Olivia Reiner, an Eagles beat writer for the Philadelphia Inquirer, has been named the 2026 Terez A. Paylor Emerging Writer Award winner by the Professional Football Writers of America—becoming the first Inquirer staffer to earn the honor.
The kind of recognition that lands like a quiet confirmation arrived in Philadelphia this week: Olivia Reiner, the Eagles beat writer for the Philadelphia Inquirer, was named the 2026 Terez A. Paylor Emerging Writer Award winner.
Reiner is the seventh Paylor Award winner and. crucially. the first person affiliated with the Philadelphia Inquirer to receive the award. The Professional Football Writers of America selected her for an award that goes beyond output—spotlighting a young NFL writer who carries Terez Paylor’s standards of work ethic. professionalism. and dedication to the craft. along with a commitment to improving diversity in NFL media.
Paylor—formerly a Yahoo! Sports and Kansas City Star football writer—died in 2021 at the age of 37. The award that bears his name now recognizes writers who follow the trail he built.
Reiner’s path to the Eagles beat has been steady and specific. She joined the Philadelphia Inquirer in 2023 as an Eagles beat reporter. Before that, she covered the Flyers beat at the Inquirer from 2021-23, a run that included earning NSMA Pennsylvania Sportswriter of the Year honors in 2023.
Her résumé also spans multiple markets. From 2019-21, she worked as a sports multimedia reporter at the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, covering the Packers, Brewers and Bucks. Her video coverage of the Packers earned 2019 APSE top-10 honors. She also covered the 2020 Tokyo Olympics for USA Today.
The other 2026 finalists for the Paylor Award were Ashley Bastock of cleveland.com/Cleveland Plain Dealer and Giana Han of the Baltimore Banner.
For Reiner, the moment is bigger than one trophy. It’s tied to a standard of how to show up for a beat—writing with professionalism, doing the work the day-to-day demands, and pushing for broader representation in an NFL media landscape that still has room to change.
Olivia Reiner Philadelphia Inquirer Eagles beat writer 2026 Terez A. Paylor Emerging Writer Award Professional Football Writers of America Terez Paylor NFL media NSMA Pennsylvania Sportswriter of the Year Milwaukee Journal Sentinel Flyers beat