Mike DeFabo, Kevin Fishbain, Zak Keefer, Ian O’Connor and Michael Silver from The Athletic, ESPN.com’s Kalyn Kahler and Don Van Natta and Eric Lambkins II from The Sporting Tribune each won first-place category awards in the Professional Football Writers of America’s 2026 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 LIX in New Orleans through Super Bowl LX in Santa Clara, Calif.
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 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 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 DeFabo, who covers the Pittsburgh Steelers for The Athletic. It is DeFabo’s first PFWA top honor.
Lambkins earned first place in the Anderson Column Writing category for his “How petty voters in secret rooms tarnished Belichick’s moment” piece. This is the first PFWA top writing award for Lambkins.
Fishbain captured the Burwell Feature Writing shortform (under 2,500 words) first-place honor with his “How Ben Johnson made ‘Good, better, best’ a motto for the Chicago Bears” story. This is Fishbain’s second top prize in the PFWA contest, as he won the Goldberg Game Story category in 2020.
The Burwell longform division (over 2,500 words) first-place award was earned by Keefer for his “Pain took football away from Andrew Luck; what brought him back to Stanford?” feature. This is Keefer’s fourth top Connor Awards honor (2020 Oates Beat Reporting and the 2022 and 2024 Goldberg Game Story contests).
O’Connor captured his fifth career first-place PFWA writing award in the Visser Enterprise News/Features category for his “The inside story of the Giants’ John Harbaugh deal and the talks that saved it” feature. O’Connor previously placed first in the 2016 Features, 2017 Columns (co-winner) and the 2019 and 2020 Anderson Column Writing contests.
The McDonough Breaking News top spot was awarded to Kahler and Van Natta, who combined to write the “Ex-NFLPA boss Howell’s strip club expenses sent to investigator” story. This is Kahler’s second PFWA first-place finish (2021 Visser Enterprise News/Features), and Van Natta earned his second Connor top writing award (2016 Enterprise/Features).
Silver won first-place honors in the Goldberg Game Story category for “After the Rams discarded a Super Bowl MVP, he showed them everything he still offers” about Seattle’s Cooper Kupp in the NFC Championship game. This is Silver’s second career top honor (1990 A.M. News) in the Connor Writing Awards.
Rich Cimini of ESPN.com earned three place awards, while O’Connor and Van Natta each earned two awards. In all, 19 different PFWA members received a first-, second- or third-place award. A total of 296 stories and 28 beat reporter portfolios 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 2026 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 2026 winners:
2026 DICK CONNOR WRITING AWARDS
Bob Oates Beat Reporting
1. Mike DeFabo, The Athletic
2. Rich Cimini, ESPN.com
3. Jesse Newell, The Athletic
Dave Anderson Column Writing
1. Eric Lambkins II, The Sporting Tribune: How petty voters in secret rooms tarnished Belichick’s moment
2. Mike Sielski, Philadelphia Inquirer: The NFL players’ union is an embarrassment. For the sake of players like Eagles’ Johnny Wilson, it better buck up
3. Rob Reischel, Forbes: Why Trading Aaron Rodgers Was Indeed A ‘Good Day’ For The Green Bay Packers
Bryan Burwell Feature Writing – Shortform (under 2,500 words)
1. Kevin Fishbain, The Athletic: How Ben Johnson made ‘Good, better, best’ a motto for the Chicago Bears
2. Rich Cimini, ESPN.com: Why former NFL star Laveranues Coles decided to become an officer
3. Alex Zietlow, Charlotte Observer: Jalen Coker plays for a friend he lost, and a hometown that ‘loves like Adam’
Bryan Burwell Feature Writing – Longform (over 2,500 words)
1. Zak Keefer, The Athletic: Pain took football away from Andrew Luck; what brought him back to Stanford?
2. Dan Pompei, The Athletic: How former can’t-miss NFL prospect Robert Gallery survived a descent into darkness
3. Jourdan Rodrigue, The Athletic: All eyes are on the NFL’s most atypical owner. Where will her curiosity lead her next?
Lesley Visser Enterprise News/Features
1. Ian O’Connor, The Athletic: The inside story of the Giants’ John Harbaugh deal and the talks that saved it
2. Josh Weinfuss, ESPN.com: How NFL quarterbacks and refs approach their in-game convos
3. Eli Ong, WGN-TV: Cairo-nalysis: A look at the Bears kicker’s effectiveness at a bitter cold Soldier Field
Will McDonough Breaking News
1. Kalyn Kahler/Don Van Natta, ESPN.com: Ex-NFLPA boss Howell’s strip club expenses sent to investigator
2. Calvin Watkins, Dallas Morning News: Dallas Cowboys defensive end Marshawn Kneeland dies by suicide after police chase
3. Don Van Natta/Seth Wickersham, ESPN.com: Sources: Bill Belichick will not be a first-ballot Hall of Famer
Dave Goldberg Game Story
1. Michael Silver, The Athletic: After the Rams discarded a Super Bowl MVP, he showed them everything he still offers
2. Rich Cimini, ESPN.com: Glenn defends Justin Fields despite Jets’ -10 net pass yards
3. Ian O’Connor, The Athletic: Aaron Rodgers’ takedown of Jets is one of the sweetest victories of his Hall of Fame career