Jay Glazer of FOX Sports was the first person to report that Johnny Manziel will start against the Cincinnati Bengals in Week 15. Not surprisingly, ESPN was hesitant to acknowledge that.
Shortly after Glazer tweeted that the Cleveland Browns have informed Manziel he is taking over for Brian Hoyer, ESPN coincidentally obtained the same information from a Browns source. Glazer, who was convinced his report was blatantly stolen, had a PR person for FOX reach out to ESPN for an explanation.
“Haha an all-time low from @ESPN on their constant thievery of other’s work,” Glazer wrote on Twitter. “FOX PR guy calls them to call BS on their claim they had Manziel scoop. News desk guy @sportscenter tells him their reporter didn’t want to be identified. Huh? What reporter doesn’t want credit for hard work paying off? Lying bastards. Haha.”
That does seem odd.
We know reporters never like revealing their inside sources. But, like Glazer said, what reporter wouldn’t want credit for breaking a major story? Are we supposed to believe that someone like Adam Schefter, Chris Mortensen or Ed Werder didn’t want to attach their name to a “Johnny Manziel to start against Bengals” report, yet ESPN has reporters who are willing to attach their name to an incredibly sensitive topic like this?
Some may care, others don't, but when people work hard in any job (scoops is how our performance is judged) their work should NOT be stolen!
— Jay Glazer (@JayGlazer) December 9, 2014
The current Manziel story on ESPN.com acknowledges that Cleveland’s choice to start Johnny Football was “reported earlier” by Fox Sports, but it simply states that “sources confirmed to ESPN” that Manziel is starting. Again, no specific ESPN reporter.
Glazer is one of the best — if not the best — NFL insiders in the business. If ESPN didn’t steal his report, they should be able to attribute it to one of their own NFL insiders.
