Speaker 1: This is Unbreakable with Jay Glacier, a mental Wealth podcast
Speaker 1: build you from the inside out. Now here's Jay Glacier.
Speaker 2: Welcome into Unbreakable mental Wealth Podcast with Jay Laser. I'm
Speaker 2: Jay Glazer. I'm proud to be joints. So Super Bowl
Speaker 2: is behind us, but obviously officiating is always a big
Speaker 2: topic and for that I want to bring on my
Speaker 2: teammate at the NFL on Fox former head of officiating
Speaker 2: for the NFL team Bland.
Speaker 3: You know, how are we doing, buddy?
Speaker 4: I'm good man, I'm good dude.
Speaker 2: How happy are you that you're able to come off
Speaker 2: a Super Bowl and not be screamed at by coaches
Speaker 2: and fans and you know, only by our producers, which
Speaker 2: is way better than coaches and fans.
Speaker 4: Let me tell you the people at Fox Sports, the producers,
Speaker 4: the executives, They've got nothing on NFL head coaches. Let
Speaker 4: me say, I love working at Fox and one of
Speaker 4: the biggest things I love is not dealing with angry coaches.
Speaker 3: Yes, yeah. Let me ask you this. When you're leading
Speaker 3: up to a Super Bowl, does everything get tighter in the.
Speaker 2: League office or you know, like, how is it leading
Speaker 2: up to the Super Bowl?
Speaker 3: What happens where the league office.
Speaker 2: There's so much attention obviously that happens in officiating in
Speaker 2: the playoffs. Is it just it's just another week or
Speaker 2: it gets tired out of the approach things.
Speaker 4: No, it definitely ramps up. When you think about regular season.
Speaker 4: I mean, you've got two hundred and seventy two regular
Speaker 4: season games and they're all kind of happening on their own.
Speaker 4: The league office is monitoring everything the different areas. But
Speaker 4: when you get into the playoffs, now there's one game
Speaker 4: at a time, there's there's obviously more people watching and
Speaker 4: there's more focus from the league office. You think about
Speaker 4: the NFC and AFC championship games, the league really runs
Speaker 4: those two games, and then obviously the Super Bowl. So
Speaker 4: a regular NFL game, regular regular season, you might have,
Speaker 4: you know, you might have ten people from the league office.
Speaker 4: Championship games, super Bowl you've got one hundreds. So it
Speaker 4: ramps up, and obviously scrutiny, the pressure, everything is more intense.
Speaker 2: Take me through just what they do with the officials,
Speaker 2: like the week, that goes into what you guys would
Speaker 2: do with the officials.
Speaker 3: Take me through Monday's or Sundays, Sunday.
Speaker 4: Sure, so the crew gets notified actually right right before
Speaker 4: the divisional games, so actually right after the divisional round game,
Speaker 4: so the crew knows that that Monday, that Tuesday they
Speaker 4: know so they can start preparing for the game. Typically
Speaker 4: the crew will get in Wednesday or Thursday of the
Speaker 4: week before the game, So ten days out you're saying no, no, no,
Speaker 4: not ten days out, So you try to keep it
Speaker 4: as close to regular season. You typically go in the
Speaker 4: day before, so they try to keep the officials kind
Speaker 4: of isolated from all because, you know, the Super Bowl
Speaker 4: there's so much. There's events, there's parties, there's all this
Speaker 4: stuff going on. New Orleans is crazy, right, So you
Speaker 4: try to keep the officials kind of kind of isolated
Speaker 4: from that. They'll come in Wednesday or Thursday. Thursday night
Speaker 4: is probably one of my favorite events of the year
Speaker 4: because before it really starts to get down to the
Speaker 4: the meetings and the walkthrough and everything else, they have
Speaker 4: a big dinner with their families and it's a celebration
Speaker 4: because just like the players and the coaches, this for
Speaker 4: a lot of these officials, this is a dream come true.
Speaker 4: If it's their first super Bowl, this is what they've
Speaker 4: worked their entire career and sometimes their entire lives from
Speaker 4: when they were young and started officiating. So that opportunity
Speaker 4: on Thursday night to celebrate with the people, because you
Speaker 4: make so many sacrifices in this industry, right to celebrate
Speaker 4: with those people that have sacrificed so much. Right, you
Speaker 4: miss birthdays, you miss graduations, you miss all of these
Speaker 4: things during football season, and to say thank you to
Speaker 4: those people that are closest to you, that's one of
Speaker 4: my favorite things. Then Friday, there's a walkthrough at the stadium.
