Howard Balzer
Howard Balzer is in his 40th year covering professional football as a writer, editor and broadcaster and has covered 36 Super Bowls. His connection with pro football began in 1977 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. He began a venture in July,2016, in conjunction with Tampa-based JoeBucsFan.com in which he will cover the NFL at BalzerFootball.com. He is also currently writing for all22.com, produced by Cox Media.
Balzer moved 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. He recently was named the 2016 winner of the Bob Broeg Media Award presented by the St. Louis/Tom Lombardo Chapter of the National Football and College Hall of Fame. The award is for enthusiasm, integrity, professionalism and devotion to the game of football and is reserved for individuals whose contributions to football in the St. Louis area have made a significant difference. 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 where he covers the AFC West, BalzerFootball.com and all22.com, Balzer is the senior editor for Lindy's pro football preview, a position he has held since 1992, and a talk-show host for KFNS, 590 The Fan, in St. Louis and for SiriusXM NFL Radio. He is entering his 13th year as one of 46 voting members on the Pro Football Hall of Fame selection committee and is also on the Hall's Contributor Committee. He is the co-host of the weekly Pro Football Hall of Fame radio show on SiriusXM NFL Radio. He has been a fixture on sports-talk radio in St. Louis since 1979 save for a 17-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. He currently is co-host of The Triple Threat from 2-4 p.m. CT daily on KFNS (streaming at insidestl.com).
Married to Brenda, Balzer is the father of three sons (Keith, 38; Jared, 35; and Zack, 20). In the St. Louis community, Balzer is the founder of the unique Celebrity Karaoke event that existed for 10 years. That event has also been staged in Tampa in Feb. 2015 and Jan. 2016, for which he was the MC and that supported Family Resources. He was also on the original board of the Ronald McDonald House in St. Louis and was a longtime committee member for the Gateway Chapter of the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society.
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.