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Don’t question the timing of Jay Glazer’s reporting.
During the “FOX NFL Sunday” pregame show airing before Week 18 on Jan. 5, insider Jay Glazer surprisingly reported that Vikings head coach Kevin O’Connell had been drawing trade interest.
Some had questions about the timing of the report while Minnesota prepared to battle the Lions for the division title and NFC’s No. 1 seed that night.
After the Vikings actually extended O’Connell on Tuesday, NFL aggregator Ari Meirov of The 33rd Team — the same company led by ex-Jets general manager Mike Tannenbaum that has been contracted to help the Jets find their next head coach — questioned the timeline and seemingly Glazer’s intention.
“I have so many questions about the Kevin O’Connell trade story that dropped on the morning of Week 18,” Meirov posted on X. “While I’m sure teams were interested in trading for him, the timing couldn’t have been worse for the #Vikings, given they were playing for the No. 1 seed that night.”
The Vikings would collapse from that point forward, losing to the Lions, 31-9, missing out on a first-round bye, and following that up with an equally embarrassing 27-9 playoff loss to the Rams in the wild-card game.
Glazer, who has worked as a studio analyst and reporter for FOX since 2004, quote tweeted Meirov’s post and offered a fiery response to anyone alleging nefarious tactics with his timing.
“Welp, the timing was because that is when our show airs Fox NFL SUNDAY. Not Wednesday or Thursday. SUNDAY,” Glazer wrote. “Every year for probably the last 15 years the same weekend I do my ANNUAL coaching carousel segment and usually drop nuggets that day that aren’t known. I don’t work for Twitter, I work for FOX so I wait til Sunday to drop news. I hold news very often to use on FOX only.”
He added: “Did my job reporting what was going on behind the scenes in some of these searches. This narrative that I reported it to screw the Vikings when they were going to play the Lions is the dumbest s–t I’ve ever read… and I’ve read some realllly dumb s–t over the years.”
Welp, the timing was because that is when our show airs Fox NFL SUNDAY. Not Wednesday or Thursday. SUNDAY. Every year for probably the last 15 years the same weekend I do my ANNUAL coaching carousel segment and usually drop nuggets that day that aren’t known. I don’t work for… https://t.co/fo61q4pHnK— Jay Glazer (@JayGlazer) January 21, 2025
Glazer also provided further context about his reporting on O’Connell, who is regarded as one of the best NFL coaches and could bring home Coach of the Year honors following a 14-3 season.
“Oh and btw, yes, there were in fact MULTIPLE teams interested in trading for KOC, and yes Vikings were aware of that,” he wrote in his response. “I never reported he’s being traded bc that’s up to Vikings. Just that he was on several team’s to try to trade for. They did the smart thing by moving quickly to ensure he would happily be the Vikings head coach for years.”
Glazer unveiled his O’Connell blockbuster while he offered other news on the eve of Black Monday, including accurate reporting that the Jaguars would fire Doug Pederson.
Fox had a video package ready while he teased “one candidate out there that will surprise you all,” which proved to be O’Connell before his team attempted to claim the NFC’s No. 1 seed.
“There are multiple teams that are actually considering trying to trade for Kevin O’Connell,” Glazer said. “The reason why? Next year, the last year of his deal. They have had no contract talks yet at all.”
With O’Connell now locked into a new deal and the discussion put to rest, the Vikings face a critical offseason where they must figure out what to do at quarterback.
J.J. McCarthy is rehabbing from multiple knee surgeries, while pending free agent Sam Darnold limped into the offseason after playing his two worst games of an otherwise wildly successful regular season.