Speaker 4: They practice the coin toss. People don't realize how much
Speaker 4: the freaking coin to has to get practiced, and this
Speaker 4: and that, and then they're watching film. They have an
Speaker 4: all day pregame on Saturday, going through film talking about
Speaker 4: the two teams. And then Sunday get there. Typically a
Speaker 4: regular season game, you're there two and a half to
Speaker 4: three hours before because it's the Super Bowl and all
Speaker 4: of the security and all the extra layers. They're there
Speaker 4: about five hours before kickoff and just kind of preparing
Speaker 4: leading up to the start of the game.
Speaker 3: How much extra do they get if they get chosen
Speaker 3: from the Super Bowl.
Speaker 4: Well, they get there's a there's a postseason fee that
Speaker 4: that is, it's really not that much more than it
Speaker 4: would be for the regular season where the compensation comes in.
Speaker 4: Any official that meets the performance standard, which is set
Speaker 4: before the season. Any official that meets that SANTS standard
Speaker 4: gets like the teams do, they get like a postseason
Speaker 4: bonus when they go further and further in the postseason,
Speaker 4: So they get a postseason bonus and it's split amongst
Speaker 4: all the officials that qualify. So that's a pretty pretty
Speaker 4: good number. It could be up to about thirty grand
Speaker 4: and then the game the game fees are you know,
Speaker 4: depending on seniority, anywhere from like maybe seventy five hundred
Speaker 4: to ten grand. So, but they don't do it. You know,
Speaker 4: when you get to that level, it's not about the money.
Speaker 4: It's about the experience and the opportunity to say, hey,
Speaker 4: I worked at the highest level.
Speaker 2: Traviswede have a Mental wealth podcast you just call mental health.
Speaker 2: Do you have officials come to you in the past
Speaker 2: and then come to you when they just have performance
Speaker 2: anxiety and they just have anxiety attacks before a games,
Speaker 2: during game whatever?
Speaker 4: It is no question. We really you know when I
Speaker 4: was there wasn't I started in the mid nineties, right,
Speaker 4: So you think about just in general, what we what
Speaker 4: we did for mental health and mental wellness nowhere near
Speaker 4: what we're what we're doing today, and more aware of
Speaker 4: what's happening. And officials, I mean, I've seen officials that
Speaker 4: make a call and maybe it's the wrong call and
Speaker 4: it's a big game, and they their world crumbles. I mean,
Speaker 4: you go back the official who you go back to
Speaker 4: nineteen ninety eight at Seahawks fourth down, viny Testaverdi ruled
Speaker 4: the touchdown Jets. When Seahawks lose, Seahawks don't make the playoffs,
Speaker 4: the entire coaching staff gets fired. That official who made
Speaker 4: that call went into such a deep depression that the
Speaker 4: entire community, the officiating community, the family had to help
Speaker 4: him get out of that. And so you see that.
Speaker 4: And officiating is interesting because it's a negative environment. Nobody
Speaker 4: is there's no pats on the back. People understand that
Speaker 4: when they get into it. But it's not like referees
Speaker 4: in any sport leave a game and there's a lot
Speaker 4: of people going great job, ref It's very negative. And
Speaker 4: that's something we've really strived in recent years to say
Speaker 4: we have to provide our officials resources, mental health, mental
Speaker 4: wellness resources because it is so stressful, there's so much
Speaker 4: pressure and a lot of them need help.
Speaker 3: Wow. Interesting, I remember.
Speaker 2: Look, you know, I've been friends for a long time,
Speaker 2: so much so that by the way, just people know
Speaker 2: I broke the spy GI video and I kind of
Speaker 2: pinned it on Dean and Mike Pereira. Yeah man, yeah,
Speaker 2: which which you know, Look, I gotta leave bread crumbs
Speaker 2: and people still think you're the one that gave it
Speaker 2: to me, so I you know, whenever we go out drinking,
Speaker 2: I try and him and I got to sign you
Speaker 2: and then Mike, poor Mike just crumbled and ironically both
Speaker 2: guys are not working with me at Fox, and they
Speaker 2: were but like you fucking asshole Glaser. But which I
Speaker 2: did tell the commission to Look, I'm gonna leave so
Speaker 2: so many.
Speaker 4: Bread from curse on this. I can go asshole becauseole.
