Why Foxsports.com Needs to Suspend Jay Glazer’s Column
Move over on your bench Don Imus and leave room for Jay Glazer of Foxsports.com.
Glazer wrote a piece praising the Chicago Bears for brutality and citing a need to hold Old School Rookie Initiations. As you will see from the convoluted prose below, Glazer is also an awful writer, but let that pass. Here is an excerpt and link:
Link:
http://msn.foxsports.com/nfl/story/7144374
“Their lair is not plagued by the concern that commissioner Roger Goodell recently raised that money given to rookies prevents them from going through their rookie rite of passage and thus driving a wedge between them and the vets. Goodell couldn’t be more on the money. Many of these kids come into the league now with a sense of entitlement, failing to respect the garbage that generations of rookies have gritted through.
Today’s rookie tells vets they won’t sing in the lunch room or refuse to undergo the basic rookie hazing and wide-eyed “Yes sir-ing” while they learn the ropes. These rituals have built solid respect and locker room tightness for generations upon generations in this league. It’s like the bonding that fraternity brothers feel after making each other do some of the dumbest stuff known to man….Most teams rely upon their head coaches to lay down the law. Lovie Smith, however, doesn’t need to bother spending his time with this. If you’ve got a problem with it, [Olin] Kreutz, who’s already broken teammate Fred Miller’s jaw in a fight and has had to go through anger management classes, is all too willing to take it old-school.”
Read enough? That last sentence isn’t merely juvenile–it’s close to a psychotic reflection. Does Glazer really think pro football needs more sadists to enliven the locker room making rookies “respect” them through humiliation and brutality.
What’s next for Glazer? A piece extolling dogfighting as a way to make Atlanta quarterbacks tougher? Talk about “some of the dumbest stuff known to man.”
This column sure does make readers think, however. They think about a certain sniffing sportswriter who has gotten so caught up trying to be “one of the boys” in the locker room that he lost sight of what his real role as a journalist is there among them.
Atlanta Falcon’s owner Arthur Blank called Michael Vick’s behavior “incomprehensible and unacceptable.” That description also fits the behavior of a sportswriter writing a column advocating brutality as a means of establishing a winning team.
Jay Glazer has advocated or at least praised behavior (breaking a jaw, hazing) that is illegal in Illinois.
I’m not saying he should be fired.
But Foxsports.com should take away his column for a week and suspend him.
How in the blue blazes can fans expect more from athletes like Kreutz when it gets drivel like this from a sportswriter?
— Hank Nuwer
Since Foxsports.com yanked one column already, I’d better add these so you can judge his comments for yourself: Moderator (and note, as a frequent visitor to Louisville theater plays, I absolutely disagree with the opinions of Mr. Glazer on Kentucky.
Jay Glazer Column one:
BOURBONAIS, Ill. — The Bears have the best camaraderie of any team I’ve seen in the NFC! I haven’t seen all the contenders yet but at this point in my trip, it’s not even close. You know what I love about said camaraderie, what separates them from the others I’ve seen? They have an old-school locker room.
Their lair is not plagued by the concern that commissioner Roger Goodell recently raised that money given to rookies prevents them from going through their rookie rite of passage and thus driving a wedge between them and the vets. Goodell couldn’t be more on the money. Many of these kids come into the league now with a sense of entitlement, failing to respect the garbage that generations of rookies have gritted through.
Today’s rookie tells vets they won’t sing in the lunch room or refuse to undergo the basic rookie hazing and wide-eyed “Yes sir-ing” while they learn the ropes. These rituals have built solid respect and locker room tightness for generations upon generations in this league. It’s like the bonding that fraternity brothers feel after making each other do some of the dumbest stuff known to man.
Today’s rookie? Don’t bother approaching him with it because he’s already entitled to fame and fortune. Heck, he can win a job from the ice tub and trainer’s table nowadays. Terrible.
The Bears don’t have this problem for three reasons: Brian Urlacher, Olin Kreutz and Ruben Brown. The Bears kids come into that locker room, look at Mr. Freakish LB and realize they probably don’t want to push his buttons. But forget Urlacher for a moment. Kreutz is the old-school Lambert-esque tough guy who will let you know immediately you’ve got no damn rights in his room until you earn it. Kreutz and Brown together rather vocally expound upon any little thing a youngster, or even a vet for that matter, is screwing up.
Most teams rely upon their head coaches to lay down the law. Lovie Smith, however, doesn’t need to bother spending his time with this.
If you’ve got a problem with it, Kreutz, who’s already broken teammate Fred Miller’s jaw in a fight and has had to go through anger management classes, is all too willing to take it old-school. Brown? He’s only made nine Pro Bowls and is pretty much the uppercut to Kreutz’s jab.
I’m telling you folks this makes a HUGE difference. They keep that locker room old-school. It reminds me of something Michael Strahan told me during a recent conversation. He said sometimes guys his age feel like foreigners in their own locker rooms because of how the young kids come in.
