like and it's

23:41

sort of like the whole story is kind of funny, especially

23:44

now they're like, you know, my career has gone fine

23:46

in one story and I you know, I credited

23:48

Glazer and I moved on. But

23:52

I never just put my phone down. I just

23:55

take it with me all the time because it's you

23:57

know, it's I mean, I

24:00

you do another like this is very very small example.

24:02

So I reported, uh

24:05

during Super Bowl that the

24:07

egos were going to pick up Nick Foles's option,

24:10

and then it was basically the expectation

24:12

was Folds was going to decline it, uh,

24:14

and they opts his way out and

24:16

I put my phone on the counter and

24:19

I'm brushing my teeth and I get a text and

24:21

the text says basically that

24:23

Bowles is opting out and

24:26

I was brushing my teeth and I did something else and

24:28

I missed it, and I was three minutes late on the story

24:32

that I had, and I'm like, okay,

24:34

I'm never gonna put my phone down. And I literally just put

24:36

it three ft away from me. But this

24:38

is the life that we've chosen. You can't take care of your kids, you

24:41

can't brush your teeth. What kind of life

24:42

is? What kind of life have you chosen?

24:47

It's a lot of fun sometimes if it didn't

24:49

if I'm not and I don't, I probably

24:51

shouldn't bring up schefter so much since

24:54

your competitors. But didn't he recently? I think he recently

24:56

gave an interview where he said he talked about

24:58

the stress and the anxiety of the job. Do feel

25:00

that as well? I mean, or do you

25:02

handle it differently? It doesn't

25:04

seem like it's worth having physical, you

25:07

know, issues over our mental Nah.

25:10

I mean, I really like my job and

25:13

like, again, it is weird, um,

25:15

but there are a lot of positives, like I

25:18

get to win a lot, and I get

25:20

to talk about football for a living. I get to

25:22

work from home in a studio in my basement,

25:25

which means I can be on at any time, but also means,

25:28

uh, you know, I

25:31

get to work from my house. Um.

25:33

I I think I handle it okay. Like

25:35

I've done a much much better job

25:37

over the last three or four years, especially

25:40

as the kids have grown up, of understanding

25:44

when to chill and went to

25:46

to go crazy. You know, like when

25:48

we're sitting on the couch and we're watching you

25:51

know, blind Spot or something, I

25:53

put my phone next to me and I don't

25:55

look at it. And because I used to sit on the

25:57

couch and just scroll through Twitter, and my life is like what do

25:59

you doing? Like if you're if you're missing

26:02

something? Now you got beat anyway, so like what are you doing?

26:05

You know it's actually good. Um,

26:07

So I don't scroll through my phone when I'm sitting on the couch

26:09

at nine o'clock at night. Um.

26:11

When like during the off season,

26:14

like basically now through July,

26:17

I try to play golf and I try to like

26:19

actually use Like I'll

26:22

force myself to take five

26:24

days off after Super Bowl and after Draft

26:27

and take time Mark before the seat. So like, I forced

26:29

myself to have these small pockets of time to

26:31

be a normal person, and

26:34

it really helps. But there's then, you know,

26:36

because let's say about it, like the middle of July,

26:39

I'm ready to roll, like I'm let's get these training

26:41

camps happening like it's you know. So that's

26:43

that's what I kind of do better, is

26:45

is make myself step back when

26:48

there's nothing really happening, and there's

26:50

not there's not a big window for that. In the NFL. It's

26:52

so year round now, and you just saw with the Draft

26:54

the ridiculous over the top hype and now

26:57

the combine is a ridiculously overhyped

26:59

thing and this super Bowl for two weeks is insane.

27:01

But then you still have the regular season, which to me

27:03

is what it's all about. And I feel like that gets lost in the

27:05

shuffle. But training camps and all that before

27:07

we get before we get into all that. I'm curious because

27:09

you mentioned, uh, um,

27:12

there's a lot of positive you get some negatives.

27:14

I don't know if you think this is a negative. I'm curious for

27:17

your take as someone who you're one of the people

27:19

who probably gets it more than um.

27:21

Most writers outside of maybe you know with along

27:23

with a couple of the baseball writers. But your

27:25

take on or how you feel about

27:28

all of the fake Ian rappaport

27:31

accounts that sometimes burn other reporters.

27:33

I have been now. I don't want to sit here and be a funny.

