Rich Cimini, Paul Gutierrez and Seth Wickersham of ESPN.com, Zak Keefer and Dan Pompei of The Athletic and Liz Clarke, Nicki Jhabvala and Mark Maske of the Washington Post won first-place category awards in the Professional Football Writers of America’s 2024 Dick Connor Writing Awards.
The Connor Awards encompass beat reporting, columns, features, enterprise news/features, breaking news, and game stories written by PFWA members from post-Super Bowl LVII in Glendale, Arizona through Super Bowl LVIII in Las Vegas.
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, 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 Cimini, his second Oates top honor (2019), and fourth overall Connor first place award (Columns in 2012 and Features in 2006).
Gutierrez captured first place in the Visser Enterprise News/Features category for “Raiders’ Maxx Crosby fueled by an obsession for greatness”. This is Gutierrez’ first PFWA top writing award.
Keefer won first-place honors in the Goldberg Game Story category for “As regular season slog gives way to Super Bowl run, Patrick Mahomes remains inevitable”. This is Keefer’s second top honor (Oates Beat Reporting in 2020) in the Connor Writing Awards.
Pompei was first in the Burwell Feature Writing contest for “Bills legend Jim Kelly used to be mad about all he’d lost. Now he focuses on what he’s found”. This is the first top contest award finish for Pompei.
Wickersham earned first place in the Anderson Column Writing category for “How one Super Bowl loss helped define Matt Ryan’s legacy”. This is Wickersham’s 10th PFWA first-place award (Burwell Feature Writing in 2019, Columns in 2017, Features in 2018 and 2011 and Enterprise Features from 2016-17 and 2012-14).
Clarke, Jhabvala and Maske won the McDonough Breaking News top award for “Josh Harris group has tentative deal to buy Commanders from Daniel Snyder”. It is the second top award for Jhabvala (Burwell Feature Writing in 2021) and the first category-winning entry for both Clarke and Maske.
Cimini earned three individual awards, while Ben Goessling of the Minneapolis Star Tribune, Kalyn Kahler – formerly of The Athletic and now with ESPN.com – and Zack Rosenblatt of The Athletic each received two individual awards. In all, 17 different PFWA members received a first-, second- or third-place award.
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 $250, second place earns $125 and third place 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 2024 Connor Writing Awards were judged by Amy Hollyfield, 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. 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 2024 winners follows:
2024 DICK CONNOR WRITING AWARDS
Bob Oates Beat Reporting
1. Rich Cimini, ESPN.com
2. Zack Rosenblatt, The Athletic
3. Ben Goessling, Minneapolis Star Tribune
Dave Anderson Column Writing
1. Seth Wickersham, ESPN.com: How one Super Bowl loss helped define Matt Ryan’s legacy
2. Michael Silver, San Francisco Chronicle: Why you shouldn’t blame Kyle Shanahan for 49ers’ Super Bowl LVIII defeat
3. Peter Bukowski, The Leap: Don’t judge Jaire Alexander by his Griddy
Bryan Burwell Feature Writing
1. Dan Pompei, The Athletic: Bills legend Jim Kelly used to be mad about all he’d lost. Now he focuses on what he’s found
2. Rich Cimini, ESPN.com: A day in the life of Jets legend Broadway Joe Namath, octogenarian
3. Frank Cooney, NFLDraftScout.com: Art Powell’s Pioneering Impact on Football and Society
Lesley Visser Enterprise News/Features
1. Paul Gutierrez, ESPN.com: Raiders’ Maxx Crosby fueled by an obsession for greatness
2. Kalyn Kahler, The Athletic: The troubling Arizona Cardinals workplace culture that had some employees ‘working in fear’
3. Rob Demovsky and Rich Cimini, ESPN.com: Aaron Rodgers Packers-Jets trade: Inside NFL deal, contract
Will McDonough Breaking News
1. Mark Maske, Nicki Jhabvala and Liz Clarke, Washington Post: Josh Harris group has tentative deal to buy Commanders from Daniel Snyder
2. Katie Strang and Kalyn Kahler, The Athletic: Former Jaguars employee accused of stealing more than $22 million from team
3. Chris Tomasson, St. Paul Pioneer Press: Bud Grant, legendary coach who led Vikings to four Super Bowls, dies at 95
Dave Goldberg Game Story
1. Zak Keefer, The Athletic: As regular season slog gives way to Super Bowl run, Patrick Mahomes remains inevitable
2. Zack Rosenblatt, The Athletic: Aaron Rodgers goes down with injury, likely taking the Jets’ dreams with him
3. Ben Goessling, Minneapolis Star Tribune: Vikings rally past Falcons 31-28; Joshua Dobbs leads Minnesota to last-minute victory
