NFL insider rips ex-Titans coach for admitting years later to feeding him bogus story before firing
NFL insider Ian Rapoport called out formerΒ Tennessee Titans head coach Mike Mularkey after Mularkey revealed more than six years after his firing that he fed Rapoport a bogus story to get back at his soon-to-be former employer.Β
During a recent interview on "The Jaguars Hour with Brent & Austen," Mularkey confessed that he knew he was about to get fired despite leading the team to its first playoff appearance in nearly a decade.Β
To get back at the organization, Mularkey calledΒ the NFL reporter to plant a fake story that he was instead getting a contract extension despite the widespread belief that he was, in fact, on his way out.Β
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"He reported it. It was all over the country that I was getting a contract knowing that I was gonna get fired, but I just wanted to see the faces on the owner and the GM, who was out to get me," Mularkey said.Β Β
"When I walked in the next morning, there wasnβt a whole lot of conversation. It was like, βAll right, youβre done.β"Β
While Mularkey may have found joy in the moment, Rapoport wasnβt laughing six years later.
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"Those guys, yukking it up β pretty funny, for them, I guess, if you donβt care about accuracy and taking someoneβs reputation and rubbing it in the mud," Rapoport said on the NFL Network Friday.
"Everyone said Mike Mularkeyβs a good guy β he always was to me. I liked him. Thought he was very respectable. That is not cool. Thatβs not funny. I was a younger reporter then, and the amount of online hate and ridicule I got because Mike Mularkey thought it would be funny to get back at his old boss β it was not fun.Β
"So, I donβt have much to say. I donβt blame Mike Mularkey, but I want to. And that was not cool, and that was not funny. And we should treat truth better than that."
Mularkey took over as head coach in Tennessee halfway through the 2015 season. In his final season with the team, he led the Titans to the playoffs with a 9-7 record. They defeated theΒ Kansas City Chiefs in the wild-card round before being eliminated by the New England Patriots.Β
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