The curious case of Jay Glazer

Yesterday Jeff Pearlman wrote a blog post about Jay Glazer, a well-known NFL reporter for Fox Sports who also works for NFL players and teams as a mixed martial arts trainer. Glazer also apparently attended Jared Allen’s wedding.

Jeff learns most of this from a New York Times profile of the guy, and says it “turned my stomach.” A reporter, Jeff says, doesn’t befriend athletes. He doesn’t accept gifts from athletes. And he “sure as hell” doesn’t attend athletes’ weddings.

Jeff writes,

“…what if Jared Allen gets drunk and vomits all over the cake? What if he punches Brett Favre? What if he doesn’t show up? Do you write it? The true journalist does. A guy like Glazer almost certainly does not.”

Posts like this are why I follow Jeff. Plus, he’s been an incredible mentor lately in my foray into the real world of freelance journalism. He challenges. He provokes questions. And this whole post provides excellent fodder for discussion.

As a young journalist, I’d love to hear the input of everyone reading, from journalists to everyday people who don’t know as much about the ethical technicalities we journalists must worry about. And yes, Mom, even you can chime in. I do appreciate your thoughts.

Jeff calls what Glazer does “An embarrassing, pathetic, worst-of-its-kind joke.” I can get that. I agree with Pearlman in the case of Glazer. I’d perhaps word it a bit less insultingly, but Jeff certainly gets the point across: A reporter can’t be accepting pay for training athletes.

(Right?)

Jeff asks,

So what if Glazer hears Leinart calling a hooker? What if he sees Cushing (funny example) poppin ‘roids? What if he doesn’t think Grant is an especially hard worker? Does he sleep on the information, or does he ruin his ties with the players by reporting it? The answer is obvious: He sleeps on it.

Here, and his references to Jared Allen, is where I find myself asking my own questions.

I wonder—what exactly is a reporter’s job? Doesn’t it depend on the type of reporter? Let’s take a guy like Glazer, a sports writer. If he is training these athletes, and he does see Cushing shooting up, then yes, he should report that. The reason: it violates league rules. It gives Cushing an unfair advantage. In short, it’s cheating, and if a reporter knows someone is cheating, then it is his job to report that.

However, if he overhears Matt Leinart calling a hooker, he doesn’t have to report that. Of course, calling hookers is sleazy and sad and a pretty poor life decision, but it’s not a reporter’s job to judge. Will reporting that Matt Leinart is calling hookers do anybody any good? Isn’t that more like gossip, instead of news?

And if Grant isn’t a hard worker….this one goes both ways. If he’s not a hard worker, then that’s going to impact his game. But if he’s not a hard worker and it’s not bringing down the team or, in an obvious way, his performance, then isn’t that, too, just gossip?

Same for if Jared Allen throws up on his cake or doesn’t show up at the wedding. That’s not related to the game; so is it news. I don’t think so. Again, great chunk of gossip. Ha-ha, Jared Allen puked all over the cake before they could cut it! And here’s the picture! But ultimately, that’s nothing but destructive.  

However, were Allen to punch Brett Favre, thus causing Favre to miss playing time, that would be news. It impacts the game.

(All that said, I just read one of Glazer’s stories on FoxSports.com, the one about Cushing getting suspended for using a banned substance. And honestly, as a young journalist exploring the ethics of this entire situation, that story turned my stomach. I’m no hound, but it reeks of buddy-buddy stuff. Just looking at it, it seems as though Cushing called Glazer, saying, “Dude, I gotta get my side of things out there, will you please, please write something positive about me?”

That’s not all. The final sentence of the story is, “Cushing began training in February with MMAthletics, a program run by FOX Sports NFL Sunday insider Jay Glazer and mixed martial arts legend Randy Couture.”

That sentence is completely irrelevant to the entire story. Glazer is flat-out advertising. Not on his blog, which would be fine. Not on his own website, which would be fine. No, this is his story for his publisher. How do the editors let this by?)

Anyway, I’m not out to slam anybody here. I just want honest feedback. So I’ll stop picking on Glazer.

What do you think? What constitutes a reporter? What constitutes news a reporter should write about, and what’s just gossip that’s best left to the folks like TMZ?

Honestly, if I’m Glazer, and all of the above-mentioned scenarios occur, I report on Cushing shooting up; I don’t report on Leinart calling a hooker. I keep an eye on Grant.

But I’m not going to believe I’m 100 percent right here. I’ve been wrong before. I’m wrong a lot.

I want to hear from you.

What do you think?

Comments

[Brandon]

Well alright then.

[katie]

You aren't 100% right. :)