Ian Rapoport
League NetworksNFLBy Andrew Bucholtz on

The Tennessee Titans and head coach Mike Mularkey “mutually agreed to part ways” Monday, which prompted plenty of criticism of NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport for reporting Sunday that the Titans had offered Mularkey an extension and “he’s staying.”

Some of the harshest criticism came from Rand Getlin, a NFL reporter/columnist for Yahoo from 2010-May 2015 who then worked with Rapoport at NFL Network/NFL Media from July 2015 through August 2016, when he and the network “mutually agreed to part ways” (Getlin blasted John Ourand for initially reporting that it was a NFLN decision).

Here’s what Getlin had to say about Rapoport Monday:

It’s certainly true that Rapoport’s reporting has been disputed before, perhaps most notably by ESPN’s Louis Riddick last year when Riddick called Rapoport “deadass wrong” for saying the Kansas City Chiefs had reached out to Riddick to set up an interview for their GM position. And Rapoport’s reporting has taken criticism elsewhere, including for reports about the Redskins last fall and for overstating an injury to Drew Brees in 2015.

Rapoport has been right about a lot of transactions, too, though, and does break some news. And as Pro Football Talk’s Michael David Smith noted, Getlin’s own reporting record isn’t perfect:

One of the biggest challenges when it comes to breaking news on fluid situations is being careful with your language, and that appears to be what tripped Rapoport up here. His reporting that the Titans offered Mularkey an extension has been confirmed by the team, so it’s the “he’s staying” that’s the inaccurate part. It’s understandable why Rapoport presumed that, especially as Mularkey seemed unlikely to get a head coaching job elsewhere if he did leave, but it wasn’t correct.

However, this does seem like a situation that changed dramatically over the last 24 hours, and it may have been about Mularkey’s unwillingness to make staff changes, as Rapoport’s further tweets Monday suggest:

So, does the “he’s staying” tweet deserve some criticism? Sure. And maybe there’s even some value to a wider look at times Rapoport has been wrong; Riddick would certainly agree. But it’s not particularly clear (at least at the moment) that Rapoport is wrong substantially more than others who put out anywhere near his volume of transactional reports, and that makes the vitriol from Getlin here interesting. We’ll see if there are any further developments on this front.

[Larry Brown Sports; Rapoport photo from this segment]

About Andrew Bucholtz

Andrew Bucholtz has been covering sports media for Awful Announcing since 2012. He is also a staff writer for The Comeback. His previous work includes time at Yahoo! Sports Canada and Black Press.

View all posts by Andrew Bucholtz