Former Chiefs center Mitch Morse, now with the Buffalo Bills, salutes Terez Paylor
Terez Paylor loved football and journalism and he reserved a special place in his heart for offensive lineman. When he did his reporting in an NFL locker room, Paylor, who died in February at 37, made sure not to leave before making the rounds in offensive linemen corner.
And he connected, as Buffalo Bills center Mitch Morse related during a news conference on Monday.
This story dates backs to Morse’s college career at Missouri. Paylor covered the Tigers for one season before he was promoted to Chiefs beat writer for The Kansas City Star in 2013. But a conversation with Paylor that season left an impression on Morse, who spent his first four NFL years with the Chiefs.
“I was a sophomore, and I was having a tough go,” Morse said. “I couldn’t snap the ball. I was sailing snaps in games. It was costing us big plays.”
Mitch Morse begins today by telling a story about the late Terez Paylor.
As Morse struggled at center as a sophomore at Mizzou, Paylor gave words of encouragement.
Two continued relationship in KC when Morse w/ #Chiefs.
"He was a good person and we miss him dearly." pic.twitter.com/DH9wYGOWnt— Jon Scott (@JonScottTV) August 2, 2021
During a media session after what Morse, then a sophomore, described as a bad game, he said some in the media asked him, “’Are you as surprised as we are that you’re still the starting center?’ As a 19-year-old that really crushed me. I was shaken, I was emotional.
“Terez and another guy named Vahe (Gregorian, then with the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, now a columnist at The Star) — came up to me, and they didn’t have to do this, and said, ‘You’re a young kid, you’ve got this. We’ve got your back. Just take it one day at a time.
“He didn’t owe me anything, and he did that ... He was a great dude, a good person, did it for all the right reasons.”
Morse went on the mention the Terez Paylor Scholarship Fund at Howard University, his alma mater. And he’s in the market for an “All-Juice Team” T-shirt. Paylor popularized the team while working at The Star, recognizing unheralded players for their effort, attitude and performance.
First looks went to offensive linemen.