Name Howard Balzer | ||
Books Kurt Warner: The Quarterback, Football All Pro Super Stars, Football All Pro Defense, Football All Pro Offense | ||
Howard Balzer of Sports Xchange joins Nestor to talk NFL and Ravens playoff picture
Howard Balzer is in his 39th year covering professional football as a writer, editor and broadcaster. His connection with pro football began in 1976 with College and Pro Football Newsweekly, and since then he has been a featured columnist for The Sporting News, Pro Football Weekly, USA Today Sports Weekly and The Sports Xchange. His work can now be seen locally on foxsportsmidwest.com.
Balzer came to St. Louis in 1978 to work for The Sporting News, where he became Pro Football Editor in 1979. He was an analyst on ESPN's initial broadcast of the NFL Draft in 1980, and continued in that role through 1988. He has won six writing awards in the Professional Football Writers of America competition, won an Emmy for commentaries on KPLR-TV in St. Louis in 1986 and was nominated for an Emmy in 1988 and 1990. Balzer has been an officer (secretary and secretary/treasurer) for the Professional Football Writers of America since 1986 and was inducted into the St. Louis Jewish Sports Hall of Fame in 2010.
Currently, in addition to his work with The Sports Xchange, USA Today Sports Weekly and foxsportsmidwest.com, Balzer is the senior editor for Lindy's pro football magazine, a position he has held since 1992, and a talk-show host for FoxSports Radio 1490 in St. Louis and SiriusXM NFL Radio. He is also one of 46 voting members on the Pro Football Hall of Fame selection committee and also votes for the Baseball Hall of Fame. He has been a fixture on sports-talk radio in St. Louis since 1979 save for an 18-month stint as co-host of a nationally syndicated sports show on the Las Vegas-based Sports Fan Radio Network from January, 1994 to June, 1995.
A 1974 graduate of Hofstra University, Balzer was the sports information director at the school while a student and after graduation worked as director of public relations for the National Wheelchair Athletic Association, director of public relations and promotions for the Long Island Tomahawks of the National Lacrosse League and director of public relations for the Continental Basketball Association.
Prior to leaving New York for St. Louis in 1978, he was the play-by-play typist for all basketball games at New York's Madison Square Garden.
He is also no stranger to indoor football. In 1986, while with The Sporting News, he wrote the first published story on the sport after a demonstration game in Rockford, Ill. Balzer did national broadcasts for Arena Football from 1988–91 and was part of the television broadcast team for several years for the St. Charles-based River City Rage and Renegades. He was also the public relations director for the Arena Football League in 1993.
In the community, Balzer is currently a part of the unique Celebrity Karaoke event that has existed for 10 years and currently raises money for The Adoption Exchange. He was also on the original board for the Ronald McDonald House in St. Louis and was a longtime committee member for the Gateway Chapter of the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society.