Tim Graham, Mike Jones and Nate Taylor from The Athletic, Kevin Armstrong from NJ Advance Media/NJ.com, Zach Berman of PHLY Sports, Adam Grosbard from the Southern California News Group and FoxSports.com’s Henry McKenna won first-place category awards in the Professional Football Writers of America’s 2025 Dick Connor Writing Awards.
The Connor Awards encompass beat reporting, columns, features, enterprise news/features (shortform and longform), breaking news, and game stories written by PFWA members from post-Super Bowl LVIII in Las Vegas through Super Bowl LIX in New Orleans.
Taylor is now with ESPN, while Berman currently works for The Athletic.
The Connor Award categories are named for some of the renowned pro football writers who chronicled the NFL over its history: the Bob Oates Beat Reporting Award, named in honor of the Los Angeles Times reporter and the PFWA’s 1974 Bill Nunn Jr. Award winner; the Dave Anderson Column Writing Award, named after the New York Times’ Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist and the 1998 Nunn Award honoree; the Bryan Burwell Feature Writing Award (shortform and longform divisions), named in honor of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch and New York Daily News writer and columnist; the Lesley Visser Enterprise News/Features Award, named after the pioneering football writer who became the NFL’s first female beat reporter in 1976 at the Boston Globe and who later worked for CBS; the Will McDonough Breaking News Award, named after the Boston Globe reporter and columnist who went on to a decorated career in TV journalism and who received the Nunn Award in 1990 and the Dave Goldberg Game Story Award, named after the 41-year Associated Press reporter and 2015 Nunn Award honoree.
First place in the Oates Beat Reporting category went to Grosbard, his first PFWA top honor. Grosbard covers the Los Angeles Rams for the Southern California News Group.
McKenna earned first place in the Anderson Column Writing category for “At what point should Dolphins QB Tua Tagovailoa retire?”. This is the first time McKenna’s earned a PFWA first-place award. He also placed second in the same category.
For the first time, the PFWA split the Burwell Feature Writing category into two divisions – shortform (under 2,500 words) and longform (over 2,500 words). Jones captured the shortform first-place honor with his “Dan Quinn’s ‘Commander Standard,’ and how it quickly changed a team’s culture” piece. This is Jones’ first top prize in the PFWA contest.
The Burwell longform division first place award was earned by Berman for his “Darius Slay’s gas tank is nearing empty. The beloved Eagles CB wants to finish the ride in a career pushing HOF status” feature. This is Berman’s second top Connor Awards honor, as he won the Goldberg Game Story category in 2020.
Armstrong captured his first career first-place award in the Visser Enterprise News/Features category for a four-part series titled “Far Afield” which examined those involved in expanding the NFL’s interests abroad in Brazil, England and Germany.
The McDonough Breaking News top spot was awarded to Graham, who wrote “Terry Pegula transferred small percentage of Bills to daughter Laura Pegula”. This is Graham’s fifth PFWA first-place prize (2023 Goldberg Game Story, 2020 Visser Enterprise News/Features and the 2018 News and Enterprise Features).
Taylor won first-place honors in the Goldberg Game Story category for “After a prayer and a prediction, Leo Chenal rescues Chiefs with walk-off blocked field goal”. This is Keefer’s second top honor (Oates Beat Reporting in 2020) in the Connor Writing Awards.
Rich Cimini of ESPN.com, Jones, McKenna and ESPN.com’s Seth Wickersham each earned two individual awards. In all, 18 different PFWA members received a first-, second- or third-place award. A total of 359 stories were entered into this year’s contest.
Prizes in the Oates Beat Reporting contest are $500 for first place, $250 for second and $125 for third. In the remaining categories, first place receives $300, second place earns $200 and third wins $100.
The awards are named for Connor, the ninth PFWA president (1980-81) and the organization’s 1991 Bill Nunn Jr. Award recipient, who worked for the Denver Post and Rocky Mountain News. Connor was inducted into the National Sportscasters and Sportswriters Association Hall of Fame in 1992 and was a 22-time Colorado Sports Writer of the Year honoree. A long-time PFWA officer, Connor also served as secretary-treasurer, and later, the organization’s vice-president.
