Reports have emerged claiming that Fox’s Jordan Schultz and NFL Media’s Ian Rapoport had a serious verbal altercation in a Starbucks following the NFL Combine.
NBC have reported that multiple sources witnessed the altercation in the coffeeshop at the JW Marriott in Indianapolis.
Supposedly, it was Fox’s Schultz who was accosting Rapoport rather than the other way around. The first suggestion of the incident came from a tweet by PFT commentator Eric Sollenberger.
On Wednesday night, he referred to a “serious big time media confrontation” between “two NFL newsbreakers.”
A big altercation
NBC report that Rapoport was speaking to an agent when Schultz came up and essentially said ‘we need to talk’. Rapoport‘s response was ‘we don’t need to talk’.
This entire transcript is based off accounts from those privy to the discussion, rather than exact quotes. Schultz started to make accusations against Rapoport, which Rapoport refuted, with the two men now face to face.
“If you have anything to say it to me, say it to my fucking face,” Schultz said, or specific words to that effect. “If this continues we’re going to have a f**king problem.”
Rapoport asked Schultz to step back, and he then repeated himself.
“If this happens again, we’re gonna have fucking problem,” Schultz said, or specific words to that effect. “Now I’ll step back.”
NFL Security was made aware of the altercation and they have taken statements from witnesses.
Rapoport declined to comment on the situation. Schultz told PFT this via text message: “It really isn’t anything too much. Ian Rapoport and I had a verbal confrontation. It lasted a little over a minute. Multiple agents and reporters were nearby. Rapoport was the one who called security shortly after, but it never escalated further.”
The general belief is that Schultz‘s report on Wednesday that Rams quarterback Matthew Stafford recently met with Raiders minority owner Tom Brady in Montana was the catalyst.
Rapoport had played down that report as a meeting by pure coincidence.
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