27:36

I have said numerous times I

27:38

love fake reporter accounts. On pro fake

27:40

reporter accounts, I think it's glorious

27:42

when someone gets tricked. But you are a reporter,

27:45

and you know, I would imagine you may feel

27:47

a little differently. But give me, uh because

27:49

like I said, it's usually you know, like a fake John Hayman,

27:52

a fake um there's

27:54

our Don Schefter. And then because

27:56

you have those ohs in your name, so many people

27:58

can go to town with changing them to see euros.

28:00

Give me the giving Ian rapp reports.

28:04

Response to the fake ian rap

28:06

reports that crop crop up all

28:08

the time. I think it's kind

28:10

of funny. Um yeah, I mean it

28:12

does happen where um

28:15

where you know, gms

28:18

or agents will call me and be like how

28:20

could you report this around?

28:23

Then tell me something crazy and I'm like, hang on,

28:26

are you sure I reported it? Like it

28:28

says your name, like yes, do you check

28:31

to the blue checkmark, like, oh

28:33

man, I'm sorry, And it's usually

28:35

like you know, my player's mom called

28:38

him, or like you know, my

28:40

my clients sister or something like that,

28:43

where it's some relative that's

28:45

seen something online where they freak out and I'm

28:47

like, yeah, like I didn't I definitely didn't

28:49

report that. Do you have a specific specifically

28:52

reassure people that what you

28:54

know that I didn't actually do it. It's kind

28:56

of funny, um, but I you

28:58

know, I get a kick out of it, um,

29:01

And it's not my fault and I'm never going to

29:03

stop it. So the only thing that

29:05

really happened bad is when you

29:08

know, fake schefter will report

29:10

something crazy and my heart hard

29:12

will stop for a second. I'm like, oh fake, Okay,

29:15

we're good. What do you can you share

29:17

a specific story where a fake

29:19

Ian Rappaport got someone

29:21

in the league or someone important to call

29:24

you. Do you have a is there a specific instance?

29:28

Oh man? Um,

29:33

I mean I'll give you one example that was um

29:37

that was you know, he didn't get me

29:39

in trouble, but was like very real. So

29:41

when Steve Smith, now my austrious,

29:45

localacious colleague, when he was

29:47

playing for the Ravens and he went down

29:49

in a game and it looked like, um,

29:52

it looked like he heard his ankle or achilles,

29:55

and fakey and Rappable

29:58

reported Steve Smith tour's achilles out for the sea, and

30:03

someone at CBS gave, um,

30:07

I think it was Jamie Urdall my report

30:09

and she says, according to in wrap up, Steve Smith

30:11

tores achilles, and I'm like, wait

30:14

a minute, I didn't say that at all, and

30:16

it was fake and so they had to come

30:18

back and correct it. Um,

30:21

like, sorry, we got duped by a fake account,

30:24

which, like you know, it wasn't my fault. And then me

30:26

and Jamie took a nice selfie when I started the Super

30:28

Bowl in the year. Meanwhile, Steve

30:30

actually did terries. Achilles was

30:32

out for the season, and if no one had corrected

30:35

it, then I would have broken the story first, even

30:37

though it was a fake me. You know, but what

30:39

was it? Did it happen that day that they

30:41

reported it? Oh wow, Okay,

30:45

that's interesting, Okay. I I love yeah,

30:47

I love like that whole thing of a fake

30:49

Ian rapp report getting reported

30:52

on CBS by that that's I love

30:54

that. That to me is as good as it gets. I'm sorry, sorry,

30:58

it was it was pretty great. I'm not gonna lie. We

31:00

mentioned earlier that you

31:03

were the Patriot Beat reporter for three years

31:05

there, oh nine to two thousand and twelve,

31:07

and you have a podcast

31:10

rap sheet and friends on

31:13

wherever you can find podcasts, and

31:15

your first guest, Ahead could

31:17

do the plug every one Ahead, Yeah,

31:20

everywhere you can find podcasts. It's think,

31:22

well, it's one of the great podcasts in sports. I will say,

31:25

there you go. Now, I don't listen to any others. I just assume

31:27

so. And your first guest was Bill Belichick.

