Commanders' PR staff wins 2025 Pete Rozelle Award
On Monday, Washington's public relations staff, led by Vice President of Football Communications Sean DeBarbieri, won the 2025 Pete Rozelle Award, via the Pro Football Writers of America (PFWA). The award is given annually to the NFL team "that consistently strives for excellence in its dealings and relationships with the media."
Advertisement
It's the first time in the award's 36-year history that Washington has won.
Washington's PR staff consists of DeBarbieri, Charlie Mule (senior manager of football communications), Jerod Carrier (manager of football communications) and Samantha Fristachi (coordinator of football communications).
'The greatest strength of Washington's football PR staff is its ability to build trust. Sean's group is honest, transparent and fair, and has a keen understanding of the jobs of media, players and team executives,' said PFWA president Nicki Jhabvala, from the Washington Post. 'It works with media instead of against them, often seeking reporters' input to try new things, such as off-record roundtables with the head coach, and using feedback to adjust its schedule when needed. Pitches may not always be fulfilled, but they're always fully considered."
Advertisement
The award is long overdue for Washington's PR staff, which has dealt with many challenges over the years.
The award is named after former NFL commissioner Pete Rozelle. Rozelle was the NFL's commissioner from 1960-89.
This article originally appeared on Commanders Wire: Commanders' PR staff wins Pete Rozelle Award
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
7 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Why Shedeur Sanders's demeanor was the most impressive part of Browns debut
Yahoo Sports host Andrew Siciliano, senior NFL writer Frank Schwab and senior NFL reporter Jori Epstein discuss the Browns rookie quarterback's performance in Friday's preseason game and what it could mean for him moving forward. Hear the full conversation on 'Inside Coverage' - and subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube or wherever you listen. View more Video Transcript Frank, what really stood out to me is, is, and let's forget about, actually we can't forget about it. Obviously, the hype was there with the way he entered the building, uh, with cornerback Tony Brown by his side with a massive speaker on wheels blasting one of Shidoor's unreleased tracks that got a lot of pop. And a lot of cameras, and there was some national, there was a national network that described Tony Brown, a 6-year veteran of the NFL, a former track champion in high school, coming out of Texas as a member of his entourage, not just like a core special teams player who played 32 defensive snaps that night. Um, but when you saw all that hype, I think there were some people that were like, oh boy, here we go. But then he got out there and he looked the part. But Joey, the, the demeanor and the like, been there, done that calmness, and I think even the modesty on the Sideline when he was interviewed in game on the local news five broadcast with our friend Adii Kingawala where he didn't want to say, yeah, I did it, look at me, he gave himself Joy, a C grade when Adii asked him for a grade and all he did was point out the things he did wrong. Yeah, I love you mention the secrets and I we'll get to the Giants and Jackson Dart, who called his performance mid when asked by Brian D. So some say C, some say mid, some say average. We have to keep up with all of the terms. But I think for me, did we really ever have questions whether Shado Sanders was a gamer and whether he had the instincts and whether he can play backyard football. I think the question when I was there during mini camp was much more, hey, how can he operate the offense? Can he operate it cleanly? Can he make decisions at the line of scrimmage? Can he get all the moving parts rather than just rely on his own playmaking? And I think that's what the Browns were looking to see this weekend. Frank, I know you're in Colorado. I find it interesting you mentioned Tim Tebow, and listen, I'm not comparing them talent wise, I'm not comparing Shidoor and Tim Tebow. But what I am drawing the analogy or the the similarity here is the reaction online of, of the fans. Um, it's almost as if there's a, a Russian bot army out there, and I say that sarcastically. Any single piece of Shidor content, good, bad, indifferent. Matter of fact, presented without comment, will get. Like an amount of reaction that I don't know that I have ever seen since Tim Tebow. It is a polarization, um, a fanboy and I love to hate him that I have never seen since Tim Tebow. No, I, I, I mean, in some ways, and, and we kind of discussed this a little bit last week, one of the worst case scenarios for Kevin Stefanski was Shadour playing this well, and I'm not saying he's saying about Phil or anything like that. I'm saying now Stefanski can't stop the hype train. Like everybody's going to be asking about Shadour even more than they were before. And I think Shadour's been, it was very interesting and you brought up his sideline interview with Adii and she she kept trying to, and she's great at her job, absolutely professional. She kept trying to get him to say something positive, right? Like, hey, but what about this? What were you proud of? What were you? And she just kept the same way all the time. I didn't do well enough. I got to do better. I'm not where I need to be. I thought that was a very professional approach for a guy who does get all this attention unprecedented for a 5th round pick. I've never seen that before ever. Close
Yahoo
7 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Trump extends tariff truce with China for 90 days
