Anyone who watched FOX’s pregame show last week was treated to the actual video the Patriots used to steal defensive signals from the Jets in Week 1. Reporter Jay Glazer was credited for obtaining the video for FOX, but now he’s apparently in a little hot water with the NFL.
SPORTSbyBROOKS has noted that the league wants to know whom Glazer got the tape from, but he’s apparently willing to lose his job rather than give up his source:
Glazer to the NEW YORK DAILY NEWS today: “I told them (Fox Sports execs) if my source is an issue then let’s not run the video. And if they come to me now and say, ‘Look, you have no job unless you tell us,’ I would tell them: ‘Then I better start looking for a new job.'”
Welcome to the wonderful world of sports broadcasting, where if your employer holds the broadcast rights to the sport you cover, don’t bother scaring up any scoops – they’ll either be spiked before air or get you fired.
What’s ironic about sports reporting, and SbB touched on it, is that to get anywhere in the business, you need creditable sources. Those sources, however, want to remain anonymous. So to move up in a high profile job like sports reporting, you have to have creditable sources. But to retain the job, sometimes you have to give up those very same sources, just like Glazer is finding out. Ironic.
