Michael Rapaport’s Stern Show Fantasy Football League Membership Comes Into Jeopardy

Impromptu vote shows division amongst the staff

September 28, 2016
Photo: The Howard Stern Show

The Emotional Friends Fantasy Football League is officially divided. With seeds of dissent growing in the back office – especially after a contentious Wrap Up Show featuring Michael Rapaport on Tuesday—Howard called in some of the staff to address the situation.

The disagreement boiled down to whether or not the fantasy football league should return to an all-staff league after the 2016-2017 season, effectively kicking out ESPN expert Matthew Berry, former porn star Lisa Ann, and actor Michael Rapaport, who has harassed the other league members throughout the past three years.

Howard suspected the guys really just didn’t have the balls to kick Rapaport out themselves and wanted him to do it, but Gary insisted that wasn’t the case. He said they were divided as a staff.

The Stern Show Executive Producer, and most frequent victim of Rapaport’s abuse, explained how everyone is subject to a barrage of emails, phone calls, and texts messages filled with cursing and rape-y threats.

Additionally, many league members took umbrage with Rapaport demanding to keep his son on his team for help, which caused friction on many occasions.

JD Harmeyer doubled down, explaining how it was unfair for him to have to work all day while there are three people in the league who can focus on fantasy football nearly full time—it’s Matthew Berry’s job, Lisa Ann has a radio show focused on it, and Michael Rapaport seems to have all the time in the world.

Not everyone felt this way, though. “I think it’s funny. I like when Rapaport talks a lot of shit,” Will Murray countered.

The commissioner of the league, Jason Kaplan, complained that Rapaport is relentless and just keeps calling him all day long if he tries to ignore him, which Jon Hein found a bit hypocritical.

“I find it interesting what everybody complains about,” Jon said. “Like Jason was talking about Rapaport’s relentlessness and how he doesn’t let up on something and how he constantly pushes. It’s like, ‘Hello Jason, that’s what you do!'”

Gary brought things back to the matter at hand, pointing out that if the league was for the purpose of radio entertainment, Rapaport would be perfect, but for the staff the league is simply supposed to be for off-air fun. Additionally, Gary said they’ve pretty much given Michael a whole new career, as he was given a fantasy football radio show as a result of being in the Stern Show league.

While no firm decisions will be made mid-season, Howard polled the staff to gauge the current level of support for Rapaport’s membership in the league. In the end, a 3-3 deadlock was broken by Ben Barto’s write-in text vote.

Out:JD HarmeyerGary Dell’AbateJason KaplanIn:Jon HeinWill MurrayScott SalemBen Barto (via text)

Despite the fact that Rapaport would have remained in the league by way of the vote, Gary announced he would leave the league if that were the case. JD quickly followed suit, causing Will Murray to change his vote, since it would not be a staff league without them.

At this point in the discussion, Rapaport called in in to defend himself, despite the fact it was only 5 a.m. in Los Angeles. “Howard, when did fantasy football become a politically correct place?” Michael asked groggily.

After getting caught up to speed on the vote, Rapaport went on a rampage: “Your staff has turned fucking soft … How do you think I should behave with these animals?”

Robin said she actually enjoyed what Michael did to them and Howard agreed. “I enjoy this as a radio bit,” he said, while also warning Rapaport the staff was on the verge of kicking him out because they couldn’t take the abuse.

Rapaport vowed to back off somewhat, but there was one thing he would not do: “I’m allowed to talk shit on Twitter because I’m not tweeting at them, I’m tweeting at the world,” he said. “You guys will be hearing from me soon.”

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