Speaker 2: But I even told the commissioner listen, please don't do
Speaker 2: an investigation because I'm gonna leave so many bread crumbs
Speaker 2: to who it's not and you guys are just gonna
Speaker 2: there's gonna be so many people were hurt, and unfortunately
Speaker 2: Hu and Perrera are the easiest want to leave bread
Speaker 2: crumbs on because you're an officiating And funny because I
Speaker 2: actually let bread coumps about four people where you were
Speaker 2: the two that they like focused it on because Pereira
Speaker 2: just when they brought him in, it was like they
Speaker 2: put the under the line.
Speaker 3: He just crumbled and he just fucked up.
Speaker 2: By the way, neither one of these guys give me
Speaker 2: spy game Probviously I would even bring it up here.
Speaker 2: But being friends with over the years, the last couple
Speaker 2: of years, I saw a big change in you. And
Speaker 2: what I mean is last couple when you were still
Speaker 2: the league where I was no longer able to have
Speaker 2: a conversation with you at dinner because these coaches hit
Speaker 2: you a non stop to.
Speaker 3: Bitch at you and it didn't stop.
Speaker 2: And it was like, detan be present here, And You're like,
Speaker 2: I can't, Like it doesn't stop now?
Speaker 3: And I think that more.
Speaker 2: You know, we are so much closer because of social
Speaker 2: media to you guys and the coaches and everyone now
Speaker 2: has an opinion. Back in the day, there's three insiders, right,
Speaker 2: there's meet four well father, There's me, Mort Clayton, Lynn
Speaker 2: Pasquarelli and Peter Kind. National insiders.
Speaker 3: You know it was it.
Speaker 2: Now there's a billion, right, and there's everybody has a voice. Sure, yeah,
Speaker 2: I just saw a decided market. And it's just like,
Speaker 2: I'm glad you got out of that to come to Fox,
Speaker 2: which was a much better existence. But I saw a
Speaker 2: huge downturn in your mental health for those two years,
Speaker 2: and I would tell you about it, like, dude, these guys,
Speaker 2: you got to put some boundaries up.
Speaker 3: You're like, I can't.
Speaker 4: It was no question, and look, I'll be honest, everything
Speaker 4: in my life suffered. That was one of the biggest
Speaker 4: reasons people say, Look, I don't I love the NFL.
Speaker 4: I grew up in the NFL. It was my first
Speaker 4: real job out of college, and I stayed there for
Speaker 4: the most part, so I'll always be loyal to the NFL,
Speaker 4: the people, the league office. But I got to the
Speaker 4: point where that job was and I still loved it,
Speaker 4: but it was so all encompassing. Like you said, there's
Speaker 4: no there's no time off. It's twenty four to seven, coach,
Speaker 4: They're grinding right, They're working eighteen nineteen hour days, so
Speaker 4: I've got to be available. But the problem and the
Speaker 4: thing that I think I did wrong for my mental
Speaker 4: health and really and it affected my relationships, my marriage,
Speaker 4: you know, everything. And I always felt like if a
Speaker 4: coach texted me or a coach emailed me, that I
Speaker 4: approached it, that that coach was standing at their computer
Speaker 4: or at their own waiting for me to respond. That's
Speaker 4: that's the sense of urgency I put on it. And
Speaker 4: I and I and I neglected so many other parts
Speaker 4: of my life and it and it look at I
Speaker 4: was just not I was not good on the personal
Speaker 4: side of my life because of that. And and look,
Speaker 4: those are choices that you make. And one of the
Speaker 4: choices that I made was, Okay, I want a better
Speaker 4: a better just kind of you know life in terms
Speaker 4: of being able to do other things, not always being
Speaker 4: on call, and the ability to go and still work
Speaker 4: in the game and be a part of Fox Sports team.
Speaker 4: It was life changing and it really affected everything from
Speaker 4: a personal standpoint in a positive way.
Speaker 3: What are they calling you beat on Wednesday night?
Speaker 4: Though? Looking at film, Hey we're playing the Chiefs on
Speaker 4: South Sunday. They do this or they do that. There,
Speaker 4: you know, it was non stop, right, You're getting calls.
Speaker 3: You know.
Speaker 4: What's funny is that right after I left so my
Speaker 4: life season was twenty sixteen. They did one more season
Speaker 4: twenty seventeen, and I think it was twenty eighteen. They
Speaker 4: basically incorporated a twenty four hour cooling off period where
Speaker 4: the coaches couldn't contact the league office officiating for twenty
Speaker 4: four hours until the game was over. And I'm like, man,
Speaker 4: where was that? When I was there, I had like
Speaker 4: I have like Sean Payton calling me at halftime like
Speaker 4: like you know, so it was that. It was really
Speaker 4: oh yeah, oh yeah, no, I mean Sean's the best.
