ED WERDER SELECTED AS PFWA’S 2017 DICK McCANN AWARD WINNER

Ed Werder, who has covered the NFL for 34 years, including 20 at ESPN, has been selected as the 2017 Dick McCann Award winner by the Professional Football Writers of America (PFWA).

Werder, the 49th McCann Award winner, is the fourth former or current member of ESPN or ESPN.com to receive the honor from the PFWA, joining John Clayton (2007), Len Pasquarelli (2008) and Chris Mortensen (2016).

The McCann Award is given to a reporter who has made a long and distinguished contribution to pro football through coverage. The award is named for McCann, who was the first director of the Pro Football Hall of Fame (1962-67). McCann was a longtime reporter in New York with several newspapers, the Newspaper Enterprise Association and King Features Syndicate. After a stint in the Navy in World War II, he was a sports columnist for the Washington Times-Herald in 1945. A year later, he joined the Washington Redskins as publicity director and was the club’s general manager from 1947-62 before taking the job with the Hall of Fame before its’ 1963 opening.

Other 2017 nominees for the McCann Award were Ron Borges (Boston Herald), Vinny DiTrani (Bergen Record; retired), Jeff Legwold (ESPN.com) and Adam Schefter (ESPN.com).

During his time at ESPN from 1998-2017, Werder appeared weekly on NFL Insiders, NFL Live and SportsCenter as an NFL Insider. He also covered games each week of the NFL season and contributed to Sunday NFL Countdown and Monday Night Countdown. An annual contributor to ESPN’s coverage of the NFL Draft and the Super Bowl, Werder originally joined ESPN as a Dallas-based bureau reporter in September 1998.

Prior to ESPN, he was the NFL reporter for CNNSI, CNN’s Sports Tonight and CNN’s Sunday NFL Preview, providing weekly NFL game coverage, as well as the NFC Championship games in 1997 and 1998 and Super Bowls XXXI and XXXII. Werder also covered the 1998 Final Four and Major League Baseball’s 1996 National League Championship Series.

A native of Longmont, Colo., Werder’s extensive background in print journalism includes stints with the Dallas Morning News (1992-96) and Fort Worth Star-Telegram (1989) covering the Dallas Cowboys. He also worked as an NFL beat writer for the Orlando Sentinel in 1991 and served as a Denver Broncos beat writer for the Boulder (Colo.) Daily Camera from 1984-89. Werder was an NFL reporter for The National (1990-91) and a correspondent for Sports Illustrated (1987-95).

At the Dallas Morning News, he won an award for a series of reports chronicling the deteriorating relationship between Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones and then-head coach Jimmy Johnson. He broke the news that Johnson would be replaced by Barry Switzer as the Cowboys coach after Johnson had rebuilt the team and won back-to-back Super Bowls. Werder is also credited for breaking news about rising problems in the Cowboys locker room in 2008, concerning wide receiver Terrell Owens and culminated in his release from the organization.

Werder graduated with a degree in journalism and communications from the University of Northern Colorado in Greeley in 1982.

"I've had the privilege of working with Ed for some 20 years dating back to the The National and most recently with ESPN. I just know that whatever and wherever Ed was assigned, we had it covered. That's always a good feeling," said ESPN’s Chris Mortensen, the PFWA’s 2016 McCann Award winner.

"He represents the journalistic model in which every dogged reporter methodically turns over every stone in pursuit of the facts,” Mortensen continued. "He cultivates good relationships because it's part of his fiber and necessary to the job, and he understands his responsibility to those who depend upon his work for insight and information. He loves journalism, and he loves covering the NFL, exceeded only by his love of family. I'm reasonably certain these are the things that motivate Ed."

Werder will be honored during the 2017 Pro Football Hall of Fame Enshrinement Ceremony on August 5 in Canton, Ohio.

DICK McCANN AWARD WINNERS:

2016 - Chris Mortensen, ESPN
2015 - Dave Goldberg, Associated Press
2014 - Ed Bouchette, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
2013 - Dan Pompei, Chicago Tribune
2012 - Tom Kowalski, MLive.com
2011 - Bob McGinn, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
2010 - Peter Finney, New Orleans Times-Picayune
2009 - Peter King, Sports Illustrated
2008 - Len Pasquarelli, ESPN.com
2007 - John Clayton, ESPN/ESPN.com
2006 - John McClain, Houston Chronicle
2005 - Jerry Green, Detroit News
2004 - Rick Gosselin, Dallas Morning News
2003 - Joel Buchsbaum, Pro Football Weekly
2002 - Edwin Pope, Miami Herald
2001 - Len Shapiro, Washington Post
2000 - Tom McEwen, Tampa Tribune
1999 - Art Spander, Oakland Tribune
1998 - Dave Anderson, New York Times
1997 - Bob Roesler, New Orleans Times-Picayune
1996 - Paul Zimmerman, Sports Illustrated
1995 - Ray Didinger, Philadelphia Daily News
1994 - Don Pierson, Chicago Tribune
1993 - Ira Miller, San Francisco Chronicle
1992 - Frank Luksa, Dallas Morning News
1991 - Dick Connor, Denver Post
1990 - Will McDonough, Boston Globe
1989 - Vito Stellino, Baltimore Sun
1988 - Gordon Forbes, USA Today
1987 - Jerry Magee, San Diego Union
1986 - Bill Wallace, New York Times
1985 - Cooper Rollow - Chicago Tribune
1984 - Larry Felser, Buffalo News
1983 - Hugh Brown, Philadelphia Bulletin
1982 - Cameron Snyder, Baltimore Morning Sun
1981 - Norm Miller, New York Daily News
1980 - Chuck Heaton, Cleveland Plain Dealer
1979 - Pat Livingston, Pittsburgh Press
1978 - Murray Olderman, Newspaper Enterprise Assoc.
1977 - Art Daley, Green Bay Press-Gazette
1976 - Jack Hand, Associated Press
1975 - John Steadman, Baltimore News-American
1974 - Bob Oates, Los Angeles Times
1973 - Dave Brady, Washington Post
1972 - Lewis Atchison, Washington Star
1971 - Joe King, New York World-Telegram and Sun
1970 - Arthur Daley, New York Times
1969 - George Strickler, Chicago Tribune