Paul Azinger has had his say on his departure from NBC – and the former PGA champion, who left his broadcasting role last year, hasn’t held back.
In a wide-ranging interview with Golfweek’s Adam Schupak, Azinger said he was “happy that it ended” and labelled Sam Flood, NBC Sports executive vice president & president of production, an “a-hole” when it came to negotiating a new deal.
Azinger was axed by the network in November, which brought an end to four straight years as its lead golf analyst – but the 64-year-old says he couldn’t be happier with his life.
“There’s always something to do, wash the wheels of your car,” he told Schupak. “It’s not too bad, and I’m not looking for a job either.
“I’ve had two full careers. I played the Tour for 30 years, I broadcast for about 18 years. I’m enjoying my life right now. I didn’t know I could enjoy it this much. I’m serious, I wake up with no schedule. It’s weird and it’s nice.”
Despite enjoying his new life, the American is rankled by how his broadcasting career, which he has no intention of resurrecting, came to an end.
Paul Azinger and Dan Hicks on set at last year's Players Championship
Azinger was seeking a one-year renewal, but after returning with a counteroffer he was told that NBC were “moving on”.
“I was ready to keep going. I thought I was gonna go for about five more years to be honest,” Azinger said. “I thought I would do at least one more year and then sign a four-year deal.
“It wasn’t a conversation with me, like, ‘What do you need Zinger? What do we need to do? Here’s our situation. You know, this is why we need you to accept this deal.’ There was no reason, it just was it’s complicated, it’s complicated. I was like, ‘How complicated can it be, bud?’ It’s money.”
Flood, who took over day-to-day oversight of Golf Channel production in August, led the negotiations, and Azinger was surprised at how they panned out.
“Sam Flood came in and was just, you know, just an a-hole about it,” said Azinger. “All we were doing was making a counteroffer, and they said, ‘No, that was take it or leave.’
“And I said, ‘Sam, was that presented to us as take it or leave it?’ ‘It’s complicated, Zinger,’ he said. I talked to him for 23-24 minutes and every time I would ask him a question, it would be like, ‘Are you upset or something?’
“We had [the parameters of a deal] done. Are we not supposed to negotiate with you? And he wouldn’t say anything. And it was like, ‘nope, we’re moving on.’ There was never anything like ‘Zinger, this is all we can do. This is our best shot.’
“My poor manager he’s sitting there like, ‘What happened?’ That’s how it went down. We just wish it would have ended differently, because honestly, I’m kind of happy it ended.”