Speaker 4: We both love Sean. We worked with Sean. Sean was
Speaker 4: the one guy that the time. Yeah, if you if
Speaker 4: you're like, coach, no, the Earth is round, and he's like, no,
Speaker 4: it's flat. You couldn't convince him other way. Yeah, that
Speaker 4: was it. Nope, I'm not gonna you're you're wrong, I'm
Speaker 4: right and uh.
Speaker 3: And so I got to threaten Sean bodily harm on
Speaker 3: more than one occasion.
Speaker 2: He will get after you, and Rosie's going to stop me, like, dude,
Speaker 2: I will fucking choke you out and leave you in
Speaker 2: the gut or if you ever talked me like this,
Speaker 2: and he's like.
Speaker 3: Oh, you're gonna do this now. I'm like, what the
Speaker 3: fuck did you say to me?
Speaker 2: And Rose's like okay, okay, okay, commented we had we
Speaker 2: got into it like six am last year, and I
Speaker 2: was like, I will fucking murder you and he was like, oh,
Speaker 2: we're going there, and Rosie's like okay, okay, what's.
Speaker 4: Yeah, let's start talk. But I remember you. I remember you.
Speaker 4: We won't name names, but I remember you at a
Speaker 4: super Bowl getting mad at somebody and kicking them out
Speaker 4: of their seat because you wanted Sean Payton to sit
Speaker 4: with us. But that that that's a different story if
Speaker 4: you remember that.
Speaker 3: I don't remember that.
Speaker 4: Okay, well that'll be offline. I'll tell you. No, you
Speaker 4: didn't kick me out of the seat. It was somebody else.
Speaker 2: Oh I do remember that we were a Fox dinner, Yes, yes, yes,
Speaker 2: And because him and his wife were coming, that's why,
Speaker 2: that's why for Sean was with his wife and.
Speaker 3: His dude was sitting there and he's like, no, you move,
Speaker 3: and I.
Speaker 4: Was like, he got uncomfortable for a second, really uncomfortable,
Speaker 4: and I got loud.
Speaker 2: And he shouldn't have been at the dinner. Yeah, yeah, because
Speaker 2: he was you know it wasn't somebody a part of
Speaker 2: the Fox family? And yes I did. That's correct, Sean.
Speaker 2: I like you said, you have a love hate, But
Speaker 2: keep keep talking about these guys with no.
Speaker 4: But that you know there they'll call, you know, Sunday night,
Speaker 4: Monday there. Because these coaches are under so much pressure
Speaker 4: and their control freaks. Right, everything from an NFL schedule, right,
Speaker 4: everything is down to the minute practice, you know, all
Speaker 4: of it. And and so the one thing they can't
Speaker 4: control is the officiating. And and so it's a constant
Speaker 4: battle in terms of trying to understand and look, I
Speaker 4: I worked with so many head coaches, there isn't one.
Speaker 4: People ask me who was the biggest asshole I can
Speaker 4: I can truly say I never dealt with any like
Speaker 4: real true assholes now could could could be.
Speaker 1: No.
Speaker 3: Bill.
Speaker 4: Bill was the other way. Bill understood the thing that
Speaker 4: I loved about Bill when I dealt with him, he
Speaker 4: understood it. He's like, listen, I get it. He goes.
Speaker 4: I make mistakes during a game. Players make mistakes. Officials
Speaker 4: are going to make make mistakes. Bill just wanted to
Speaker 4: know what was going on. Hey, how are the officials
Speaker 4: going to handle this situation? How are they calling this.
Speaker 4: He just wanted the information. And like I said, I
Speaker 4: never had like anybody that was like that guy's an asshole.
Speaker 4: Now could they be an asshole in the moment in
Speaker 4: that conversation, absolutely, you know, Iba Bruce. I mean, but
Speaker 4: he would just murder me, murder me. He'd be on
Speaker 4: I remember Thursday night, they're playing a Thursday night game.
Speaker 4: He's on the bus, mother fucking me after the game,
Speaker 4: you know, accusing me my first year. My first year,
Speaker 4: he accused me of not knowing the rules. My second
Speaker 4: year he accused me of cheating. My third year, he
Speaker 4: said he's never I'm never calling I'm never calling the
Speaker 4: office again. Like that lasted like a week. So there's guys,
Speaker 4: you know every Tom Coughlin you know he gave you know,
Speaker 4: it was like forty five minutes one day on a Monday,
Speaker 4: just letting me have it. And his assistant is texting
Speaker 4: me while it's happening. Hey, Dean, don't take it personally.
