When Matt Corral was drafted by the Carolina Panthers on Friday, the reaction from the NFL Network crew ended up stealing the show, and not in a good way.
After Corral was selected in the third round at 94th overall, the league’s TV network kicked it over to their insider, Ian Rapoport. At that point, Rapoport quickly mentioned that the Panthers loved his film, but spent much of his time noting that Corral was sliding because of “unreliable behavior” off the field and had struggles with alcohol and depression.
That might all have been true, but considering the time and place, Rapoport was roundly criticized.
During an appearance Wednesday on the “Pat McAfee Show”, Rapoport told his side of the story.
"When Matt Corral went in the third round instead of the first round – one the biggest questions and one of my biggest roles during the draft is why did a guy fall? So when Nakobe Dean was falling, the producer gets in my ear and they’re like can you explain this?
"With Matt Corral it was a lot of the off the field issues he dealt with in high school. When teams were evaluating Corral, what I said in this report right after he was drafted – and I don’t know if this matters, but I don’t love to report this stuff before a guy gets drafted unless it has to come out. Unless it’s literally hard news, like a guy broke his arm, unless it’s like that. This is more background information.
"So I waited until after the draft and I discussed how the Panthers thought he had the best film, which is true, what kind of a prospect he was, which was a good one, and then I went into the other stuff which was the off the field. What I did was discuss all the stuff Matt Corral had discussed publicly.
"So it was him leaving high school, whether he was kicked out or not, based on a fight with Wayne Gretzky’s son. I talked about what Corral had said publicly, which was his battles with alcoholism and other – he had battled depression, which I think was probably something that most people had questions about, but this was something he had been very proactive about and had addressed it publicly. So when he’s talked about it in various articles, I felt like he’s up front about it, it’s OK for me to be up front about it. And I detailed all the reasons he had fallen, all information that teams had and he had addressed publicly. ...
"You want it to be balanced, right? So I tried to say he was a great prospect, the Panthers loved his film. I talked about how he had addressed it publicly, and I laid out the issues. I don’t know if I did a good enough job (being empathic). I’ve watched it back a lot."
Rapoport later added that he wasn’t trying to bury Corral and that he was attempting to provide the full context in the fixed period of time he had.
Although Rapoport’s intent might have been fine, it simply did not come across all that well. Now, Corral will report to Carolina, where he’ll battle with Sam Darnold for the starting quarterback job.
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