Tashan Reed was named the 2023 Terez A. Paylor Emerging Writer Award winner by the Professional Football Writers of America.
Reed, the third Paylor Award winner, has covered the Raiders for The Athletic since 2020. He was a finalist for last year’s award.
The Paylor Award recognizes an NFL writer under the age of 30 who carries on the legacy of Paylor through his or her work ethic, professionalism and dedication to the craft and commitment to improving diversity in NFL media. Paylor, the former Yahoo! Sports and Kansas City Star football writer, died in February 2021 at the age of 37.
Reed, a graduate of Missouri, previously covered Florida State for The Athletic. Reed has established himself as one of the leading voices on the Raiders beat, and this year delivered a narrative podcast, “Between the Lines,” which focuses on the Black experience in the NFL.
Before joining The Athletic, Reed covered high school and NAIA college sports for the Columbia Missourian and Mizzou sports for the SBNation blog Rock M Nation. He also has written stories focused on the African-American community for The St. Louis American and was a sports intern at the Commercial Appeal in Memphis through the Sports Journalism Institute.
The other finalists for the 2023 award were Ben Arthur (Fox Sports), Emmanuel Morgan (New York Times), Daniel Oyefusi (Miami Herald) and Josh Tolentino (Philadelphia Inquirer).