Speaker 4: I get this three times a week. So it's just
Speaker 4: but in those moments and we talk about mental health
Speaker 4: and mental wellness, I really felt like a therapist in
Speaker 4: those moments because a lot of that was venting. A
Speaker 4: lot of that was the coach they want They're under
Speaker 4: so much pressure, they just wanted to get it off
Speaker 4: their chest. And I always took the approach of I'm
Speaker 4: gonna take my emotion out of it. I'm gonna listen,
Speaker 4: and i'm gonna I'm gonna see what that person on
Speaker 4: the other end of the line needs. Does that person
Speaker 4: need to vent? Does that person need an explanation? What
Speaker 4: do do you need? In ninety nine percent of the
Speaker 4: time we ended the call on a good note. Sometimes maybe,
Speaker 4: you know, there was a hang up and we had
Speaker 4: to have another phone call. But that's kind of the
Speaker 4: approach that I took because and those guys are under
Speaker 4: so much pressure.
Speaker 2: Like I said, is there anybody ever pushed you so
Speaker 2: far over the edge? You're like, hey, like I would react.
Speaker 3: Fuck you?
Speaker 4: Yeah?
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 4: And I really liked the guy. But one time, I,
Speaker 4: I mean, Jerry Rees and I must have hung up
Speaker 4: on each other about three times in one conversation where
Speaker 4: I was just like, where not getting anywhere?
Speaker 3: Former giants?
Speaker 4: Yeah yeah, former giants GM, And we're not getting anywhere,
Speaker 4: you know, and and and you know, he said some
Speaker 4: things and then I said some things that that we
Speaker 4: probably both regret that that was like one of the
Speaker 4: few times, but you know that those things will happen
Speaker 4: when you're when you're talking about the emotions and the pressure.
Speaker 3: How do they still fuck it up so much?
Speaker 4: I think there's a disconnect between how we see the
Speaker 4: game on the broadcast and how the game is officiated
Speaker 4: on the field.
Speaker 2: And it's just too much like there was a time
Speaker 2: where it's just like, let's lay off, and now that
Speaker 2: those times are gone.
Speaker 4: Like no question, no question, And and and look when
Speaker 4: I first started, and this this goes back to you know,
Speaker 4: Paul TAGLIBUU commissioner Taglibo, we did you know, a play happened,
Speaker 4: it was controversial, and then and then everybody moved on that.
Speaker 4: The league rarely made statements, but in nineteen ninety five
Speaker 4: you could do that right because it was it was newspapers,
Speaker 4: it was you know, it wasn't the twenty four hour
Speaker 4: cycle that we have today, Like you said, everybody on
Speaker 4: social media, everybody the internet. So now you so I
Speaker 4: think the league really I don't think the league has
Speaker 4: an officiating problem. I think the league has a transparency problem.
Speaker 2: And I think that's where I think the effificiating problem
Speaker 2: because like the problem because they just called too much,
Speaker 2: like there is something on every single play you can call, sure, right,
Speaker 2: And it was Look when the when the replacement res
Speaker 2: came in, it was like, hey, don't call anything, don't
Speaker 2: be part of the story.
Speaker 4: And they weren't.
Speaker 2: It was great, And I just think that should be
Speaker 2: the directive, don't be part of the story.
Speaker 4: There's no question that for for people most people watching
Speaker 4: the game, less flags is good, right, It's good. There's
Speaker 4: less stoppages, there's less let the players decide. I do
Speaker 4: think that over the years, when you go that far
Speaker 4: that way, teams tend to take advantage and and that
Speaker 4: now you have to kind of overcorrect the other way
Speaker 4: because if teams know, hey, they're not going to throw,
Speaker 4: and we've had teams that just coached it and have
Speaker 4: been very successful. When you think about, you know, on
Speaker 4: the defensive side of the ball, Hey, if they're not
Speaker 4: gonna call holding an illegal contact, we're gonna do it
Speaker 4: on every play and maybe we get caught one set
Speaker 4: of ten ten times, but we win nine out of
Speaker 4: ten times. And so that's that's the fear with not
Speaker 4: calling anything. And it's a balance, but Look, officials aren't perfect. Yeah,
Speaker 4: they make mistakes, and I think the league is aware
Speaker 4: of it, and they're gonna try to, you know, hopefully
Speaker 4: you know, correct some things with replay. But I still
Speaker 4: think you got to get to the root of the problem.
