Terez Paylor, a national NFL writer for Yahoo Sports and Pro Football Hall of Fame voter, died unexpectedly Tuesday at age 37.
Paylor worked for the Kansas City Star from 2006 to 2018, spending the last five seasons covering the Chiefs for the newspaper. He left to join Yahoo Sports, where he covered the NFL.
"While we are shocked and saddened by Terez Paylor's sudden passing, we also celebrate his extraordinary life that touched so many," Ebony Reed, his fiancée and longtime girlfriend, said in an online post from Yahoo Sports. "Terez was an exceptional journalist whose passion for football made him a respected voice. His legacy will leave an enduring impact on sports journalism, the NFL, the Kansas City Chiefs and their fans.
"More important, Terez was a devoted son, grandson, brother, an adoring fiance, and a wonderful friend to so many. To know him was to love him. He will be dearly missed."
It is with a heavy heart that we announce that our beloved friend, colleague and Yahoo Sports journalist Terez Paylor has passed away.
— Yahoo Sports (@YahooSports) February 9, 2021
Statement from Ebony Reed, Terez's fiancée: pic.twitter.com/oUFlJsXnSk
Paylor graduated from Howard University in 2006 and joined the Star. He covered preps, Arena football and Sporting KC in Major League Soccer. He also covered the University of Missouri for the paper. He took over the Chiefs beat in 2013 and held it until leaving for Yahoo in 2018.
Kansas City Star columnist Sam Mellinger wrote that "Terez's genius had nothing to do with turning a phrase. ... He knew football and the people who loved it. He built and executed a plan that quickly made him one of America's best football beat writers -- an enormously competitive field."
He was a senior writer for Yahoo Sports at the time of his death.
He was one of 48 voting members for 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.