Helping women and minorities into newsrooms since 1993
Helping women and minorities into newsrooms since 1993
Since its founding in 2021, nearly every Terez A. Paylor Emerging Writer Award winner has had one thing in common: the Sports Journalism Institute.
This year, Professional Football Writers’ Association president Nicki Jhabvala made two calls, one to Katherine Fitzgerald of the Buffalo News and one to SJI class of 2019 alumnus Daniel Oyefusi, now at ESPN.com.
Oyefusi is the third consecutive alumnus to receive the prestigious honor, named after the late Terez Paylor. The Athletic’s Tashan Reed won in 2023, and Colton Pouncy won last year.
“When Terez passed, I was still early in my career, so I didn't really get the opportunity to meet him, but I have made a lot of friends in the industry who were very, very close to him,” Oyefusi said. “It was obviously a tragic passing, so to know he really was a star in his own right, and to receive an award that was named in his honor, it's not something that I take lightly, and I do really see it as a tremendous honor.”
Paylor was a Senior NFL Reporter for Yahoo Sports before his sudden passing in February 2021 at age 37. The award honors his legacy, given to a sportswriter who reflects Paylor’s work ethic, professionalism, and dedication to the craft, and commitment to improving diversity in NFL media.
“Authenticity, professionalism, and genuineness, I think, goes a long way,” Oyefusi said. “I think those are some of the things that have really helped me in my career.”
Oyefusi, a University of Maryland’s Philip Merrill College of Journalism graduate, started his career at his hometown paper, the Baltimore Sun. A long-time Baltimore Ravens fan, Oyefusi found comfort in staying home during his transition to the professional world. The big change finally came when he moved to the Miami Herald to cover the Miami Dolphins, a time that earned him a top-10 finish in the 2022 APSE contest for coverage of Brian Flores’ lawsuit against the Dolphins and the NFL.
Since 2024, he’s been with ESPN.com covering the Cleveland Browns.