Mary Kay Cabot rose from Plain Dealer intern to being the winner of PFWA’s 2025 Bill Nunn Jr. Award for her coverage of the Cleveland Browns with the Plain Dealer and Cleveland.com. The award recognizes those who have made a long and distinguished contribution to pro football through their coverage and will be honored at the Pro Football Hall of Fame Enshrinement.

A trailblazer, Cabot, a native Clevelander and Kent State alum, became one of the first full-time female beat writers in the NFL and the first in the Cleveland market at 29 years old in 1991.

Since then, she has covered pro football in Cleveland for 36 years. Even earning the nickname “The Queen of the Damned” in a 2016 The Ringer article for her longtime coverage of the Browns.

Through those 36 years, she has won multiple a

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