FOX Sports provided televisions to first responders so they could watch the NFL playoffs during shift breaks while battling the devastating wildfires in Los Angeles.
FOX Sports NFL reporter Jay Glazer, who was at the Palisades Incident Command Post in Malibu, explained to Pak Gazette how the partnership came about before the Washington Commanders-Detroit Lions playoff game on FOX.
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Firefighters watch a helicopter drop 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 area of the Palisades Fire in Mandeville Canyon on Thursday, Jan. 16, 2025, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)
“Actually, my wife and I live about 200 yards away. We were evacuated. But this week, like so many others in California, we came bringing protein bars, whatever we could make, just to try to boost morale. Two nights ago, some firefighters said, ‘You know what we really want? We’d love to watch football.’ I said, ‘I know someone who could make that happen,'” he said.
“I call our boss at FOX Sports, CEO Eric Shanks, and he says, ‘What a great idea!’ And he did it well and in one day we came here yesterday and we did this in one day, where we basically put TVs in the area where these guys come back to their shifts, and there are a lot of 24. Hour shifts they come back and get a place to decompress, eat. There are the televisions.
“We’re not just going to show our game on FOX, we’re going to show every game this weekend. It’s just our way of saying thank you to so many of these people who, you know, left their own homes to try to save.” our.”
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The devastation of the Palisades Fire is seen at dusk in the Pacific Palisades neighborhood of Los Angeles, Tuesday, Jan. 14, 2025. (AP Photo/Ethan Swope)
He said during FOX Sports’ NFL pregame show that Commanders head coach Dan Quinn and Lions head coach Dan Campbell Facetimed with firefighters before their playoff game, which took place on FOX.
Glazer said the coaches were “in love with our heroes.”
“We can intervene and give them a little bit of normality and boost their morale, that’s what they need,” he added. “I hear stories from these guys that, you know, those first few days during their 48 hours straight and the things they saw, anything we could do, just to say we love them and we thank them, we’re 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 have died and thousands of structures have burned amid the fires that have swept the region.
