NFL Network insider Ian Rapoport appeared on Golf.com’s latest edition of The Scoop podcast with host Claire Rogers. During the conversation, Rapoport revealed a scoop that stands out as a “high moment” of his as an NFL insider.
Rapoport explained that while it wasn’t an unfortunate story to deliver breaking news on, getting the scoop of the Chicago Bears firing head coach Lovie Smith was when he realized, “Alright, maybe I can do this job.”
“I’ve had a lot of good breaking news moments,” Rapoport said. “And there’s been some that are more fun than others. Like, when [Rob Gronkowski] was retired, I broke that he was coming out of retirement to get traded to the [Tampa Bay Buccaneers] to play with Tom Brady. That was really fun. That was a good one.
“But to me, so, I was living in Dallas; I had just started at NFL Network about a year before this. And, so, they were like, ‘We’d like you to come to L.A. the day after the season, when coaches get fired. We haven’t broken one in several years. We’d like you to break one.'”
“So, I dedicated myself to that, and I ended up breaking Lovie Smith getting fired by the Bears,” Rapoport continued. “Which is weird because that was such a big moment for me, but it was also a guy getting fired and losing his job. That’s not fun. But it’s part of the job. It’s a weird thing with my job.”
“But that was the first time for me when I was like, alright, I can do that at this level; like, this is a good sign,” Rapoport said. “So, that’s one I always kind of look back to. That’s when I learned, alright, maybe I can do this job.”
Smith was fired by the Bears on Dec. 31, 2012.
13-plus years later, Rapoport is still going strong as one of the top insiders in the NFL. He certainly was right about being able to do the job.