One of the key talent questions to arise from ESPN\u2019s recent acquisition of NFL Network seems like it will be resolved.<\/p>\n
ESPN will reportedly sign veteran NFL Network insider Ian Rapoport to a four-year deal, ending speculation that there would only be room for either Rapoport or ESPN NFL insider Adam Schefter at the Worldwide Leader.<\/p>\n
Ryan Glasspiegel of Front Office Sports first reported the news<\/a>. Mike Florio of Pro Football Talk first reported<\/a> the deal will be four years in length.<\/p>\n The future of NFL Network talent under ESPN ownership has been a source of speculation ever since the acquisition closed earlier this year. Reports since surfaced that ESPN would evaluate NFL Network talent<\/a> on a case-by-case basis as individual contracts reached their expiration. Rapoport\u2019s contract just so happened to expire at the end of April.<\/p>\n Per Glasspiegel, Rapoport is expected to appear \u201cacross ESPN platforms,\u201d along with continuing his coverage on NFL Network. Rapoport currently co-hosts NFL Network\u2019s evening show\u00a0The Insiders alongside Tom Pelissero and Mike Garafolo.<\/p>\n As Rapoport\u2019s contract situation unfolded over the past couple months, there were some suggestions that the NFL Network veteran could serve as a succession plan<\/a> to Adam Schefter at ESPN. It appears, at least for now, the two will coexist. Schefter and Rapoport authored a co-byline about the Vikings\u2019 trade of Jonathan Greenard during the NFL Draft last week, and Schefter, 59, has refuted suggestions<\/a> that he is approaching retirement.<\/p>\n With the biggest NFL Network talent question now behind ESPN, the network can move its focus to other on-air personalities as their contracts approach term. So far, it\u2019s unclear exactly who is next in line for a deal.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"One of the key talent questions to arise from ESPN\u2019s recent acquisition of NFL Network seems like it…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":613586,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[67],"tags":[4506,399,34591,398,396,397,13319,30572,99],"class_list":["post-613585","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ncaa-football","tag-adam-schefter","tag-football","tag-ian-rapoport","tag-ncaa","tag-ncaa-football","tag-ncaafootball","tag-nfl-network","tag-nfl-on-espn","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/613585","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=613585"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/613585\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/613586"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=613585"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=613585"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=613585"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}