Terez Paylor, NFL national writer for Yahoo Sports and Pro Football Hall of Fame voters, died unexpectedly Tuesday at age 37.
Paylor worked at the Kansas City Star from 2006 to 2018, spending the last five seasons covering the newspaper’s Chiefs. He left to join Yahoo Sports, where he covered the NFL.
“While we are surprised and saddened by the sudden passing of Terez Paylor, we also celebrate her extraordinary life that touched so many,” Ebony Reed, her fiancée and longtime girlfriend, said in a Yahoo Sports online post . “Terez was an exceptional journalist. His passion for football made him a respected voice. His legacy will leave a lasting impact on sports journalism, the NFL, Kansas City bosses and their fans.
“More importantly, Terez was a devoted son, a grandson, a brother, a promised worshiper and a wonderful friend to so many. To know him was to love him. He will miss him greatly.”
It is with a heavy heart that we announce that our dear friend, colleague and journalist from Yahoo Sports, Terez Paylor, has died.
Statement by Ebony Reed, Terez’s Promise: pic.twitter.com/oUFlJsXnSk
– Yahoo Sports (@YahooSports) February 9, 2021
Paylor graduated from Howard University in 2006 and joined Star. He covered preparations, Arena football and Sporting KC in Major League Soccer. He also covered the University of Missouri publication. He took charge of the Chiefs victory in 2013 and held it until he left for Yahoo in 2018.
Kansas City Star columnist Sam Mellinger wrote that “Terez’s genius had nothing to do with changing a sentence. … He knew football and the people who loved it. He built and executed a plan that the he quickly became one of the best American football writers. ” – an enormously competitive field “.
He was a senior Yahoo Sports writer at the time of his death.
He was one of 48 voting members of the Pro Football Hall of Fame and a member of the Pro Football Writers of America and the National Association of Black Journalists.
Funeral arrangements are pending.