'What a loser!' Radio host rips NFL Network's Ian Rapoport for cutting short talk
Suffice to say NFL Network reporter Ian Rapoport won't be a guest on this Washington D.C. sports-radio show.
Rapoport cut short an interview with Chad Dukes of 106.7 The Fan, saying, "I'm sorry, I have to take this call. I apologize."
As soon as Rapoport hung up, Dukes went off on him.
"That is the last time we have that son of a bitch on this show, I swear to God,” Dukes said. “What a piece of garbage that guy is. That’s twice he’s done that, and he sucked. And he sucked! He had absolutely no … God I hate that guy."
Dukes then said that he had come in early on Monday to interview with Rapoport, but Rapoport cut short the talk.
“In the middle of the interview — I have been doing radio interviews for 15 years now — in the middle of the interview, said, ‘I’ve got to put the phone down,’ " Dukes said. "Put the phone down for four minutes, never picked it back up. Just a complete and total disrespectful douche. And then to do that in the middle of a live interview, after you’ve already screwed me once? Go F yourself, dude. You get stuff wrong all the time, and everybody knows it. ...
"Had guys bigger than you on, were able to keep a schedule and by the way, if you can't commit to an interview, don't do it stupid! Twice you've boned me today. Twice! What a loser. Do you know how many guys there are that report on the NFL now? There's a billion."
You can listen to what Dukes said here.
Dukes took his beef to Twitter, and Rapoport apologized multiple times:
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">I apologize for that. An important source called on a story I just reported about. Couldn’t not answer it. I’m sorry we won’t connect in the future</p>— Ian Rapoport (@RapSheet) <a href="https://twitter.com/RapSheet/status/968252364976263169?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 26, 2018</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-conversation="none" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">I apologize again. Not sure what else I can say. It’s my job to answer that call. Sorry.</p>— Ian Rapoport (@RapSheet) <a href="https://twitter.com/RapSheet/status/968259454746660864?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 26, 2018</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">I don’t know man. I apologized 4 times. Don’t know what else to say. Have a good night</p>— Ian Rapoport (@RapSheet) <a href="https://twitter.com/RapSheet/status/968263464522219521?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 26, 2018</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
UPDATE: Rapoport called on Tuesday and apologized on the air.
“I just wanted to apologize for yesterday, for dropping you and for hanging up,” Rapoport told Dukes. “I know you’ve got a job to do. I appreciate that. I like talk radio a lot. I listen to it. I grew up listening to it.
“That’s why I make sure to really try to do as many of these things as I can. It’s good for me. I get to kind of touch a lot of different fan bases and talk a lot of different things that I like to talk about. I know it’s good for you guys. And, it’s unfortunate when that happens. I know it’s not something you want; it’s certainly not something I want, and I wanted to apologize for doing that.”
Dukes said he didn't expect Rapoport would call back and said there were no hard feelings.
Rapoport then asked if Dukes wanted to say anything in return.
“You know, everything’s fine, but I can’t apologize for the way that I handle conflict on this particular forum (radio)," Dukes said. "It’s the way that I’ve always done it. Now, I say the water’s under the bridge, and I’m sorry if that stuff was something you’ aren't accustomed to, but I don’t really feel like I have anything to apologize for, if that’s what you’re looking for.”
You can hear that conversation here.
This story was originally published February 27, 2018 at 1:28 PM with the headline "'What a loser!' Radio host rips NFL Network's Ian Rapoport for cutting short talk."