Terez Paylor was known nationally for his work at Yahoo Sports, but the late NFL writer spent years in Kansas City on the Chiefs beat before moving to Yahoo.
Paylor passed away in February, a loss that’s obviously still felt around the media world. Today, thanks in part to a community push, Kansas City has honored Paylor’s memory by proclaiming Terez Paylor Day today.
Great job by @todpalmer . Thank you to @Colts GM Chris Ballard, @ChicagoBears HC Matt Nagy, @chriscabott , @LRiddickESPN , @peter_king , @BobGlauber , @QuintonLucasKC & @EbonyReed all taking time out of their days to help make this story come together. https://t.co/XmLrRhQF0W
— Nick Jacobs (@Jacobs71) August 27, 2021
Tod Palmer at Kansas City’s KSHB has the details on how it all came together, with notes from Bears coach Matt Nagy and Colts GM Chris Ballard, among many others:
With the blessing of Paylor’s family, Mayor Quinton Lucas announced the proclamation “to honor the life, work, and service of Mr. Paylor.”
“I’m grateful to Mayor Lucas for honoring Terez’s work and contributions in the Kansas City area,” Paylor’s fiancée, Ebony Reed, said in a statement from the mayor’s office. “Terez so loved Kansas City, he said we’d never live in any other city. He had a passion for covering sports in Missouri and ultimately on the national stage. Terez was deeply concerned about community issues — gun violence, the racial wealth gap, and social justice. Today, we honor Terez as a community.”
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“I talked very freely with Terez, because my trust level was so high with him and I knew that his intentions were always in the right place,” said Indianapolis Colts General Manager Chris Ballard, who met Paylor while working in the Chiefs’ front office from 2013-16.
“When you have good people who do good things, and that’s what he did, it was really easy to give him a lot of your time,” Nagy said. “When you’re working with a guy like him and you’re telling stories, you just feel good about it and you want to help him out, because he treats you well. That’s the common denominator that you hear from everybody in the sports world. You hear about how well he treated people in a tough business. That’s why he’s so sorely missed, because he really did it the right way.”
