FOX Sports provided televisions to first responders so they could watch the NFL playoffs on their breaks as they battled the devastating wildfires in Los Angeles.
FOX Sports NFL reporter Jay Glazer, who was at the command post of the Palisades incident in Malibu, told PK Press Club how the partnership came about before the Washington Commanders-Detroit Lions playoff game on FOX.
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Firefighters watch as a helicopter drops water on the Palisades Fire in Mandeville Canyon in Los Angeles, Saturday, Jan. 11, 2025. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)
Fire crews work in the burn zone of the Palisades Fire in Mandeville Canyon Thursday, Jan. 16, 2025, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)
“My wife and I live about 200 yards away. We were evacuated. But this week, like so many others in California, we were going down with protein bars, whatever we could do, just to try to get back up. morale. Two nights ago, some firefighters said, “You know what we really want? We would really like to watch football.” did he declared.
“I call our boss at FOX Sports, CEO Eric Shanks, and he says, ‘What a great idea!’ And he figured it out. And in one day, we came here yesterday and we finished this in one day, where we basically put up TVs in the area where these guys come back to their jobs, and there’s a lot of them at 24 hours. They come back and find a place to relax, eat. That’s where the televisions are.
“We’re not just broadcasting our game on FOX, we’re broadcasting every game this weekend. It’s just our way of saying thank you to so many of these people who, you know, left their homes to try to save the country. OUR.”
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The devastation of the Palisades Fire is visible as the sun sets in the Pacific Palisades neighborhood of Los Angeles, Tuesday, Jan. 14, 2025. (AP Photo/Ethan Swope)
He said on FOX Sports’ NFL pregame show that Commanders head coach Dan Quinn and Lions head coach Dan Campbell faced firefighters before their playoff game, which took place on FOX.
Glazer said the coaches are “in love with our heroes.”
“So that we can step in and give them some normalcy, boost their morale, that’s what they need,” he added. “I hear stories from these guys that, you know, those first two days in their 48 straight hours and the things they saw, everything we could do, just to say we love you and we thank you, we are in.”
The Palisades Fire ravages a neighborhood amid high winds in the Pacific Palisades neighborhood of Los Angeles, Tuesday, Jan. 7, 2025. (AP Photo/Ethan Swope, file)
More than two dozen people died and thousands of structures burned amid the fires that ravaged the region.
