You don’t have to be a sports fan to appreciate this next tale… even though it involves a famous NFL quarterback.
Jerry Seinfeld is livid with a guy I used to work with. Jay Zollar is the station manager at the FOX affiliate in Green Bay, Wisconsin. The same place Eli Manning and the rest of the New York Giants are visiting this weekend as they prepare to take on the Green Bay Packers in the NFC championship game Sunday evening.
A few days ago Zollar learned that Manning’s favorite show is “Seinfeld.” So as a dig to the football player who stands in the way of the green and gold making it to the Super Bowl Zollar decided to pull the “Seinfeld” episode scheduled to air on Saturday afternoon and replace it with a different program chosen by viewers.
Apparently weird news travels fast because within a day of WLUK-TV’s decision Jerry Seinfeld himself sprang into action.
Yesterday the comedian told the New York Post:
“I’m going to send Eli a complete collection of ‘Seinfeld’ DVDs and a partial collection of ‘Hogan’s Heroes’ for inspiration. You think I’m going to take that sitting down?”
I guess not.
Only Manning says he already has the entire “Seinfeld” collection and he’s not nearly as bothered by the station’s move than Jerry himself.
But, the jokes didn’t stop there. When Zollar heard about Seinfeld coming to Manning’s rescue he jokingly parodied the Soup Nazi from one of Manning’s favorite episodes:
“Now he (Manning) will be up all night watching ‘Seinfeld’ – there will be no sleep for you,” Zollar said.
Manning said Friday the whole affair was amusing. Only not everyone was laughing.
Zollar said he has received emails from some people saying that the move was “mean” and “unwelcoming” and the station should be treating the Giants better.
How anyone could possibly interpret the entire incident as a sincere attempt at sabotage is beyond me. And as Zollar pointed out:
“Eli coming to Green Bay, coming to watch a TV show at 5:30 p.m. the night before the game, it’s pretty unlikely.”
By the way, of about 4,000 votes cast by station viewers on what show should replace the pulled “Seinfeld” episode, 60 percent of respondents said they wanted to watch a 30-minute special about former Packers coach Vince Lombardi called “God, Family and the Green Bay Packers.”
The other choices included a rerun of “The Donald Driver Show” from Monday, “MASH” and an infomercial starring former Dallas Cowboy Emmitt Smith.
Go Pack Go!
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