Football Writers Assoc. of America writing awards

http://www.sportswriters.net/fwaa/awards/writing/2008/index.html



FWAA ANNOUNCES BEST WRITING CONTEST WINNERS

DALLAS (FWAA) - The Football Writers Association of America has announced the results of its 16th Annual Best Writing Contest sponsored by Insight. At the conclusion of the judging, there were five double award winners, including si.com's Stewart Mandel, who collected a first place in the enterprise category and a second place in the game story category.

Other first-place winners were Eric Hansen of the South Bend Tribune (features), Brett McMurphy of the Tampa Tribune (loose deadline), Chip Scoggins of the Minneapolis Star Tribune (game) and Bud Withers of the Seattle Times (column). All the winners will receive stylish plaques when they are honored at the FWAA's Awards Breakfast in January, along with the other placers and honorable mentions.

Mandel, 32, is a repeat winner after claiming first place in the column category in the 13th annual contest. Withers, 60, also won for a column in the 14th annual contest. All five winning entries are published in their entirety in the August edition of The Fifth Down, along with brief sketches of their careers.

Besides Mandel, FWAA members who won two awards in the contest were Hansen, who also picked up an honorable mention in game story, Dennis Dodd of cbssports.com (second in enterprise, honorable mention column), Cory Giger of the Altoona (Pa.) Mirror (third in game and honorable mention in loose deadline) and Brady McCullough of the Kansas City Star (third in loose deadline and honorable mention in enterprise).

 

Damn. Overlooked again.

 

used to be pretty good cash money prizes for PFWA contest

no reason to enter anymore

 

I wish I could win a stylish plaque.

 

A good dentist can handle that.

 

I don't regular read many of those writers, but Withers is top-notch.

I read Mandel every week during the season, tore through his book in a day, and I still don't think he's all that special.

 

Not to disparage the winners, who I'm sure are very good, but this has always been a case of friends judging friends. FWAA doesn't normally go outside for its judges. So it's who you know, in SOME cases, not how well you write.

 

Define, please, "loose deadline."

 

A deadline that's willing to fool around on the first date.

 

Tell you what, why don't you actually read the stories that won before you start bashing the contest.

Yes, they're really good (what a shock).

 

It was a hard news story, on the allegations of academic fraud against former USF Bull Ben Moffitt, but wasn't a true deadline story that was completed in one day.

 

If there's a funnier post anywhere on the board today, please point me to it.