Howard Balzer is a long-time sportscaster who started his career at ESPN

ESPN

Entertainment and Sports Programming Network, commonly known as ESPN, is an American global cable television network focusing on sports-related programming including live and pre-taped event telecasts, sports talk shows, and other original programming....

. He was one of the first anchors. He started in 1981. He worked for Pro Football Weekly

Pro Football Weekly

Pro Football Weekly is an American sports magazine, founded in 1967, that covers the National Football League...

, where he wrote articles about the NFL

National Football League

The National Football League is the highest level of professional American football in the United States, and is considered the top professional American football league in the world. It was formed by eleven teams in 1920 as the American Professional Football Association, with the league changing...

. He now writes for USA Today Sports Weekly, and was a columnist for now-defunct British

United Kingdom

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

 American football

American football

American football is a sport played between two teams of eleven with the objective of scoring points by advancing the ball into the opposing team's end zone. Known in the United States simply as football, it may also be referred to informally as gridiron football. The ball can be advanced by...

 newspaper First Down for 10 years.

He lives in St. Louis

St. Louis, Missouri

St. Louis is an independent city on the eastern border of Missouri, United States. With a population of 319,294, it was the 58th-largest U.S. city at the 2010 U.S. Census. The Greater St...

. He works for 590 The Fan, sports talk radio in St. Louis.

He also is a sports reporter for the St. Louis Globe-Democrat

St. Louis Globe-Democrat

The St. Louis Globe-Democrat was originally a daily print newspaper based in St. Louis, Missouri from 1852 until 1986...

newspaper.

He also worked for KTRS

KTRS (AM)

KTRS, located at 550 kHz, is an AM radio station in Maryland Heights, Missouri that carries a News/Talk format and is owned by the St. Louis Cardinals and CH Radio Holdings. It broadcasts with 5,000 watts of power during the day and 5,000 watts at night. The call letters KTRS stand for K Talk...

. There he covered the St. Louis Rams

St. Louis Rams

The St. Louis Rams are a professional American football team based in St. Louis, Missouri. They are currently members of the West Division of the National Football Conference in the National Football League . The Rams have won three NFL Championships .The Rams began playing in 1936 in Cleveland,...

. He gained controversy over his criticism of former coach Rams Coach Mike Martz

Mike Martz

Michael Martz is a former NFL head coach and currently the offensive coordinator for the National Football League's Chicago Bears....

.

Despite Balzer's early success on ESPN and as a columnist for Pro Football Weekly, Balzer's national career faltered. He was unable to regain any national media prominence and has had trouble holding down local news radio jobs in the St. Louis market.

Some have criticized Balzer for being too wordy on the air. He has also been criticized for homerism in his support of the St. Louis Rams, although Balzer vehemently denies this.

Balzer is also an avid karaoke

Karaoke

is a form of interactive entertainment or video game in which amateur singers sing along with recorded music using a microphone and public address system. The music is typically a well-known pop song minus the lead vocal. Lyrics are usually displayed on a video screen, along with a moving symbol,...

singer, sponsoring a successful annual karaoke charitable event.

He is a big supporter of the Rams building a new $800-million-dollar stadium in Ballwin, Missouri.