Pro Football Writers of America Writing Awards

DICK CONNOR WRITING AWARDS:

 —News—

 1. Eric Edholm, Pro Football Weekly: One displaced fan’s Super Bowl nightmare

2. Greg Bishop, New York Times: A coach’s rebuke and a player’s shrug

3. Sean Jensen, Chicago Sun-Times: Brad Childress’ struggles with the Minnesota Vikings

 Honorable mention. Shawn Krest, All Headline News: Roethlisberger calls night club visit, karaoke ‘tradition’

 —Game Stories—

 1. Tim Graham, espn.com: Whirl interrupted: Steve Johnson drops the ball

2. Rich Cimini, espnNewYork.com: Jets come from behind, beat Texans

3. Sean Jensen, Chicago Sun-Times: Cutler’s family, friends watch victory over Seattle

 —Columns—

 1. Mark Purdy, San Jose Mercury News: JaMarcus Russell: When he was king

2. Michael Schottey, Bleacher Report: Detroit Lions loss to Chicago Bears Calvin Johnson’s fault, not referees

3. Howard Balzer, The Sports Xchange: Don Coryell not in the Hall of Fame — but should be

 —Features—

 1. Seth Wickersham, ESPN the Magazine: The curious case of Deion Sanders

2. Sean Jensen, Chicago Sun-Times: Bears’ Tommie Harris visited by his friend Randy Chon

3. David Weinberg, Press of Atlantic City: Antonio Dixon’s new life

 Honorable mention. Matt Crossman, Sporting News: The legend of Ndamukong Suh

 —Enterprise Features—

 1. Ian Rapoport, Boston Herald: Roster overhaul key to Patriots’ success

2. Seth Wickersham, ESPN the Magazine: You have terrible taste in prospects (story about scouts’ role in the draft)

3. Sean Jensen, Chicago Sun-Times: Julius Peppers’ hometown: Bailey, N.C.

 —Blog Award—

 1. Ralph Vacchiano, N.Y. Daily News

2. Brian Allee-Walsh, New Orleans.com

3. Tim Graham, ESPN.com

Congratulations to all the winners!

We are grateful once again to have distinguished University of Houston journalism professor David McHam as the judge for our five “story” categories. McHam is being honored this month in Waco, Tex., for his 50-year career in journalism education, which started at Baylor. Huge thanks to the two judges for the Blog Award: Kenneth Bunting, Executive Director of the National Freedom of Information Coalition, which operates out of the University of Missouri School of Journalism; and Glenn Drosendahl, former long-time editor in the sports department at the Seattle Post-Intelligencer and a former Seahawks beat writer. … And thanks once again to PFWA Secretary Howard Balzer for the processing of entries for the contest.