Beat of the Week

(Honorable Mention)

AP breaks news of vaccine mandate for US Olympic athletes

broke news of the groundbreaking policy mandating that U.S. Olympic athletes and staff be vaccinated by Nov. 1 to use facilities of the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee in advance of February’s Beijing Games.Pells, AP’s longtime Olympics beat writer, knew that the committee was exploring a new vaccine policy and had followed the story closely. When the USOPC reached its decision they forwarded a stakeholders’ letter on the policy to Pells, telling him to be ready for its public release later in the week.Armed with the letter, Pells was fully prepped with a story and link to the freshly updated team website when the announcement came Wednesday, giving AP a full-fledged scoop on one of the first sports organizations anywhere to make vaccines mandatory. https://aplink.news/9mt

Beat of the Week

(Honorable Mention)

Fifa disbands racism task force, says job done

for breaking the news that FIFA has abolished its anti-racism task force ... http://bit.ly/2dkNqGw

Beat of the Week

(Honorable Mention)

IAAF explores tightening rules on athletes changing nations

for disclosing that the world governing body for track and field was weighing whether to tighten the rules that allow athletes to switch the country they represent. http://bit.ly/2bGeItU

Beat of the Week

(Honorable Mention)

AP analysis: Few minority NFL coaches in top offensive jobs

for an exclusive analysis of the coaching staffs of all 32 NFL teams and discovered that while minorities make up about 35 percent of staffs, they hold just 7 percent of the key stepping-stone positions that lead to head coach, a number that has not been discussed by other organizations that look at coaching diversity. https://bit.ly/2TCB4iK

Best of the States

​Krupa makes exclusive photos of Tom Brady's unbandaged hand injury

As he geared up to cover Sunday’s AFC championship between the Jacksonville Jaguars and New England Patriots, Boston photographer Charlie Krupa knew the biggest national sports story of the week had been the mysterious practice injury to the throwing hand of Patriots quarterback Tom Brady.

Krupa and every other photographer at the game made photos showing the bandaged hand as Brady warmed up, played, and celebrated yet another AFC championship on stage at midfield afterwards.

But after covering countless high-profile sporting events around the globe during his AP career, Krupa knew there was one more picture he needed to make.

When Brady took the podium for the post-game news conference, Krupa watched through the lens for that fleeting moment of Brady’s unbandaged hand. His exclusive pictures, published on ESPN and Boston Globe websites, among others, confirmed Brady had sustained a cut at the base of his right thumb that required several stitches.

For journalistic tenacity and photographic skill that gave AP an exclusive beat, Krupa receives this week’s Best of the States prize.

Beat of the Week

(Honorable Mention)

Kevin Ferguson set for professional MMA debut at Bellator 160

Greg Beacham, sports writer, Los Angeles, for being first to report that the oldest son of the late Kimbo Slice was making his professional debut in mixed martial arts, a sport with a rapidly growing fan base.

Beat of the Week

(Honorable Mention)

Brissett would make Pats history as first black QB to start

for a story pointing out that the New England Patriots would be one of the last NFL teams to start a black quarterback when Jacoby Brissett played on Sept. 22. http://bit.ly/2dkHQnL

Beat of the Week

(Honorable Mention)

LeBron: Union prioritizes help for retired players in talks

for source work that put AP ahead with details of the previously undisclosed framework of the NBA’s upcoming collective bargaining agreement with players. http://es.pn/2dXhGtM

Best of the Week — First Winner

A Super Bowl week scoop: Emails detailing Falcons' reliance on painkillers

It was just a coincidence: Emails from 2010, showing that the Atlanta Falcons were worried about the team’s reliance on painkillers, were quietly entered into the court record as the Falcons were making just their second Super Bowl appearance. But AP sports columnist Jim Litke was prepared, and the result was a Super Bowl week scoop.

Litke's story is the Beat of the Week.

Beat of the Week

(Honorable Mention)

$1 a year lease: San Diego's willingness to work with Chargers to keep them from moving

for obtaining a letter from San Diego City Council members in which they offered the Chargers a 99-year lease at $1 a year to open negotiations they hope will keep the team from moving. http://apne.ws/2igAHaw

Beat of the Week

(Honorable Mention)

Exclusive photos show Florida Panthers hockey coach after hiring

for extra effort after covering a Florida Panthers-Carolina Hurricanes hockey game; learning that the Florida team’s coach, Gerard Gallant, had been fired and that his former team had left without him, DeBlaker captured exclusive images of Gallant stepping into a cab.

http://qctimes.com/sports/hockey/professional/flor...

