Give, and it
will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running
over, will be put into your lap; for the measure you give will be the measure
you get back.
--Luke14:16 NRSV
Admittedly,
it’s a strange thing for a fan to write a eulogy for someone he has never met
in person. I never met NFL sportswriter Terez Paylor, who died yesterday at the young age of 37, but I felt as if I had. We only interacted on Twitter as he
responded to my messages praising his work and on occasion when he answered a
question of mine during his podcasts. That’s not enough to say you really knew
someone. Yet, I gained so much from Terez’s writing, his videos and his
podcasts, not merely because of his excellent coverage of the KC Chiefs (my
favorite team) but because he was so fully himself as he did so. His inner
light was contagious. His deep belly laugh was viral in its joy. Life felt more
vibrant when I read his work, watched him speak and listened to him talk. He
was a part of my life each week, as he was for so many people who loved his
work.
Terez
became an essential part of my life during a very difficult year for my family
and me. The weekly post-Chiefs game podcasts he hosted with the other KC Star
sports reporters were a dose of laughter and good vibes my soul sorely needed.
As a consumer of sports and sports writing, I can testify it is exceedingly rare
in that empty bravado-filled landscape to hear a group of men laughing as
friends—a laughter that wasn’t mean-spirited or at someone else’s expense but the
kind that comes when people are sharing a passion together. During a lonely and
painful year for me, Terez’s laughter was light cast into my shadows. When I
shared this in a tweet to Terez and the other writers, their kind responses
were a form of grace that was healing.
So,
I feel compelled to write a eulogy. It’s what I do as a minister, both for
people I know well and for strangers I’ve never met whom I come to know through
the stories loved ones tell about them. As I have read the pieces Terez’s
fellow journalists have written over the last 24 hours—writers doing what they
do when mourning someone special—I have been deeply moved to discover my fan’s
experience of Terez is one miniscule point of light within a vast tapestry of
brighter lights, similar but stronger experiences of those who knew Terez as
friends and colleagues. The genuine humanity we fans experienced from Terez
Paylor was not an act, as is the case with
so many in the public eye, but a real representation of who he was in person.
That consistency of character is, from what I gather, rare in the competitive
field of journalism, just as it is rare in all other areas of life. I feel like
that kind of unique generosity of spirit is worth celebrating and learning from,
not only for my life but for all of our too-short lives.
Numerous
articles and obituaries list Terez’s rise from his Detroit childhood to Howard
University to cub reporter covering high school sports at the KC Star to
Chiefs beat reporter to national NFL writer for Yahoo Sports. Certainly, his
career and rabid love of the game of football is laudatory, but what moves me are
the universal declarations of Terez Paylor’s kindness, generosity,
vulnerability, sense of humor and laughter. Yes, he was a ambitious reporter
who was always stayed to the end to cover a story, ever expanding his already exhaustive
knowledge of football, but he somehow did that work while at the same time being
a real friend, a trusted colleague and an invested mentor. Here are some of the
words his colleagues and co workers had to say about him:
“I don’t know how many people are so good at what they do,
yet remain so eager to get better. I don’t know how many people can carry a
confidence that could border on arrogance, and be the first to make fun of
themselves. He had a confidence you could feel the first time you talked to
him, and a gift to transfer that confidence to you.”
--Sam Mellinger, Sports
Columnist, The Kansas City Star
“He loved what he did. You could see it in his work. In his
mock draft. In his All-Juice teams. He had a wide smile and infectious laugh.
When you heard it, you had to join in, even if you had absolutely no idea what
had gotten him. To know Terez personally was to be surrounded by joy and
laughter. It felt impossible — impossible — to be in a bad mood when you were in his
presence.”
--Sam McDowell, Sports
Reporter, The Kansas City Star
“Terez made everyone around him a better person and could
light up a room with his tremendous sense of humor and brightest of bright
smiles.”
--Herbie Teope, Chiefs Beat Writer, The Kansas City Star
“I just loved talking to him. About anything. He just put you
at ease. The conversation just flowed. If you ever had a problem at work or in
life, he was there to get worked up on your behalf — in classic Terez fashion.
He would say something that would make you feel better. He’d make you laugh. It
sounds cliche to say that everybody loved Terez, but it was just impossible not
to.”
--Rustin Dodd, Sports
Reporter The Athletic
“Terez made
every jam-packed media room better, smarter and more absolutely joyful just by
being in them.”
--Joshua Brisco, Sports Radio Personality, 810
WHB Kansas City (from Twitter)
“He always
wanted to get it right. He was warm, honest, fair, respectful, and he cared a
great deal about you as a person.”
