The high-stakes world of sports insiders

It’s been a dizzying ascent. Most insiders started out as underpaid newspaper reporters. The biggest names now earn more money than some players.

And with both Schefter and Woj set to test free agency last year, there was a chance either or both could’ve decamped to a sports betting giant like FanDuel or DraftKings. 

So ESPN chairman Jimmy Pitaro swooped in with lucrative new deals that will pay them $9 million and $7 million a year, respectively, per the New York Post. 

NFL quarterbacks made an average salary of $7 million in 2022. The average NBA salary was around $9 million.

Meanwhile, Glazer, Schefter, Woj, and Charania are scoring some of the high-profile endorsement deals that Madison Avenue used to give to athlete endorsers.

Sporting a fedora like Frank Sinatra, Charania is starring in a new TV commercial for AT&T’s 5G network. Schefter and Woj previously co-starred in a TV spot touting the glories of the Samsung Galaxy phone. 

Over the years, Glazer has landed endorsement deals with Visa Checkout, Papa John’s, and Subway. Even he was shocked when Subway paid him to star in a national commercial.

“I was like, ‘Is it because I’m an insider? They said ‘No, it’s because you’re a personality.’”

Scrutinizing Eyes

Insiders are fiercely competitive, measuring scoops by seconds, not minutes or hours — and fans enjoy their battle royale.

There’s Schefter vs. Rapoport, plus everybody else covering the NFL. Or Woj vs. Charania, former Yahoo colleagues turned rivals. 

For years, Glazer poked the ESPN bear, frequently mocking them for using his scoops without proper attribution.

“Does their autocorrect automatically change @jayglazer to Sources?” he memorably tweeted.

But with the money and attention comes increasing scrutiny of how insiders actually operate.

Critics say some play favorites, shilling for sources and punishing their enemies.

Among the rumors over the years, Schefter’s been charged with carrying water for NFL headquarters, Woj is said to get his scoops from cowed NBA front-office executives, and Glazer and Haynes have been accused of being friends with players.

Green Bay Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers recently blasted Schefter and Rapoport as gossip-mongers. 

“There’s an inner circle and in my inner circle, nobody talks to Ian Rapoport or Adam Schefter or to any of those people,” Rodgers told Pat McAfee. “Just stop with the fake news.”

Where’s The Line?

Schefter has been called out for journalistic breaches, such as sending a story draft in advance to former Washington Commanders team president Bruce Allen in 2011.

In his email, Schefter jokingly called Allen “Mr. Editor.”

Tom Jones, senior media writer at Poynter.org, thought Schefter clearly crossed the ethical line: “There’s no other way to put this: To share an unpublished story with a source before it runs — and to solicit suggestions on that story — is way over the line journalistically. It cannot happen.”

Schefter’s former ESPN colleague Jemele Hill agreed, tweeting, “That is a huge journalistic NO-NO. Young journalists, that is not how it’s done. Ever.”

Schefter explained he was trying to double-check the accuracy of a complicated story about the NFL lockout at the time.

“It was a step too far, and looking back, I shouldn’t have done it,” he admitted in a statement issued by ESPN’s PR department. “The criticism being levied is fair.”

Then there’s the PowerPoint that Woj’s reps reportedly sent to NBA executives and agents, urging them to leak news to him instead of his rivals. 

“He is the undisputed top NBA media talent in the business,” read the documents obtained by Ethan Strauss, who cautioned: “No matter [Woj’s] power level, he needs [his sources] more than the other way around.”

Leaders and Followers

Much of their power flows from their legions of online followers.

Nearly every major sports outlet now boasts an insider. It all starts on Twitter — the virtual locker room for American media.

The pace is relentless. Insiders are on-call at all times, often logging 18-hours days. The pressure of competing at warp speed against ESPN’s army of NFL reporters took its toll mentally on Glazer. 

Not only was the competitive pressure intense, but social media followers piled on if he was “beat” on a story.

“If I tweeted something out 20 seconds before Schefter, if he tweeted something out 30 seconds before me, fans would kill us,” Glazer recalled. “They’d be like, ‘Oh yeah, you’re late. You’re too late.’ They’d murder us!”

The longtime insider has changed his approach in recent years, leaving the day-to-day Twitter combat to others and saving his scoops for football Sundays on Fox. 

“Like Peter King said to me, when you come on ‘Fox NFL Sunday,’ you always have something the rest of us don’t know,” said Glazer. “That’s where I’ve shifted now: I want to be as inside as I can possibly be.”

Glazer has come a long way from that New York apartment. He gets to hobnob with sports and entertainment royalty. He’s close friends with Michael Strahan, writes self-help books, owns a gym and is pestered for fantasy football tips by Hollywood pals like David Spade.

This New Jersey boy is not dealing in hyperbole when he says he’s “blessed.”

“It’s a way better life than me not being able to close my bathroom door. And you can quote me on that.”