The 2025 Connor Writing Awards were judged by Amy Hollyfield, Mark Hyman, Vicki Michaelis and Malcolm Moran. Hollyfield is the managing editor of the Dallas Morning News, managing the day-to-day newsroom operations. She spent two decades at the Tampa Bay Times, and she also worked at the Miami Herald and Florida Today. Hyman is the director of the Shirley Povich Center for Sports Journalism at the University of Maryland. He spent four decades writing for Businessweek, Baltimore Sun, Baltimore News American, Dallas Times Herald, The Philadelphia Bulletin and the Norfolk Ledger-Star. Michaelis is the director of the Carmical Sports Media Institute at the University of Georgia. She has worked for USA Today, the Denver Post and the Palm Beach Post. Moran is the director of the Sports Capital Journalism Program at Indiana University Indianapolis. Moran has directed sports journalism programs for more than a decade after a career as an award-winning reporter and columnist at the New York Times, USA Today and other publications.
The full list of the 2025 winners:
2025 DICK CONNOR WRITING AWARDS
Bob Oates Beat Reporting
1. Adam Grosbard, Southern California News Group
2. Mike Jones, The Athletic
3. Rich Cimini, ESPN.com
Dave Anderson Column Writing
1. Henry McKenna, FoxSports.com: At what point should Dolphins QB Tua Tagovailoa retire?
2. Henry McKenna, FoxSports.com: Patrick Mahomes is turning into a villain, the LeBron James of the NFL
3. Michael Silver, San Francisco Chronicle: For 49ers’ brass, it’s decision time on Brandon Aiyuk. Will they find their backbones?
Bryan Burwell Feature Writing – Shortform (under 2,500 words)
1. Mike Jones, The Athletic: Dan Quinn’s ‘Commander Standard,’ and how it quickly changed a team’s culture
2. Luke Johnson, New Orleans Times-Picayune | New Orleans Advocate: At 34 years old, Saints star Taysom Hill is a freak of nature. The data proves that
3. Alex Zietlow, Charlotte Observer: Eddy Piñeiro slept in a car the day his life changed forever. He’s now paving a new way
Bryan Burwell Feature Writing – Longform (over 2,500 words)
1. Zach Berman, PHLY Sports: Darius Slay’s gas tank is nearing empty. The beloved Eagles CB wants to finish the ride in a career pushing HOF status
2. Dan Pompei, The Athletic: Mark Gastineau doesn’t need your attention — or a gold jacket — anymore
3. Zack Rosenblatt, The Athletic: Inside Mike Vrabel’s year off: His season with the Browns and what he wants next
Lesley Visser Enterprise News/Features
1. Kevin Armstrong, NJ Advance Media/NJ.com: Far Afield (four-part series)
2. Jason Wolf, Arizona Republic: Latest Payton NFL award winner’s charity continues recent pattern of mismanagement
3. Seth Wickersham and Don Van Natta Jr, ESPN.com: How Dan Snyder views Commanders’ title run from afar: ‘He … hates it’
Will McDonough Breaking News
1. Tim Graham, The Athletic: Terry Pegula transferred small percentage of Bills to daughter Laura Pegula
2. Seth Wickersham, ESPN.com: NFL: Brady would face TV restrictions as Raiders part owner
3. Brooks Kubena, The Athletic: Brazil in discussions with NFL about long-term contract for international games
Dave Goldberg Game Story
1. Nate Taylor, The Athletic: After a prayer and a prediction, Leo Chenal rescues Chiefs with walk-off blocked field goal
2. Dan Wiederer, Chicago Tribune: ‘Heartbreaking.’ How 17 seconds turned into a devastating Hail Mary loss for the Chicago Bears
3. Rich Cimini, ESPN.com: ‘Pretty damn dark’: Jets lose 5th straight to lowly Patriots