31:30

Was that a tough booking or did that go

31:32

back to your days covering Bill

31:35

two thousand twelve and you were able to just,

31:37

you know, get him on the horn, and we know Bill

31:39

loves to chat. We know Bill loves interviews. I

31:42

him. That was an easy booking. It

31:45

was actually relatively easy booking. Yeah. I mean

31:47

I kind of just I kind of just asked, you

31:49

know, it's it's it's sort

31:51

of it's a nice thing for people

31:53

to do where you're like, look, it's my first

31:56

you know, it's my first podcast. Would be cool if you came

31:58

on. Not a big deal. Like I'll live, but

32:01

it'd be kind of cool, and he

32:03

and the Patriots were just like yeah,

32:05

and so you know, it was it

32:08

was fun. Now, I would say I was. I

32:10

don't I don't get nervous doing any of this stuff now,

32:12

but I was legitimately nervous then. First

32:15

of all, was my first time using the equipment, and

32:17

I don't want to like screw it up and be like, hey, Bill

32:20

uh, I appreciate you doing that. But

32:22

you know, the interview didn't work or something. You know,

32:24

that was like my nightmare. And also,

32:28

you know, he goes about ten minutes, right,

32:31

and I'm like, yeah, yeah, that's it. But then

32:33

I'm like watching the cock the whole time because you don't

32:35

want to keep him you know, twenty if

32:37

he says ten. So it ended up being

32:39

twelve. And I had to like cut him

32:41

off because I'm like, just like, this is awesome.

32:44

Twelve minutes you cut him off?

32:47

Well, I mean I was like, you know, I had like a million

32:49

more questions and he would I think he would have kept talking about

32:51

because he was really getting into it by the end. It's a

32:53

great story about Brady playing golf,

32:56

and I'm like, you know what like this has been good.

32:58

He's giving me twelve minutes. That's a lot. Oh

33:01

my god, why don't you know? You go until

33:03

he hangs up or a PR person gets on the

33:05

phone and tells you to stop. Come on me, And that's

33:07

a bad job by you. You gotta keep going. I

33:10

get you. I totally I'm

33:12

happy with my life decision there. Now.

33:14

See I had I had Steve Carrell on

33:17

this podcast, I think in January, and the

33:19

PR people like fifteen minutes, only fifteen

33:21

minutes only, And in my head I'm like,

33:23

I'm going as long until they stopped me. And sure

33:25

enough though, when the clock I watched

33:27

the clock on the computer literally turned

33:30

from fourteen fifty nine to fifteen minutes,

33:32

and the PR woman got right on the phone like, we have to end this interview.

33:34

So it does I mean would I would imagine

33:37

that's how the Belichick one would be. But if he keeps going,

33:39

you gotta just keep going with it. You make

33:41

them stop you. I

33:46

don't know about that. Yeah, um

33:49

it's funny you talk about, um,

33:52

you know, trying to get some downtime

33:55

for yourself in this crazy world

33:57

of covering the NFL. And then of course you're doing

33:59

the podcast. Do you enjoy doing

34:01

it or is it like a

34:03

little bit of an extra something on your plate that you may

34:05

not need to do, or it's it's fun

34:07

and you enjoy it. I

34:10

really really like it because I never

34:12

get to sort of just talk and joke, you know, because

34:14

everything in TV is so quick and sort of so buttoned

34:17

up. And the guys I deal with

34:19

I do with my care Phoe and Tom Pela

34:21

Sero, um, they

34:23

I mean to my buddies, and we just

34:26

hang out and talk and make fun of each other and

34:28

just you know, talk about football.

34:30

I'm gonna get to really like delve into issues and

34:32

so I really like it. Booking

34:34

is hard, and obviously we have a

34:37

great booking staff, but you

34:39

know, figuring out who's on what

34:41

show and who I would end up getting and you

34:44

know, all of that, and again,

34:46

like they're awesome and I don't know what the hell I'm doing,

34:48

so they work with me nicely. But the

34:51

booking and like stress of am I going to get

34:53

a guest or not is difficult. But

34:57

we've been fortunate to have some good guests

34:59

and I really just I

35:01

like the process of doing it. I hope it continues.

35:04

I have to say, You've made me feel very good about myself

35:06

because you know, you're

35:08

like the top information guy in the NFL everyone.

35:11

You know, you have what a million over a million followers,

35:13

two million, whatever it is, and you're going through the same

35:15

exact struggles. I go through it a podcast. So it makes me feel

35:18

a little better because booking it is

35:20

hard, because yah

35:23

know, booking it is booking it as hell.

35:26

And um, your fear

35:28

about the equipment, you

35:30

know. I I've lost. I think. I mean, I've

35:33

said this on this podcast. I think I've lost maybe two

35:35

or three full podcasts I lost. I

35:37

taped a one hour podcast last year with Chris

35:39

Long that was phenomenal. The guy gave me an hour.

