Big sports news moments often come with fan suggestions the newsbreaker in question timed the reveal to negatively impact a particular team. Fox’s Jay Glazer has been known for pushing back on those assertions, and the latest way he’s done that is especially unusual. On Julian Edelman’s Games With Names podcast this week, Glazer said he abandoned a date with a woman before sex because that happened to be when he got particular Deflategate information he had to get out there.
This came as part of a much larger conversation with Edelman (who also works for Fox on Fox NFL Kickoff). The “game with a name” for this episode of Edelman’s iHeartMedia podcast focused on the New York Giants’ win over Edelman’s New England Patriots in 2008’s Super Bowl XLII, and Glazer had plenty of comments on that. But there also was an extensive conversation about Glazer’s reporting, especially when it came to the Patriots, as seen in this 13-minute video:
Much of that discussion centered on Glazer getting a Spygate tape the NFL thought had been destroyed. That was a huge scoop for him, which he used to cement his status at Fox NFL Sunday. He talks about how that show’s panelists were initially cool to him, but how that story changed that, and then he discusses how he refused heavy pushes from both NFL commissioner Roger Goodell and Pennsylvania senator Arlen Spector to reveal his source.
But about 10 minutes into the video above, the conversation turns to other stories Glazer has broken key developments in over the years, including Deflategate. And that particular story sees Glazer pushing back against Patriots’ fans’ claims he timed a revelation to come out during the team’s flight to 2015’s Super Bowl XLIX by discussing how it was far from ideal timing for him:
“You guys were flying in for the Super Bowl, and I reported that the NFL has video of the two locker room attendants taking balls into a bathroom for whatever it was. So I reported that as you were flying in. And guys were all pissed off at me thinking I timed it on purpose for when you were flying in. That’s the stupidest sh*t ever, because you’re not waiting for that.
“You guys landed, and I had everybody killing me, and I had all these fans grab me down at the Super Bowl thinking I did this on purpose. …They’re like, ‘You f***ing did this on purpose!’ And it actually couldn’t have come at a worse time when I broke that. I was actually with a girl when this came in. It was my first time being with her.
“I was like, ‘Oh, I got to go deal with this. Do you know about the whole Deflategate?’ She’s like, ‘No, but I know about deflating.’ Couldn’t have been worse!
“So I told one of your stations up there, I was like, ‘Guys, let me show you what I was doing, about to, when I got that third confirmation.’ And I show these guys a picture of the young lady, I’m like ‘You think I want to step away from this to go break a story? You think I waited on purpose to go break it then?’ And they’re like ‘No, absolutely.’ I’m like ‘Please tell everybody what you saw,’ and they’re like ‘We can’t, but we believe you.’ Man. I don’t do sh*t like that.”
This story is in some ways the reverse of ESPN insider Adam Schefter’s November revelation he once broke a story after having sex (which also was the first time he was with that particular woman, not his wife, who he met and married years later). For Schefter, though, the timing worked out a little better. But for Glazer, at least this gave him a good defense to the claims he specifically timed this story to the Patriots’ flight.
The overall discussion of Glazer and story timing is interesting as well, as he is a rare insider who has said he does sometimes specifically time when he releases reports. But that’s not about him targeting particular teams; it’s about him working for a broadcast network in Fox that only airs NFL content at selected times. That network currently specifically wants him to break news on their pregame show whenever possible, which he’s often able to do thanks to getting particularly unique information. (His Aaron Rodgers scoop on this year’s Super Bowl pregame coverage is one of many examples.)
In theory, that would mean Glazer wouldn’t have to abandon dates to go report, as he knows in advance when his airtime will be and tries to time his newsbreaks to that. That’s unlike figures like Schefter and NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport who are often looking to break news on social media, sometimes even from the shower. But the particular circumstances were likely a little different in 2015, as that was when Fox Sports was still emphasizing website content (before Jamie Horowitz’s dramatic 2016-17 takeover and reshaping of their digital efforts). And while that led to an awkward end to Glazer’s date, it did provide him a good rebuttal to accusations he timed that particular story to hurt the Patriots.
