NEW ORLEANS—From the outside, Fox Sports NFL insider Jay Glazer might seem like one of the figures in the NFL world it could be most difficult to rattle.
Of course, criticism comes from everyone in the media world, especially anyone with a long-running TV presence. But a man whose reputation goes beyond NFL reporting to toughness, physical fitness, MMA training, and more, who’s spent plenty of time taking actual punches, would have an easy time just shrugging off internet critics, right? Wrong.
The world got a taste of this last month. Vikings radio announcer Paul Allen, Ari Meirov of The 33rd Team, and others criticized Glazer for reporting that Minnesota Vikings head coach Kevin O’Connell was a target for multiple other teams.
Both Allen and Meirov questioned the timing of Glazer reporting this in the morning of the Vikings’ Week 18 night game, where they were playing for the No. 1 NFC seed. And Glazer responded to Meirov and others by saying he held this news for Sunday because he works for Fox NFL Sunday (and often holds news for that pregame show) and that suggestions he timed this to help the Detroit Lions and hurt the Vikings were “the dumbest sh*t I’ve ever read.”
At Fox Sports’ Super Bowl LIX Media Day Thursday, Glazer told Awful Announcing that the situation showed how difficult it can be for him to deal with what he sees as unfair criticism.
“I actually don’t handle it well, so it’s so funny,” he said. “I was just with my old fight team two weeks ago, Randy Couture, Mark Kerr, who The Rock is now making a movie on called Smashing Machine, this guy Alex Karalexis, who was in the first season of The Ultimate Fighter, and we were joking, saying ‘You know that whole sticks and stones thing, it’s the reverse for us.’ Sticks and stones don’t break our bones, man, but words really hurt us.'”
Glazer said he tends to see those criticisms as insulting to his history and credibility.
“I just get pissed because I’m like, ‘Man, I’ve been doing this for 33 years. I was the first minute-by-minute breaking news guy in this country when the internet came out. It was me, Mort, and Len Pasquarelli, and John Clayton, that’s who was doing this, right? I don’t get stuff wrong. And when people jump to the hope that something I have is incorrect, it’s all they focus on.”
He said he’s received some helpful advice from Fox NFL Sunday colleagues Curt Menefee and Howie Long on not punching down. Although he has received a lot of criticism over the years, he still has a tough time dealing with it.
“I’m kind of used to it, and Curt helps me a lot, and Howie. They’re like, ‘Don’t punch down.’ But I’m a fighter. So when somebody comes and says something, I want to fight, you know?”
Glazer said he sometimes even wants to respond physically. While he wouldn’t ever actually do that, that’s still his first reaction.
“That’s probably been my biggest struggle, actually. When somebody says something bad about me, they’re always like, ‘Don’t say a word,’ and I’m like, ‘That’s not me, man.’ I want to swing away, f***ing take your head off, you know? And that’ll never leave me.
“So that’s probably my biggest struggle. And I know you’re not supposed to solve things with violence, but that’s the world I’ve been in for a long time. And I wouldn’t do it; I love my job, but yeah.”
Glazer said the O’Connell situation, in particular, shows a specific challenge. Aggregators’ summations of his reports go further than he did.
“Kevin O’Connell, I never said he’s getting traded. But I know he was on four teams’ lists to call to see if they could get a trade. And I do know teams called trying to trade for him. And I do know he was going into the last year of his contract. And I wasn’t sure if he was going to re-sign, and nor was he. So all I did was give that story, give that information.
“I would not be doing my job if I didn’t give the information that teams told me. Because also teams are asking me, ‘What’s Kevin’s deal? What’s his thing?’ And that’s how I know. It’s like, ‘Hey, do you think he’s going to re-sign there?’ ‘Why?’ Because we’re going to try to make a run at him.’ I had one team tell me they’re going to offer two ones for him, he told me straight up they’re ready to offer two ones.
“I said I don’t know if they’re going to do it. And I even said it on TV, ‘I don’t know if it’s going to happen, but I’m just telling you that he was on multiple teams’ lists.’ Now I can say it was four, who were going to try and see if they could do it. And I was just like, ‘Man, I just got killed for something I didn’t say.'”
