Colts: Chris Ballard remembering Terez Paylor during presser was heartwarming
Indianapolis Colts general manager Chris Ballard spoke to the media on Friday about everything under the sun concerning the state of the team.
We’ll dive into all of that in short time, but his grander gesture when stepping to the podium was the bigger takeaway from all of this.
Earlier in the offseason, the NFL lost beloved reporter Terez Paylor, who was best known for his coverage of the Kansas City Chiefs during his time with Yahoo! Sports.
Paylor, who was just 37 years old, passed away unexpectedly in February.
Immediately, an outpour of support from the football community hit social media.
Coincidentally, Ballard knew Paylor during the GM’s time with the Chiefs from 2013-2016 (he left for the Colts during the postseason of that 2016 season), and paid tribute to him during Friday’s presser.
In his predraft presser, Colts GM Chris Ballard is wearing an "All-Juice Team" shirt in honor of the late Terez Paylor, whom Ballard grew close with during his time with the Chiefs. "A special guy," Ballard says of Terez. "The guy loved football." pic.twitter.com/pOrW9S8q0r
— Zak Keefer (@zkeefer) April 23, 2021
Indianapolis Colts GM Chris Ballard showed love to Terez Paylor.
Ballard showed up wearing an “All-Juice Team” shirt (which will get into shortly) and made sure to mention the scholarship fund at Howard University that was immediately established after Paylor’s death.
Paylor, who ate, slept and breathed football, released his “All-Juice Team” for the last six years leading up to the draft, which was meant to assemble a team full of players who “embodied the soul of football,” as his former colleagues at Yahoo! Sports noted.
They even kept the legacy going for its seventh edition just a few months after his death.
When our beloved friend @TerezPaylor died on Feb. 12, it crushed many of us.
— Eric Edholm (@Eric_Edholm) April 19, 2021
We talked about how we could honor him, and we knew we had to keep the "All Juice Team" going in his memory.
So here is your 2021 All-Juice squad. We hope we did you proud, T.https://t.co/R4VyR60O3k
And what do you know? Offensive line prospect Quinn Meinerz, who is believed to be a Colts target, made the list! Ballard better be diving into this and the tape as soon as possible, assuming the latest rumors have any legs to them.
We’re sure Paylor and Ballard had some insightful conversations back when the Colts GM was the Chiefs’ Director of Player Personnel. Paylor’s passion of learning every detail possible about draft prospects was certainly on par with Ballard’s meticulous nature when it comes to selecting the right guy.
Paylor will be greatly missed, and it’s nice to see one of the top NFL executives remembering him since it truly shows how dedicated he was to his craft and how he established lasting, positive relationships along the way.
