Left Coast Bias: Mr. Glazer Regrets—Kind Of
By Ben Grossman -- Broadcasting & Cable, 8/24/2009 2:00:00 AM
Talk about your one-two combinations. Within the last week, I sat 20 feet away as my future second wife got punched in the face about 437 times in less than 5 minutes; then, days later, my hometown football team guaranteed its place in this year's Super Bowl with a big signing. (Isn't that right, Jets fans?)
Strangely enough, there is another person who can directly relate to both Gina Carano getting knocked out in her recent MMA Strikeforce fight and Brett Favre signing with the Minnesota Vikings. He is Fox Sports NFL insider Jay Glazer, who basically broke the Favre story and whose business partner is Carano's trainer.
Glazer was coming off his own tussle last week with rival ESPN. It started with Glazer's story on Foxsports.com saying he'd “bet the farm” Favre would become a Viking.
That story went everywhere, including ESPN, though Glazer didn't love the way they knocked him when they aired it. And in a radio interview cited by SportsBusiness Daily, Glazer fired back at Bristol: “I wouldn't mind punching one of those guys.”
When I caught up with him late last week, Glazer had cooled off the old blood pressure. “I shouldn't take everything like it's a fight, but that's the competitive side of me,” he said. “I need to have thicker skin.”
He says everyone assumes that he hates ESPN's NFL guys like Chris Mortensen and Adam Schefter. He doesn't, but he does like the network rivalry.
“ESPN was hoping I was wrong [about Favre] so they'd put it out as much as they could and say, 'Glazer got it wrong.' It backfired. I should have thanked them and been more gracious.”
Glazer didn't exactly break the story, because he never said it was a done deal. Actually, Minneapolis CBS affiliate WCCO got the credit the next day. But that's like someone discovering a treasure map and posting it online, with the guy who then digs up the fortune taking all the credit.
Then again, in the interest of full disclosure, my first TV gig ever was an internship 47 years ago at rival Minneapolis station KARE. So I have no objectivity here whatsoever.
While Glazer may not have broken that one, he has made a name for himself with past scoops, such as one of Favre's 37 previous retirements and getting a certain controversial video. No, not the McSteamy naked tape. What's the matter with you?
Anyway, when Glazer is not breaking NFL news and feuding with ESPN, he is big into the exploding sport of mixed martial arts. He works with legend Randy Couture training NFL players in the sport.
Among those is former USC pretty boy Matt Leinart, who has so far stunk as a pro. Glazer admittedly thought Leinart was soft before they met, but after seeing him puke in a garbage can during training and then keep going, he became impressed. Please, the kid is a couple of years out of college; who wouldn't be able to puke and rally at that age?
Glazer hopes to take on some more clients and has been in touch with, among others, Cowboys QB/Jessica Simpson castoff Tony Romo and the Toronto Blue Jays.
I'm not sure I would hire Glazer and Couture. After all, it was under Couture's tutelage that perfect-in-every-way Gina Carano got clobbered. But Glazer, who has thrown and taken a punch or two in his day, maintains she is far from done.
“She is beautiful, that's for sure, but she could whip me, absolutely crush me,” Glazer told me. He should be so lucky.
E-mail comments to ben.grossman@reedbusiness.com
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