NFL insider Ian Rapoport referred to as out former Tennessee Titans head coach Mike Mularkey after Mularkey revealed greater than six years after his firing that he fed Rapoport a bogus story to get again at his soon-to-be former employer.
Throughout a current interview on “The Jaguars Hour with Brent & Austen,” Mularkey confessed that he knew he was about to get fired regardless of main the group to its first playoff look in practically a decade.
Tennessee Titans head coach Mike Mularkey smiles on the sideline throughout an AFC wild-card sport at Arrowhead Stadium in Kansas Metropolis, Mo., Jan. 6, 2018. (Imagn)
To get again on the group, Mularkey referred to as the NFL reporter to plant a faux story that he was as an alternative getting a contract extension regardless of the widespread perception that he was, the truth is, on his approach out.
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“He reported it. It was everywhere in the nation that I used to be getting a contract figuring out that I used to be gonna get fired, however I simply needed to see the faces on the proprietor and the GM, who was out to get me,” Mularkey stated.
“Once I walked within the subsequent morning, there wasn’t an entire lot of dialog. It was like, ‘All proper, you’re achieved.’”
Whereas Mularkey might have discovered pleasure within the second, Rapoport wasn’t laughing six years later.
NFL reporter Ian Rapoport on the sideline earlier than the Tremendous Bowl at State Farm Stadium Feb. 12, 2023. ( Mark J. Rebilas/USA Right now Sports activities)
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“These guys, yukking it up — fairly humorous, for them, I assume, should you don’t care about accuracy and taking somebody’s status and rubbing it within the mud,” Rapoport stated on the NFL Community Friday.
“Everybody stated Mike Mularkey’s a superb man — he at all times was to me. I preferred him. Thought he was very respectable. That isn’t cool. That’s not humorous. I used to be a youthful reporter then, and the quantity of on-line hate and mock I acquired as a result of Mike Mularkey thought it could be humorous to get again at his outdated boss — it was not enjoyable.
“So, I don’t have a lot to say. I don’t blame Mike Mularkey, however I wish to. And that was not cool, and that was not humorous. And we must always deal with reality higher than that.”
Tennessee Titans head coach Mike Mularkey, proper, watches a play through the first quarter towards the New England Patriots in an AFC divisional playoff sport at Gillette Stadium Jan. 13, 2018. (Robert Deutsch/USA Right now Sports activities)
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Mularkey took over as head coach in Tennessee midway via the 2015 season. In his remaining season with the group, he led the Titans to the playoffs with a 9-7 report. They defeated the Kansas Metropolis Chiefs within the wild-card spherical earlier than being eradicated by the New England Patriots.
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