Former New York Giants defensive coordinator and interim head coach, Steve Spagnuolo, has been named a recipient of the 2024 PFWA Dr. Z Award. Spagnuolo, who currently serves as defensive coordinator for the Kansas City Chiefs, won the award alongside Tennessee Titans offensive line coach Bill Callahan. The Dr. Z Award is given for lifetime achievement as an assistant coach in the NFL. The award is named for Paul “Dr. Z” Zimmerman, who covered the NFL for 29 years as Sports Illustrated’s lead pro football writer. His impact on the writing and football industries was profound.
Zimmerman is widely considered one of the best football writers of all time, and his 1970 “A Thinking Man’s Guide to Pro Football” and revised 1984 “The New Thinking Man’s Guide to Pro Football” are textbooks to this day for young football writers trying to learn the game and trying to learn to write about the game. He started covering the NFL in 1966 and joined Sports Illustrated in 1979. Zimmerman remained at SI until his writing career was cut short by a series of strokes in November 2008. He served as PFWA president during the 1982 season.
Spagnuolo served two stints as the Giants’ defensive coordinator from 2007-2008 and again from 2015-2017. He was interviewed for the full-time head coaching job in 2018 but was ultimately passed over in favor of Pat Shurmur, who did not retain him. Spagnuolo took over as Chiefs defensive coordinator in 2019 and has gone on to win three Super Bowl titles with the team, bringing his career total to four. This story originally appeared on Giants Wire.