Merging Vets with Players co-founder honored for assisting veterans transition into civilian world, suicide awareness efforts.
Fox NFL Sunday reporter and commentator Jay Glazer was presented The American Legion’s James V. Day “Good Guy” Award for 2024 during the organization’s 105th national convention yesterday.
Glazer co-founded the nonprofit organization Merging Veterans with Players (MVP), which works to match up military veterans with former professional athletes in order to help each other through the transition into their new lives away from battlefields and playing fields. Glazer is a former Mixed Martial Arts fighter who trains athletes and veterans in his Unbreakable fitness centers.
Glazer, who said he was honored to receive the award, acknowledged that while the experiences of pro athletes and military veterans are different, “when they hang up their uniforms the suck is the same.”
“It goes without saying, all suicides are tragic – whether the person is a veteran or not,” American Legion National Commander Daniel J. Seehafer said while presenting Glazer the award. “During our recent Tango, Alpha, Lima podcast, (Glazer) explained many of the similarities between the emotions of professional athletes and those of our veterans. Athletes, particularly when they retire, sometimes feel that they are no longer part of a team. The same can be said with veterans after they leave the military. That is why it is so important for organizations like The American Legion to welcome transitioning veterans into our family. And it’s also why the work of Glazer is so important… to let athletes know that they, too, have a family even if their playing days are over. And, yes, his family – the MVP family, also includes military veterans.”
“When I heard that 22 veterans a day take their lives, or whatever the number is, I thought this is not okay,” Glazer said. He has since used his public platform to raise awareness about this issue, including his own struggles with mental health, which he chronicled in his 2021 book “Unbreakable: How I turned my depression and anxiety into motivation and you can too.”
“I talk about mental health now constantly, but I didn’t have the confidence to do it until I did it amongst our veterans,” Glazer said at the award luncheon. “I didn’t have the confidence to do it until I got loved up by these veterans. I didn’t have the confidence to do it until as I started talking veterans would tell me, ‘hey, me too.’”
The James V. Day Good Guy Award is named after a World War II veteran and prominent Legionnaire. Recent recipients include NASCAR legend Richard Petty, performer Dolly Parton, former college football coach Lou Holtz and MLB Hall of Famer Joe Torre. It is presented by The American Legion Past Department Commander’s Club (PDCC), a group composed of past and current state and regional commanders of The American Legion.
- Convention