Speaker 4: Get good officials, get good training, get good people in
Speaker 4: the league office to to to, you know, to lead
Speaker 4: that crew.
Speaker 2: So here's my suggestion, Roger Guell straight out ten years ago.
Speaker 2: I still think it's great idea. I said, I think
Speaker 2: you should get X special ops guys, Delta's seals, Marie Recon,
Speaker 2: guys who actually played football right know again, make them
Speaker 2: your officials because a they're common caasts, be physically, they
Speaker 2: can keep up with these cats right and be in
Speaker 2: a better position.
Speaker 3: And see those.
Speaker 2: Coaches ain't gonna fucking wear out an Avy seal who
Speaker 2: dealt it. They're not going to be screaming at it.
Speaker 2: And I still think it's a great idea. Plus, we're
Speaker 2: you know a lot of these guys come out of
Speaker 2: service and have a hard time finding work, and Rogers like,
Speaker 2: you're fucking crazy. I'm like, what, we know that, But
Speaker 2: I think it's a great idea.
Speaker 4: I think the concept is when you when the attributes
Speaker 4: that you just mentioned, those are all things that will
Speaker 4: lead to a good a good official right the communder chaos,
Speaker 4: you know, the ability to keep you gotta be physically fit,
Speaker 4: and that has changed. Look when I first started in
Speaker 4: nineteen ninety five, if you know what the officials fitness
Speaker 4: test was at their annual clinic. They had to finish
Speaker 4: a mile. Not it wasn't timed. They literally they don't
Speaker 4: have to finish.
Speaker 3: You could walk not and not die.
Speaker 4: Really that was this is the requirement, and and and
Speaker 4: there were some that we weren't sure we're gonna pass.
Speaker 4: But but now now it's gotten so far the other
Speaker 4: way where where we have you know, we have groups
Speaker 4: that come in athletic training staff, those types of things
Speaker 4: that help these guys and these and these girls that
Speaker 4: get you know, make sure that because these are the
Speaker 4: best athletes in the world. Now, look, you're not gonna
Speaker 4: beat Saquon Barkley to the goal line, but you have
Speaker 4: to be at a standard where you can be in
Speaker 4: position to see what you need to see. And I
Speaker 4: think that's something the league is aware. But I look,
Speaker 4: I love the idea I don't know about. We can't
Speaker 4: have former Navy seals choking out coaches on the sideline.
Speaker 3: I didn't say that they don't have to choke. That
Speaker 3: wasn't the point.
Speaker 2: The point is they're not gonna be as app they're
Speaker 2: gonna have more respect than a guy who's a part
Speaker 2: time fucking lawyer or full time lawyer or part time official.
Speaker 2: If you guy who served our country, they're gonna be
Speaker 2: a little less apt to.
Speaker 4: And we do have you know, we have programs. You know,
Speaker 4: Mike Pereira has battlefields to the ball fields. We've got
Speaker 4: a lot, you know, you know with you you what
Speaker 4: what you've done with with with merging and all the
Speaker 4: things that I think we do have more people that
Speaker 4: are getting involved from from the military into sports, whether
Speaker 4: it's officiating or other other areas. So I think that's
Speaker 4: that's definitely something we need to explore.
Speaker 3: So Diana and I we got to tell you guys
Speaker 3: how we met. I got he said it.
Speaker 4: First off, let me tell you Jay's I didn't know.
Speaker 4: I didn't know Jay.
Speaker 3: I met Jay.
Speaker 4: But Jay, if you and I just want everybody to know,
Speaker 4: Jay gives off this persona and look, we're both we're
Speaker 4: both Northeast guys. Jersey and New York. I'm Long Island.
Speaker 4: He's Jersey, so so he gives off that kind of
Speaker 4: Jersey Long Island douchebag vibe. Sometimes I say that in
Speaker 4: a loving way, but you are not that at all
Speaker 4: at all. But initially I was like, who is this
Speaker 4: guy that's coming in and he was going to do
Speaker 4: a story, but gad you could take off from Yeah.
Speaker 3: So I was coming in. Well, I definitely I got
Speaker 3: the Jersey New York attitude, that take can oatitude.
Speaker 2: Of course I love a glasshole, right, yeah, with a
Speaker 2: big heart, so I think that the big heart and
Speaker 2: people didn't realize.
Speaker 3: But I also look my mental health.
Speaker 2: I created this character so people wouldn't really know me
Speaker 2: because I didn't feel worthy.
Speaker 3: Of the real Jay Glazer, like I didn't thing anybody
Speaker 3: like him, So I created the glaze.