35:42

Could not have been funnier, it cannot have been more interesting.

35:44

And I screwed up the recording and I was

35:46

almost crying in the studio and I realized I messed

35:49

it up, literal tears in the eyes. So

35:52

I've been there. I I feel you on that. Let's

35:55

talk about lost. I interviewed Jim Mercy,

35:57

owner of the Colts, for fifteen minutes at an owner's

35:59

meeting, a story I was reporting

36:01

on for Sunday where he was great and emailed

36:05

the emailed the clip to myself off my phone

36:07

and it cut off after seconds

36:09

for some reason. It's very angry.

36:12

Yeah, it's it's a sickening feeling because it's just

36:14

you're completely helpless. Uma.

36:17

We talked about the NFL season. You have the Draft,

36:19

the Combine, the Super

36:21

Bowl, training camps.

36:24

What do you like to cover the best? What do

36:26

you like to cover the least? Um?

36:30

I love the draft. Um,

36:32

you don't feel like it's gotten you don't feel like it's

36:35

gotten out of control a little bit.

36:39

Yeah, don't pay attention to the lights,

36:42

focus on the drama. Focus on the

36:44

who's going where, who's picking, who's trading?

36:46

Which GM is lying to you, which GM

36:48

is telling the truth? You know, It's

36:50

like a poker game. And I love it.

36:53

I mean, and I just the intensity

36:55

of the trade. Who they trade up for you

36:58

know, Ian, we're coming to you and three to one

37:00

and who's you know who's making this? Tread me? It's

37:02

the best, literally the best. Um, I

37:05

love that, and I love the process of just like

37:07

figuring out all the information. Free

37:09

agency is fun, but it's misery

37:12

because you're just up for you

37:14

know, never sleep, and you know I've

37:16

I broke the C. J. Mosley

37:19

deal with the Jets, which he gave me a

37:22

right three am. Yeah,

37:25

and so then you know you're calling people

37:27

at like five, and

37:30

you know, I don't want to call these people. Um,

37:34

but I mean, you know,

37:37

it's it's just like so free agency is

37:39

fun and it's great when you win, but you also lose

37:41

because the other guys are good too, so

37:44

that's it's awesome, but it's honestly miserable.

37:47

Super Bowls is fun, but

37:49

there's not a ton of like information,

37:52

you know, but because there's so much coverage that

37:54

trying to find anything, like trying to break

37:57

anything during the Super Bowl is hard. Um.

38:00

But the you know, the actual experience

38:02

of being there a week is kind of fun. So I like it. The

38:04

combine is great, but

38:07

I gotta stay out till three in the morning because all

38:09

of my sources are up till three in the morning, and you

38:11

never know what you're gonna get, so like you put your

38:13

body through hell because I don't want

38:15

to go into my hotel room because I might miss

38:18

something, you know what I mean. So

38:21

the company is like and then Sunday

38:23

mornings on a pregame show, Like I

38:25

love it. I live for those Sunday mornings.

38:28

But it's also stressful because you're like, what's

38:30

the other guy's gonna have, you know, yeah, yeah, yeah,

38:32

well yeah, And I mean no disrespect

38:35

that a lot of it is all just the same,

38:37

same, same anyway, and all the on all the networks.

38:39

It's it's hard for someone to stand

38:41

out, but something different on those pregame

38:44

shows that seems so yeah, that's

38:46

that's what we and that's what we battle for. You know, there's

38:49

like one the one story

38:51

for a week that you have and no one else has. That's

38:55

that's the good stuff, you know. Give

38:58

me some Give me some players you

39:00

enjoy interviewing. Who are who are who are the players

39:02

in the league that will not give

39:04

you the standard quote that may give you a

39:06

little something interesting,

39:09

something different and not the same cookie

39:11

cutter response. Give me like three or four guys that

39:14

my listeners should know, like, look out for these guys

39:16

that give you a good quote. They're they're entertaining.

39:19

Yeah. I don't interview a ton of players

39:22

some but not a ton. Um

39:25

I would say, um,

39:30

let's see now, I like interviewing

39:33

Bruce Arians. I

39:36

would say he's not a player obviously,

39:38

but that's fun. He's a

39:40

fun interview. I enjoyed juju

39:42

he gave to my podcast. He was, you

39:45

know, good dude, and liked him. George

39:47

Kittle another guy was just like

39:49

just a real a real guy

39:51

and kind of awesome. You know. Um,

39:55

I like talking to uh

39:58

DeAndre Hopkins. He's you know, keep

40:00

to leave. Those guys just you know, just

40:03

guts to tell you what they really think. I appreciate,

40:05

you know, Yeah, I mean that's

40:08

do you want anyone who's gonna maybe

40:10

give you something you don't hear all the time, so that those

40:12

are good names. I know, character.