US President Donald Trump has ordered a 90-day extension to a US-China tariff truce, hours before it was due to expire – keeping higher duties on hold until November 10 as both sides continue trade talks. US President Donald Trump on Monday ordered a delay in the reimposition of higher tariffs on Chinese goods, hours before a trade truce between Washington and Beijing was due to expire. The White House's halt on steeper tariffs will be in place until November 10. "I have just signed an Executive Order that will extend the Tariff Suspension on China for another 90 days," Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform. While the United States and China slapped escalating tariffs on each other's products this year, bringing them to prohibitive triple-digit levels and snarling trade, both countries in May agreed to temporarily lower them. Their 90-day halt of steeper levies had been due to expire Tuesday. Around the same time that Trump confirmed the new extension, Chinese state media Xinhua news agency published a joint statement from US-China talks in Stockholm saying it would also extend its side of the truce. China will continue suspending its earlier tariff hike for 90 days starting August 12 while retaining a 10-percent duty, the report said. It would also "take or maintain necessary measures to suspend or remove non-tariff countermeasures against the United States, as agreed in the Geneva joint declaration," Xinhua reported. In the executive order posted Tuesday to its website, the White House reiterated its position that there are "large and persistent annual US goods trade deficits" and they "constitute an unusual and extraordinary threat to the national security and economy of the United States." The order acknowledged Washington's ongoing discussions with Beijing "to address the lack of trade reciprocity in our economic relationship" and noted that China has continued to "take significant steps toward remedying" the US complaints. The 90-day extension means the truce is now set to expire just after midnight on November 10. - Trump-Xi summit? - "Beijing will be happy to keep the US-China negotiation going, but it is unlikely to make concessions," warned William Yang, an analyst at the International Crisis Group. He believes China sees its leverage over rare earth exports as a strong one, and that Beijing will likely use it to pressure Washington. US-China Business Council president Sean Stein said the current extension is "critical to give the two governments time to negotiate an agreement" providing much-needed certainty for companies to make plans. A trade deal, in turn, would "pave the way for a Trump-Xi summit this fall," said Asia Society Policy Institute senior vice president Wendy Cutler. But Cutler, herself a former US trade official, said: "This will be far from a walk in the park." Even as both countries reached a pact to cool tensions after high level talks in Geneva in May, the de-escalation has been shaky. Key economic officials convened in London in June as disagreements emerged and US officials accused their counterparts of violating the pact. Policymakers met again in Stockholm last month. Trump said in a social media post Sunday that he hoped China will "quickly quadruple its soybean orders," adding this would be a way to balance trade with the United States. As part of their May truce, fresh US tariffs targeting China were reduced to 30 percent and the corresponding level from China was cut to 10 percent. Separately, since returning to the presidency in January, Trump has slapped a 10-percent "reciprocal" tariff on almost all trading partners, aimed at addressing trade practices Washington deemed unfair. This surged to varying steeper levels last Thursday for dozens of economies. Major partners like the European Union, Japan and South Korea now see a 15-percent US duty on many products, while the level went as high as 41 percent for Syria. The "reciprocal" tariffs exclude sectors that have been targeted individually, such as steel and aluminum, and those that are being investigated like pharmaceuticals and semiconductors. They are also expected to exclude gold, although a clarification by US customs authorities made public last week caused concern that certain gold bars might still be targeted. Trump said Monday that gold imports will not face additional tariffs, without providing further details. The president has taken separate aim at individual countries such as Brazil over the trial of former president Jair Bolsonaro, who is accused of planning a coup, and India over its purchase of Russian oil. Canada and Mexico come under a different tariff regime. (AFP)
Yahoo
7 minutes ago
- Yahoo
TreVeyon Henderson's early returns paying off for Patriots
Yahoo Sports host Andrew Siciliano, senior NFL writer Frank Schwab and senior NFL reporter Jori Epstein discuss why New England is already feeling very high about their rookie running back. Hear the full conversation on 'Inside Coverage' - and subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube or wherever you listen.n.l View more Video Transcript You're watching inside coverage on Yahoo. I'm Andrew Ceciliano in the middle of your screen. Frank Schwab, Jerry Epstein on the other side of your screen, people you know and love and trust and respect, and read, and coming up in a matter of minutes you are going to read, you are hereby demanded and and and remanded and ordered to read. Jury's piece on Travon Henderson, the 38th overall pick in the draft, part of a great 12 combination that Ohio State ran and rode to a national championship last year with Quinon Judkins. Travon Henderson in his debut for the England Patriots. All he did Joy was bust off a 100 yard kickoff return for a touchdown, um, run for 18 yards, 12 yards receiving, so 30 yards from scrimmage. He may not be the biggest, he may not be a workhorse, but wow, he's special. Special and versatile. I mean, like you said, you've got the carry, you've got the catches, you've got the return touchdown. I mean, when you talk about getting juice into a team en route to what ended up being what, a 48 point preseason outing, this is a guy who, who catches the return, and then he says, OK, no matter that I'm at the goal line, I see where I wanna go. I know where I want to break these tackles. It doesn't matter if the first guy's coming at me 20 yards and I'm gonna keep going for 80 more and have multiple. I think there's at least. Three commanders scrawled out by the time he got to the 50, and he just kept going and, and just everyone at the Patriots was fired up. I visited them on Sunday of this week, so after their game, and they were all just like, look at this guy, he's explosive, he's versatile, he's special, and he's still learning and oh by the way, on top of all the statistical elements, he's physical and pass protection, and they're really impressed with that. And so I, I was talking to their de facto general manager Elliot Wolf, the VP player personnel, I should say the. Official title and Elliot Wolf was telling me that going into the 2nd round of the draft, he says, you know what, there are about 3 players who we'd be really excited to have. I'm going to sit down and watch all of them and review them going into the draft, and he queues up about 100 runs that Treveon Henderson had specifically against good teams. That was the way that Elliott put it. I didn't ask him what that threshold was, and he gets 15 runs in and he's like, what am I doing? Like, this is our guy. Close