Speaker 2: You know, this fighting joke, drinking, cursing, it's not too
Speaker 2: far from who I am. But it's also I I
Speaker 2: definitely inflated.
Speaker 4: It's a version. It'sion, But I hid the heart I
Speaker 4: say over the years, right and now I leave with
Speaker 4: my heart.
Speaker 2: But one of the things I always do though, and
Speaker 2: I write my book too. One of the biggest things
Speaker 2: I do for my darkness, my gray is laughter. So
Speaker 2: I'm probably the biggest practical joker in the league, right
Speaker 2: But whether it's a Fox or even the league, like
Speaker 2: I do the craziest shit to people, and like I
Speaker 2: sent out a text message to a whole league one year,
Speaker 2: and I think I even said in the commissioner, Hey dude,
Speaker 2: some shit just went down. Your name came up, my
Speaker 2: phone's about to die. Call at this number at the
Speaker 2: hotel and when you called it, it was the sex
Speaker 2: chat line for like five ninety nine minutes.
Speaker 4: Yeah, that's perfect I had.
Speaker 3: I had people called for their I never forgot Mike,
Speaker 3: Tomlin and Bro. I called my team phonus and not
Speaker 3: my problem click Rex Ryan too, Like fuck, it was
Speaker 3: like all he's got straying.
Speaker 4: Rex may have been calling that line.
Speaker 2: Yeah it was called anyway people, but some I forget
Speaker 2: who the coach was, and it was Rex that he
Speaker 2: heard the music and stuff from this porn line and
Speaker 2: he thought I was in a club.
Speaker 3: Okay, stayed on in Jay Jay. So it's racking up
Speaker 3: the minutes, you know.
Speaker 4: And anyway, real real quick on Rex, he sent me
Speaker 4: the greatest text message any coach has ever sent me
Speaker 4: it was he was with it. I forget it was
Speaker 4: fourteen or fifteen. He was still with the Jets. Week one,
Speaker 4: they lose and they get called for like twenty five fouls,
Speaker 4: and he texts me after the game. He says, Hey,
Speaker 4: if we're gonna get fucked like that again next week,
Speaker 4: let me know and I'll bring the lube. I mean that.
Speaker 4: I'm in the text like, oh yeah, all right, coach.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean that's the greatest of his greatest character.
Speaker 2: So I play a lot of jokes. And I was
Speaker 2: at CBS at the time I came into it. This
Speaker 2: is ninety two thousand one or something.
Speaker 4: What did you get it? It was early two thousands.
Speaker 2: Yea, right, So sett along those lives and I come
Speaker 2: in to do a story for CBS sports Line Dot
Speaker 2: Common Inside Store of what happens in the fisherating department.
Speaker 2: So I come and I do this great story. But
Speaker 2: at first I wrote a fake story. And I had
Speaker 2: this story about how these guys gamble and they have
Speaker 2: Fantasy Football League, and you know this that they'll find
Speaker 2: guys like and I have quoting guys.
Speaker 3: You know what was your quote like?
Speaker 2: Because you were in charge of finds like, yeah, sure,
Speaker 2: Sometimes personal feelings come into whether we find a guy
Speaker 2: who figures Anthony dor Set right, Anthony door set.
Speaker 3: Sometimes we'll find him, but sometimes we won't find him.
Speaker 2: Because we liked his dad, because we like to this
Speaker 2: guy over here is a dick, and so we'll find
Speaker 2: him fifteen rats, and you know, all these things like oh,
Speaker 2: you have a fantasy football league, so sure we'll we'll
Speaker 2: look the other way of guys on our team, you know.
Speaker 3: And greg Iello, who's the former head of PR for
Speaker 3: the league, he's in on it with me.
Speaker 2: He comes in and you tell him right, he threw
Speaker 2: like ten copies and all of the right and said
Speaker 2: what he said, I let this guy in and this, yeah.
Speaker 4: This is what we Yeah, this is what and and
Speaker 4: people start looking at and Jay wrote this fake story
Speaker 4: about all this stuff, and it was literally Lord of
Speaker 4: the Flies, you know, people turning on each other.
Speaker 3: Like immediately like keep going there like I didn't say this.
Speaker 4: I didn't say that. Yes you did, I say, And
Speaker 4: I'm just sitting back and I'm looking at Jay. I'm
Speaker 4: like this motherfucker, I went there at that point, you
Speaker 4: tell me to like you were the only one, Like yeah,
Speaker 4: I was like, guys, wait, this is not real, Like
Speaker 4: why you like? Literally, they just turned on each other
Speaker 4: and I was like, this is ridiculous, Like I heard you.