--Matt Nagy, Head Coach Chicago Bears
“One of the
most genuine reporters I’ve ever communicated with.”
--Derrick Johnson, retired Kansas City Chief (from Twitter)
It is a rare person who makes other people better at the same time they aspire
to be better. We are taught in our culture that excellence exists in scarcity.
One can only rise if others fall. One can win only if others lose. Yet, Terez
embodied the truth that excellence exists in abundance. The best are those who
make those around them better.
“I continue
to be struck not by how many people have spoken warmly about Terez Paylor but
by how many have said variations of “You helped me when I needed it”. Can there
be a greater honor for a person?”
--Kurtis Seaboldt, Sports Radio Personality,
810 WHB Kansas City
“Terez didn’t
just help me. He uplifted everyone. He didn’t have to spend as much time as he
did with Brook Pryor, Lynn Worthy and me in 2018 our first year covering the
Chiefs but he answered every question.”
--Nate Taylor, Chiefs Reporter, The Athletic
“When I
first started going out to Arrowhead to cover the Chiefs, it was honestly kind
of intimidating to be in these spaces with no one around you who looked like
you. Terez took the time to show me the ropes.”
--Carrington Harrison, Sports Radio Personality,
610 Sports Radio Kansas City
“Fellow
journalists: Let Terez's enthusiasm and eagerness to help others coming up in
the biz inspire us to take joy in the mentorship and sponsorship opportunities
all around us. Young journalists, especially young journalists of color, were
one of Terez Paylor's passions. Let's pass it forward.”
--Jeff Rosen, Assistant Managing Editor/Sports, The
Kansas City Star
“I like to think he knew how very loved he was all over this
land: from his hometown of Detroit to his alma mater of Howard University in
Washington, D.C., and surely all across the NFL in his job with Yahoo Sports.”
--Vahe Gregorian, Sports
Columnist, The Kansas City Star
As a minister, I strive
to impart to people what Terez lived out—be who God created you to be. Find
your passion, your calling; live it out with joy. Share what God has given you
with others, trusting that however much you give away, you will only be given
more in return. I don’t know Terez’ religious beliefs or if he had any at all,
but from my perspective as a Christian, I believe his love of life, his
generosity towards others, his lifting up others’ good work, his consistent
ethics, his genuine friendship and so much more are at the heart of who God
desires us all to be. This kind of genuine humanity—living out of one’s true
self, the true person God created one to be, the inner light that is the spark
of the Divine that dwells within us, left there when we were created in God’s
image—is contagious. As so many have described, it fills the room with laughter
and leaves others feeling more truly themselves once they have experienced it.
I believe that is the
way people felt when they experienced Jesus when he walked the earth. It’s too
bad all our paintings and pictures of Jesus have him looking so serious, so sad
or so mean (not to mention so white!). It is difficult to picture Jesus with a
belly laugh. So, that’s why God gives us a person like Terez Paylor, so we can
see how good this life can be. The good news is that what Terez grabbed a hold
of and lived out in his too-short life is available to you and to me, even if
we never quite grasp life’s laughter the way he did.
I
will never forget Terez’s podcast episodes where he addressed issues of systemic
racism following the killing of George Floyd last year. He shared his point of
view with a genuineness and generosity that invited dialogue rather than shrill
denunciation. His grace in approaching such a loaded and multifaceted subject
as racism in America was masterful. It offered the promise of healing—not the
cheap type of healing offered without the integrity of honesty and justice, but
real healing that opens up clenched fists and closed minds. Our world has too
few such moments of authentic humanity.
In
his moving piece about his relationship with Terez, Charles Robinson, Terez’scohost on the Yahoo Sports NFL Podcast, write this about him:
“When you
got close to him, you learned all the things that attracted people from afar
were real. He was kind. He was caring. He had a code about what was right and
wrong. He could make you belly laugh, and he was actually much more likely to give you a belly laugh, even if what you said
wasn’t nearly that funny. . . Through it all, he always wanted to learn
more, always strove to get better. He was unafraid to express curiosity or
regret about story choices in a way that most reporters won’t. And he made the
people around him want to be better, too. Especially me. . . This is how
it usually went with Terez, whether you were working with him, against him or
watching him from afar. If you invested the time to know him or his work, he
inevitably became a beam of light and you became a blade of grass bending in
his direction.”
Whether we are Terez’s
fellow journalists who knew him well or just ordinary fans of his work that
never knew him in person, we all can strive to be like Terez, living out of our
true selves, who we were created to be, shining our beams of light into the
shadows around us.
Grace and Peace,
Rev. Chase Peeples
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