NFL Network reporter Ian Rapoport announced on Friday night that he was suspended until Oct. 22, leaving many to wonder what he did.
In his statement sharing news of the suspension, Rapoport said he “posted something to my social channels without clearance from NFL Network, which went against its guidelines.”
There was some speculation the suspension was related to Rapoport posting about the Tennessee Titans having an unauthorized practice. That is unlikely the explanation, because Rapoport would almost certainly have deleted the offending tweet. His tweet regarding the practice is still up on his account.
So what happened?
Jane Slater, one of Rapoport’s colleagues at NFL Media, deleted a tweet Friday that might explain things.
In her deleted tweet, Slater seemed to shed light on the suspension.
Slater wrote in the deleted tweet:
"Backstory: Sad that it took me reposting his 'Manscape' IG video for this to rise to this level of severity. To be very clear, I thought it was funny and I’m not ok with my friend and colleague getting punished for it under false guises of double standards."
It appears that Rapoport posted a video on his Instagram story in mid-September promoting Manscaped, a product for male grooming.
“The perfect tools, for your family jewels,” reportedly was one of the quotes Rapoport used in the video.
According to Fantasy Life App CEO Yasin Abbak, Slater brought more attention to the video by tweeting it, leading to a reply from Rapoport. Slater later deleted that September tweet.
If this indeed is the reason for the suspension, it’s unclear whether someone found the video to be inappropriate in nature, or whether Rapoport failed to disclose the partnership before using his social media channels to promote the ad.
What we do know is that Rapoport has been suspended until Oct. 22.
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