Earlier this season, J.J. Watt’s legendary toughness was taken to its logical extreme when, days after going into atrial fibrillation (requiring an emergency procedure to shock his heart back into rhythm), the three-time Defensive Player of the Year took the field for Week 4, logging three tackles in a win at Carolina. Watt broke the story himself, sharing the news on Twitter hours before kickoff.
Watt wouldn’t reveal which outlet had the goods on him, though league insider Jay Glazer says it was him, telling Dan Le Batard he was going to report it on Fox’s pregame show, only for Watt to undercut him moments before Glazer’s segment.
“I was the one, by the way, that J.J. Watt was talking about that had information on him. Which, by the way, I’m a little f---ing pissed [about] because I called ahead,” said Glazer, resenting Watt’s assertion that he planned to leak “personal information.” “I said, ‘I just want to make sure.’ And [Cardinals PR] went and checked with J.J. and they were like, ‘Yeah, you’re good.’ So I said, ‘Okay, cool.’ And then an hour later, four minutes before I do my thing, J.J. tweets out, ‘Oh I found out that somebody had some sensitive information on me.’”
While Watt’s tweet insinuated something nefarious going on behind the scenes, Glazer thought they had reached an understanding, insisting he would have stood down if Watt had asked him to. “If you had a f---ing problem, you should have said it back then. If J.J. had said to me, ‘Hey man, I really don’t want this put out,’ no problem. When it’s [about] someone’s health like that, I’m always like, no problem. If you want people to find out from you, no problem,” said Glazer, perplexed by Watt’s betrayal, taking the scoop for himself after already giving Glazer the green light. “But that’s not what was communicated to me. So I’m pretty f---ing pissed that it happened. It could have just been like, ‘Hey Glaze, why don’t you hold off?’”
These miscommunications probably happen more than you’d think with plenty of opportunities for media and player reps to get their wires crossed. Still, you can’t blame Glazer for being frustrated with how this particular story played out, with Watt pouring cold water on what could have been a juicy nugget.
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