Speaker 2: Say this right, They're like no, I didn't like and
Speaker 2: Pereira always had a heart attack that day.
Speaker 4: Oh my god.
Speaker 3: Yeah, of no doubt.
Speaker 4: He crumbled like a house of cars.
Speaker 2: That was my By the way, I used to do
Speaker 2: this to a lot of coaches and gms. I'd write
Speaker 2: fake articles. Yeah it would look perfect, right, and I
Speaker 2: would send it over and just guys would oh they
Speaker 2: would collapse and yeah there was Yeah. I did this
Speaker 2: several times and man, I had it down to science
Speaker 2: when I could figure out how to photoshop.
Speaker 4: Yeah, we've been friends ever since. You know, could have
Speaker 4: went one, could have went one of two ways.
Speaker 3: So you know, I'm gonna ask you this question. I
Speaker 3: asked all my guests.
Speaker 2: Give me the one moment in your life could have
Speaker 2: been anything to your unbreakable moment, could have broken you
Speaker 2: shouldn't and didn't.
Speaker 3: As a result, you came through the other side of
Speaker 3: that tunnel stronger forever.
Speaker 4: That's a good question. So couple come to mind. But
Speaker 4: there was one. There was one time, and it was
Speaker 4: right around two thousand and eight, and I was at
Speaker 4: the I was at the league. And for me, you
Speaker 4: know my background, I never officiated on the field. I didn't,
Speaker 4: I didn't come up. I'm very unique in that background.
Speaker 4: I started as an intern. I just I was lucky
Speaker 4: enough to get an internship at the NFL officiating had
Speaker 4: an opportunity and I took it. So I never officiated
Speaker 4: on the field. And I was basically told, not officially,
Speaker 4: but told, hey, listen, you'll never be the head of
Speaker 4: the department. You just you never officiate on the field.
Speaker 4: It's a glass ceiling. You'll never do it. And I
Speaker 4: was struggling. I was struggling with it. I didn't know
Speaker 4: where my career was going to go. And sitting there
Speaker 4: in two thousand and eight, I was married, didn't have
Speaker 4: kids yet. I was struggling a little with my relationship
Speaker 4: and everything else, and it was really getting me to
Speaker 4: the point where I just was lost. And in the
Speaker 4: league had at that point had offered an enhanced severance
Speaker 4: package for people that were there, you know, more than
Speaker 4: more than ten years. And I was and I was like,
Speaker 4: am I going to leave the NFL? Am? I going
Speaker 4: to leave this? This company the people would bend over
Speaker 4: backwards to work for. And I didn't know what I
Speaker 4: was going to do, but I knew that I was
Speaker 4: I knew that I had the potential to run that
Speaker 4: department and I and I took a chance, and I left.
Speaker 4: And I remember sitting in my office when this thing
Speaker 4: came across, reading this email, and I was like, and
Speaker 4: I struggled with it and left, started my own company,
Speaker 4: moved from New York to California, had my first son,
Speaker 4: and who's you know, you know how that goes incredible
Speaker 4: and credible, and then the league hired me back in
Speaker 4: twenty twelve, and I became the head of the department
Speaker 4: in twenty thirteen. So I don't know what if I,
Speaker 4: if I didn't go down that road, where would I
Speaker 4: be today? And I always think about that. Had I
Speaker 4: just kind of succumbed and and kind of said, you
Speaker 4: know what, felt sorry for myself, where would I have
Speaker 4: ended up? And I have no idea. I don't know.
Speaker 4: You gut on yourself. The show was slave without me? Yeah, yeah, exactly.
Speaker 4: And I just bet on myself. But believe me, I
Speaker 4: wasn't I wasn't a noble and I struggled with I
Speaker 4: really didn't. I said, you know, I could probably stay
Speaker 4: here like this and and it would be okay, But
Speaker 4: I got to take that chance.
Speaker 1: It was.
Speaker 4: It was the scariest thing that I've ever done. Really,
Speaker 4: it really was from from that standpoint and uh and
Speaker 4: and it worked out, thankfully.
Speaker 2: Brother. I appreciate you, man. I look, I apologize for
Speaker 2: playing that joke on you back then. I apologize for
Speaker 2: pinning spygate on you and Pereira. No, I actually don't
Speaker 2: apologize for either one. I appreciate you joining me here
Speaker 4: All right, man, Love you, Love you, buddy.