Fox Sports insider Jordan Schultz has been at the center of controversy this week after a heated exchange with NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport, stemming from conflicting reports about Tom Brady’s alleged recruitment of Matthew Stafford. However, what makes this confrontation even more intriguing is where it happened—inside a Starbucks.
The Brady-Stafford Dispute
The tension between Schultz and Rapoport began when Schultz reported that Brady had hosted Los Angeles Rams quarterback Matthew Stafford at his Montana home, with the seven-time Super Bowl champion actively recruiting him to join the Las Vegas Raiders. The report implied that Brady, who is a minority owner of the Raiders, was playing a key role in potentially orchestrating a trade for Stafford.
However, Rapoport quickly refuted Schultz’s scoop, claiming that Brady and Stafford’s meeting was purely coincidental and did not involve any serious discussions about the 2025 NFL season.
Schultz was not pleased with Rapoport’s dismissal of his reporting and made his frustrations public.
“If you really think Tom Brady and Matthew Stafford just happened to run into each other at a ski resort in Montana — of all places — at the exact same time, I’ve got a bridge to sell you,” Schultz fired back. “They were together over the weekend—it happened. Multiple teams are interested in Stafford, and Brady has been leading the charge to get him to the Raiders if the Rams decide to trade him.”
The Starbucks Showdown
The situation escalated on Wednesday night when Mike Florio of Pro Football Talk reported that Schultz personally confronted Rapoport at the Starbucks inside the JW Marriott in Indianapolis, where both reporters are covering the NFL Combine.
Schultz reportedly got in Rapoport’s face and issued a warning over his public dismissal of the Stafford-Brady report.
“If this happens again, we’re gonna have a [expletive] problem,” Schultz allegedly told Rapoport.
Schultz’s Surprising Starbucks Connection
While heated media confrontations aren’t entirely unheard of, what makes this particular altercation especially ironic is that it occurred inside a Starbucks—because Jordan Schultz is the son of Howard Schultz, the former CEO and chairman of Starbucks.
For those unfamiliar with Howard Schultz’s influence, he served as Starbucks CEO from 1986 to 2000, returned during the financial crisis in 2008, and later stepped down in 2017, handing over leadership to Kevin Johnson. His third and final tenure as interim CEO came in 2022 before he left the company for good.
As of Thursday, Howard Schultz has not publicly commented on his son’s altercation, though he is under no obligation to do so.
What’s Next for Jordan Schultz?
With the NFL Combine still underway, it remains to be seen if this Starbucks showdown will have any lasting impact on Schultz’s week in Indianapolis or his career in sports journalism. While on-air rivalries and conflicting reports are common in the industry, public confrontations between top NFL insiders—especially in a high-profile setting like the Combine—are far less frequent.
For now, Schultz appears unapologetic about his reporting and continues to stand by his Brady-Stafford scoop, regardless of what Rapoport or others believe.
Whether this incident escalates further or gets brushed aside as a brief media feud, one thing is certain—it’s not every day you see an NFL reporting clash unfold inside a coffee shop owned by one of the journalist’s own family members.
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