Lionsgate: Facts Glazed Over

Last week, Jay “The Cueball” Glazer of FOX Sports proudly scooped a now infamous phone call between Brett Favre and former Lions GM Matt Millen. From the onset of this 300-word opinion piece that reads like something plucked from the blogosphere, Glazer references his mystery sources, who said Favre gave the Lions “a rundown of the nuances of what Green Bay does on offense” and “spent over an hour on the phone with Lions coaches”.

The outcry and media attention has been both bloated and ridiculous. Favre and others have denied and dismissed the reports ala “are you cereal?” and the story has finally/thankfully fallen by the wayside. In the end, all Jay Glazer discovered was that there was a phone call between Favre and Millen – two friends who were discussing a hunting trip. Yes, that’s right, a hunting trip. Glazer was wrong on every other statement (all two of them): the duration of the phone call and the subject matter. And he was certainly wrong about a conspiracy theory that Brett Favre is hell-bent on sabotaging his former team, the Green Bay Packers.

As if Glazer’s anti-Favre opinion wasn’t clear enough, he concludes his tale by saying, “Still, Favre has the right to do whatever he pleases. If he wants to help other teams there is nothing in league rules that prevents him from doing so.” That’s right Jay. It’s almost like saying writers posing as reporters have a right to spin a story in whatever way will garner the most web hits. If they want to time an opinion piece filled with anonymous sources and rampant speculation, there is nothing from preventing them from doing so. Hell, they can even pose hypotheticals on the air like “Brett likes to talk, therefore he must’ve said something” and almost make it sound credible. OK, Jay. And let’s not forget that robots are strong, because they’re made of metal. If Jay Glazer can be a Senior Writer with FOX Sports, I have to believe the Packer Ranter will replace ESPN within the year.