Jay Glazer opened up about how he deals with depression and how his new GNC partnership and Merging Vets & Players charity will help others do the same.
Jay Glazer has become a household name for a variety of reasons. From his sportswriting to his on-camera personality with FOX Sports as an NFL insider to his partnership with MMA fighter Randy Couture, he’s become something of a fixture in the sports world.
However, even someone as successful, popular and friendly as Glazer struggles from time to time, and in speaking with FanSided’s Ashley Young in the lead-up to Super Bowl 54 this weekend in Miami, he wanted that fact to be well known.
“I’ve always suffered from depression and anxiety my whole life,” he said. “The only thing that’s kind of helped me through the grey is being of service to other people and doing things.”
Glazer is certainly active on that front, as the TV personality/performance training guru will be partnering up with GNC in a multi-year deal. With Glazer serving as a national ambassador and spokesman for GNC, the two sides co-developed “Unbreakable Performance Fueled by GNC,” a new line of pre-workout and recovery products.
“This is a perfect partnership for me,” he said. “Not only are we coming out with our own protein line and supplements, amino acids, everything, but a part of it’s gonna go to my charity, my MVP charity, which we’re about to be in our fifth city. It’s called Merging Vets & Players — we’re taking former combat vets who were struggling when the uniform comes off, ’cause the transition sucks, and we’re merging them together with former NFL players and other pro athletes to give them a new team when the uniform comes off.”
That charity already has a few thousand members, and Glazer is proud of being able to use his platform to help those who have also struggled with depression.
“I have a big platform, so I talk about [depression],” he said. “I talk about it openly to show people, ‘Yeah I’m screwed up, but I’m good with my screwed up-ness. I’m okay with that.’ Trying to take this stigma away as much as I can. I say, ‘I’m effed up, but I choose to use my depression to empower me, not to be damaged.’”
As he mentions in the interview, on average, more than 20 veterans commit suicide on a daily basis. More than half of the members of MVP have attempted suicide before joining, according to Glazer, but since then, that number is zero among members.
“Just the way we give them a team again, the way we coach ’em, the way we make them beholden to other people again, remind them of their greatness, remind them that it’s not the uniform that made them great, it’s what’s behind the uniform and then behind the ribcage,” he said. “When they have a team again to remind them of their greatness and to help them be beholden to other people again, give them a purpose again, that greatness comes back out.”
Jay Glazer spoke with FanSided on behalf of GNC.