The Bears, instead, have made their locker room the way home is supposed to be.
Jay Glazer Column two (now pulled)
Yes, it’s not a typo, I’m in Kentucky: They said I’d never, ever step foot in Georgetown. I’ve often joked around that I would never go, being that I’m an ethnic New Yawka and I’d stick out worse than Joe Pesci would, or actually did, in “My Cousin Vinny.” I mean, I’m a complete dead giveaway for someone who, well, isn’t from Kentucky.
Just as the folks from small towns like this have certain preconceived notions about the Big Apple and loud, arrogant, obnoxious, aggressive folks like myself, I’ve seen things on TV about how city boys and country folk don’t exactly mix.
Sorry, Georgetown but there was nothing to change my view in the least.
First of all, it’s in a dry county. Why is there anywhere in America that is dry? Let’s get real people. Not selling alcohol in one area is the dumbest thing in the world. You know what it does? It forces you to travel long distances to the next county to get drunk and then drive aaaaalllll the way back to Georgetown. How stupid is this rule? It also leads to the freaking hillbilly who was selling moonshine out of the back of his truck. Did I just say moonshine? Did I just say hillbilly? Folks, I’m not making this stuff up.
There are actually people who still sell moonshine in Kentucky and there was a guy giving it out from the back of his pickup the weekend I was there.
How do I say this gracefully and without half of Kentucky wanting to hang me by my you know whats? Let’s be honest, parts of Kentucky don’t exactly have a reputation for hording the members of MENSA or the contestants for the National Spelling Bee. With that in mind, I’m begging the folks in the Georgetown area to hire a full-time scout to walk around the town and correct grammar and spelling in order to dispel the myths.
The two best signs in America are both in Georgetown. First one hung in a WalMart that read, “All movies needs to be pay in electronics.” Huh? You is a honor student? Didn’t, oh, I don’t know, ONE PERSON realize that sentence simply isn’t English?
Then, I didn’t see this sign but I heard about it, the local Wendy’s originally had their big sign out front say, “Now hiring closers.” However, the “c” in closers fell off so for a while Wendy’s was “Now hiring losers.”
Nice.
Worst bar I’ve been to on the road: The Pub in Lexington, Ky. I’ve written about places I’ve loved but I have to give both sides of it. A few Bengals friends and I drove down to Lexington on a Sunday evening to find a few beers and arrived at The Pub in Lexington at 10:30. We were immediately informed that we could only get one round because as the waitress explained, “The police will come in and grab them right off your table at 11 p.m. sharp.”
Are you kidding me? That’s what the police spend their time on in this town? Are they chasing around bootleggers in old Studebakers? Can you imagine that?
Anyway, back to the waitress and her 11 p.m. cutoff. Last I checked I’m good for a little over a beer in a half hour. Last call? Fine, everyone in my party will have three drinks each and we’ll have them polished off at 10:55. Guaranteed!
The waitress, bartender and manager all panicked over this idea as if Elliott Ness would raid the place at any minute. Come on people, we’re all adults here. We’re talking three lousy beers.
That wasn’t the bad part, though. The manager, a total Doogie Howser-looking goober, walked over and the following is the actual conversation that ensued:
Goober Pyle, Manager Extraordinaire: “I understand you ordered three rounds but we can’t do that because all alcohol has to be finished by 11.”
Aggressive New Yawka Glaze: “That’s OK buddy, we’ll have them finished off for you, no problem.”
Goober Pyle, Manager Extraordinaire: “We can’t do that, the police will take them out of your hands. I’m sorry.”
Aggressive New Yawka Glaze: “It’s OK, I’m willing to do the time.”
Goober Pyle, Manager Extraordinaire: “Sorry, it’s not going to happen. I can only give you one. We’re only looking out for your best interests.”
Are you kidding me? This is where I got a little… frustrated shall I say.
Aggressive New Yawka Glaze: “Doogie, you want to protect my best interests, get me a damn 401K plan! Don’t let me buy a dog from Bad Newz Kennels but don’t tell me you’re going to play drink police.”
Goober Pyle, Manager Extraordinaire: “It’s for your own safety, sir.”
Aggressive New Yawka Glaze: “I’m so lucky to have a guardian angel like you at my side. Seriously, where were you when I fell out of that tree house when I was 8, or the time I got my ass choked out in the Octagon or the time I took a blow torch in high school and cut off the roof of my car so I could have a convertible. Thank you so much oh Hillbilly guardian.”
Goober Pyle, Manager Extraordinaire: “(Blank look)”
The best part of it was we had to drive another 20 minutes to find another place to drink and the waitress from The Pub actually found us there and wanted to sit and drink with us. Let’s get this straight, you refuse to serve us and then want to sit and have drinks with us? Aggressive New Yawka Glaze made that the most uncomfortable five minutes of conversation she’s spent in a bar in a long, long time.
That night was the longest five years I’ve spent at one place in my life