Glazer has long stressed the importance of reporting well. He says the current aggregation-heavy social media landscape adds to the difficulties on that front.
“It’s harder. I had to correct somebody recently, also an aggregator. I said ‘Nope, not what I said. I said this.’ And they corrected it.”
Glazer said that he is trying to look at social media less overall.
“The whole thing about how words hurt us, I try not to look at social media anymore because it’s just people telling me off. I can’t tell you how many people, I’ll put a report out, and they’ll go ‘That’s not true!’ So you have more sources inside the Eagles than I do, this dude who’s living in Montana? You got more sources inside the Eagles than I do? How do you think you know better than me?”
He said the criticisms have sometimes even gone beyond social media, including literal hate mail for his mother.
“When I reported Odell Beckham was going to get traded a couple of years ago from the Giants, all I said was, I was asked, ‘Give me something that’s going to happen this offseason that’s gonna shock people,’ and it’s my job, right? I said, ‘The Giants are gonna trade Odell Beckham this offseason.’ My freaking mom got hate mail, right?
“And people tell me, ‘You don’t know what you’re talking about, you don’t know!’ Like, I got murdered last year by Giants’ people for saying, ‘Wink Martindale and Brian Daboll, bad relationship, they’re going to split.’ I got killed for that! And I’m like, ‘Man, it’s unbelievable.’ And you would think after 33 years with my track record, people give me a little bit more grace, but, you know, I can’t control what other people say.”
But Glazer did have one note on one in-person critic who might actually have useful information: Southern California illegal bookmaker Mathew Bowyer, who got in legal trouble over the gambling scandal around Shohei Ohtani’s interpreter Ippei Mizuhara.
“A funny one, though, recently, I had a couple cocktails, I was with my wife, and we were displaced because of the fire. So I wasn’t in the greatest mood. And I’m walking out of this bar, and some guy asked me for a prediction of Bills-Ravens, and I said whatever I said, and he goes, ‘No, you’re wrong.’ And I turned back around. I said, “Let me ask you a question, man. What the f*ck do you do for a living? Here’s what I do.’ And he goes, ‘I’m actually a bookie. I was the one who actually got in trouble with Shohei Ohtani.’ I said, ‘Oh, my bad, you’re good then.'”
He finished the conversation by saying even the criticism is a reminder of how blessed he is to have his current role and his ability to have a platform to promote mental health and other initiatives after his humble beginnings in the NFL world.
That’s something he expounded on more on X earlier in the week.
This is a GRATITUDE post!!
What a dream come true. My first Super Bowl I covered was right here in New Orleans in 1996, @Patriots vs @packers . NY1 TV told me they’ll give me three installments of $150 for three live hit reports (first is my career) and The New York Post told… pic.twitter.com/ZpvAos4Kru
— Jay Glazer (@JayGlazer) February 4, 2025
“The fact that people do say stuff like this, when I was doing this thing back in the day, there was no media day like this,” Glazer told AA. “My first NFL draft, I think there was like 17-20 reporters there. So as much as I want to fight, I appreciate the fact that, even with criticism and all that, I could never have imagined this many people would be talking about me, from where I came from.
“My first Super Bowl was here [to cap the 1996 season] when The New York Post sent me down for 250 bucks, NY1 gave me [$150 each for three appearances] for TV, but they wouldn’t pay for my hotels or my food or anything. I’d come to Radio Row to try and eat, and go to parties to eat food there. The first party I went to was House of Blues, Sugar Hill Gang performed, and it was hosted by Howie Long. How cool was that?
“But from going from a dude who was fully broke, making nine grand a year, to now people are talking about me? You criticize me, I’m always kind of looking for a fight, but I still appreciate it a lot. I’m still waiting to wake up in fifth grade, and none of this stuff has happened. Every day, thank you to my best friend God Almighty, and everybody, whether they’re ripping me or they’re loving me up.”