40:16

I don't know, like even when people call me up

40:18

and tell me something that I don't like or piste off,

40:20

like just as long as they're real, Like I really

40:23

don't care, you know, I'm

40:25

fine, give me I can deal with it. Now.

40:28

You're in a little bit now. I

40:30

don't think you're in that much of

40:33

a different position than competitors

40:35

because you're working for the NFL, so obviously

40:38

there's gonna be some restrictions. You got to tow some

40:40

lines. I think that's common knowledge. But your

40:43

competitors, whether it's someone from ESPN

40:46

or CBS, they're

40:48

in bed with the NFL too, so I think they

40:51

got to toe the line a little bit there. Do you

40:53

think you have to maybe do you think

40:55

you have maybe a little bit more um

40:58

so, what I'm looking for, Do you have to be a little more careful

41:01

because you work for the league as opposed to maybe someone

41:03

from ESPN who you know they have a deal with the league,

41:05

or do you um,

41:08

I feel like it's an even playing field. First

41:12

of all, I got to run after this because I got to pick up my

41:14

youngest from uh from preschool.

41:16

But I would say,

41:19

to me, it's kind of the same, Like I

41:21

always hear this stuff about, you

41:24

know, like some people say, you know, Lego Network

41:26

or whatever. H Honestly,

41:28

to me, it's kind of the same. Like I can't remember

41:30

a story over the last eight years where

41:33

I've not been allowed to report. You

41:35

know, maybe there's I don't

41:37

know. I mean, I guess theoretically there's things

41:39

you stay away from sort of, but like not really,

41:41

I mean, we you know, we reported on Robert

41:44

Kraft's situation, We reported on Jim

41:46

Mercy situation. You know, there's um

41:50

you know, there definitely are You're

41:52

definitely are news stories that we report

41:54

on as everyone else does, you

41:57

know, So I mean maybe I don't know, maybe it's a little

41:59

different, but I like everyone has relationships,

42:02

so I mean, well,

42:04

I don't know. You sort of when it's the truth, like

42:07

the truth sets you free. You know, when it's the truth,

42:09

there's not much that anyone can really say to

42:12

me. I mean, I think it's been mostly

42:14

kind of like everyone else. Yeah, well, this isn't on

42:16

you. But obviously the NFL network they took a

42:19

hit during the draft that first night because

42:21

they didn't cover Tyreek Kill when

42:23

that audio came out. Now,

42:26

you know, that's a tough spot there. You got the draft,

42:29

the celebration type of thing. Are they supposed to

42:31

cover it on the air? People expected

42:33

you guys too. I mean, I think that's

42:35

not your fault. Definitely don't speak for our decision

42:38

makers, and I wasn't involved in that process,

42:40

but I do know the chiefs also didn't

42:42

have a pick. When they were on

42:44

the clock the next night, we did a Tyree

42:46

Hill discussion and I reported the news and the audio

42:49

and all that, I

42:51

mean I had they had to pick. I

42:53

don't know we would have done. My

42:55

guess as we probably would have discussed it. All

42:57

right, go get your kid. I appreciate the time to

43:00

get the kid. And then the guys coming to do aluminum

43:02

siding. It's a busy day for the guys.

43:04

The guys are ready here and then

43:06

got a softball game tonight, so

43:10

we got a lot going on. You better hope nobody retires

43:12

or anything like that. You've been be

43:14

in trouble there, Keep that phone close

43:16

by. Keep that phone close by.

43:20

A network

43:22

insider Ian Rapport also host of the podcast

43:24

rap Sheet and Frenzy, and thanks a lot for coming on. Appreciate

43:27

it, no problem in Thanks for

43:29

having me. Take care alright, my thanks

43:31

to the very busy Ian Rapp Report even

43:33

in the off season, for spending some time

43:35

here on the Sports Illustrated Media podcast.

43:37

Quick reminder, don't forget Jim

43:39

manson the archives from last week. Check

43:41

that out next week. My Breen NBA

43:45

played by play Man extraordinaire right

43:47

here Obvious I Media podcast. That

43:49

wraps up this edition. Thanks for joining me. We'll

43:51

see you next week. To take care