Beat of the Week

(Honorable Mention)

Ecclestone overseeing sale of F1 to US firm Liberty Media

for breaking the news that the multibillion-dollar sale of Formula One to a U.S. company, Liberty Media, would go through. Harris also got Formula One’s CEO to go on the record before the deal was announced. http://fxn.ws/2cPp4cH

Beat of the Week

(Honorable Mention)

NBA Chooses New Orleans for 2017 All-Star Game

for being first to report that the NBA was awarding its All-Star game to New Orleans ... http://nyti.ms/2biotPI

Beat of the Week

(Honorable Mention)

AP, CP collaborate on survey of NHL players across the league

for connecting sports writers across the AP with their colleagues at Canadian Press to survey players on all 31 National Hockey League teams on a defined set of topics, fueling exclusive stories during the playoffs. Among the takeaways: Almost half of the players surveyed support a change to the current playoff format.https://bit.ly/2UAregR

Beat of the Week

(Honorable Mention)

Unique, enterprising video stories win Tour de France viewers

for a series of nearly 20 videos from the Tour de France, using iPhone and GoPro to create short-form, customer-ready products. The videos drove traffic to their comprehensive text coverage of the race itself as well as “Taste of the Tour,” their daily series of entertaining, informative and entirely exclusive cross-format stories exploring the people, places, cuisine and hidden tales in the regions crossed by the Tour. They shot video and interviews in the early morning, before starting long days covering each stage, then edited their video stories in the car as they drove hundreds of miles to the stage finish, where they then leapt back into race coverage. On Twitter alone, the video series racked up close to 300,000 views, more than covering the pair’s modest wine tab.https://bit.ly/2yvemQshttps://bit.ly/2Ktu58Dhttps://bit.ly/2SUr7O2https://bit.ly/2K9dvMihttps://bit.ly/2YvHXbj

Beat of the Week

(Honorable Mention)

Tip leads to scoop on Bronco’s stadium naming deal

for acting on a tip about an imminent Denver Broncos stadium naming rights deal, breaking the news of the team’s 21-year, $126 million agreement with Empower Retirement. Stapleton leveraged his 15 years on the Broncos beat – and AP’s wide reach – to get the scoop. https://bit.ly/2kI3mw3

Beat of the Week

(Honorable Mention)

Breaking news from NBA’s suspended playoffs

teamed up to break news from the NBA’s “Disney bubble” as teams suspended play over racial justice issues. Reynolds got the only on-the-record interview with an executive board member of the National Basketball Players Association, speaking with Andre Iguodala on the day that players decided that they would remain isolated at Walt Disney World and continue the postseason despite the protests.

The interview followed Reynolds’ scoop that the NBA’s owners had called an emergency meeting and that a three-hour meeting between players and coaches led to no consensus on how to go forward. The interview with Iguodala, and supplemental reporting by his colleague Mahoney, led to AP being able to break the news that teams would resume practice Friday and playing games Saturday.https://bit.ly/2Zsl7R7https://bit.ly/33fyFk6https://bit.ly/2RjPqVvhttps://bit.ly/3bJ5XvI

Beat of the Week

(Honorable Mention)

AP out front after Cameroon soccer stadium stampede kills 8

put AP far ahead in confirming the details of a fatal stampede at a soccer stadium in Cameroon during the Africa Cup of Nations tournament. An early coverage decision made AP the only English-language news outlet with firm details on the tragedy for hours.Read more

Beat of the Week

(Honorable Mention)

AP moves fast to keep ahead of sports developments, cancellations

raced to cover rapidly developing stories as dozens of sports leagues and federations around the globe made decisions affecting players, fans and entire seasons in reaction to the spread of the coronavirus.https://bit.ly/2IXA9Wehttps://bit.ly/3a1Vg5Khttps://bit.ly/2UoUAkehttps://bit.ly/3923lWVhttps://bit.ly/2U37Xru

Beat of the Week

(Honorable Mention)

Sports betting will be no home run for state budgets

for their work showing that dozens of states are expected to consider legalizing sports betting this year. An AP analysis shows that they should not expect it to provide a windfall for their budgets. http://bit.ly/2Tq6JDE