Charean Williams is an American sportswriter for NBC Sports. Charean was inducted into the NFL HALL OF FAME as a journalist in 2018.  Charean Williams, who was in her 25th year of NFL coverage in 2018, and her second at Pro Football Talk, was selected as the 2018 Dick McCann Award winner by the Professional Football Writers of America (PFWA).

Williams, the 50th McCann Award winner, is the first female to receive the honor from the PFWA. She is also the first member of Pro Football Talk to be honored with a McCann Award.

 

Charean grew up and went to school in Beaumont. She attended Forest Park High School and was the class vice president for the first graduating class of West Brook, Class of 1982.

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She Got her first Media Debut in the 2nd grade when she was featured in an article in the Beaumont Enterprise about her love of Roger Staubach and the Dallas Cowboys. The headline read: "The Cowboys' youngest fan" and mentioned her desire as an 8-year-old to one day cover the Cowboys. That day arrived 26 years later.

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Williams eventually got to the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, where she covered the Dallas Cowboys for 17 years, quickly becoming one of the most respected reporters in the locker room. "I have so many stories that I will remember for a lifetime, especially growing up as a Cowboys fan," Williams said. 

 

Charean began covering the NFL as a Tampa Bay Buccaneers beat reporter for the Orlando Sentinel in 1994. She followed the Buccaneers for six seasons before leaving for the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, where she spent 17 years covering the NFL and the Cowboys and quickly became one of the most respected reporters in the locker room.  She also has worked for the Bryan-College Station (Texas) Eagle and the Orange (Texas) Leader and works for NBC on its digital NFL site, Pro Football Talk.

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In her more than 29-year career, she has covered 24 Super Bowls and seven Olympic Games.  She also debated Skip Bayless on ESPN's First Take, served as an NFL Draft analyst for ESPN, and has appeared regularly on Fox Sports 1 and the NFL Network.

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She received her B.S. in journalism from Texas A&M in 1986 and was named to the Texas A&M Former Journalism Students Association Hall of Honor in 2012. In 2017 she received the Blackie Sherrod Award for lifetime achievement covering sports in Dallas-Fort Worth. It is presented by the Dallas Sports Commission and is awarded in conjunction with major championships hosted by the North Texas region.  

In 2020 Charean was named a Texas A&M Distinguished Alumni, the highest honor bestowed on Texas A&M University's former students.  In addition to awards and recognition for football coverage, William's investigative report on NASCAR was ranked among the best in the nation by The Associated Press Sports Editors.

 

Charean Williams is the First woman to serve on this prestigious NFL Pro Football Hall of Fame selection board. She has served since 2007 and was elected again by her peers as the first female president of the Pro Football Writers of America in 2009.  Future Hall of Fame inductees are elected by a 49-person Selection Committee, which is revealed near each annual Super Bowl. She also served as a "Centennial Slate Blue-Ribbon Panel" member, which selected 15 enshrines for the Pro Football Hall of Fame's 2020 Centennial Class.  

The list included Coach Jimmy Johnson.

 

Charean continues to be recognized, this time in her home state of Texas, by being inducted into the Texas Sports Hall of Fame in May 2020 for her amazing accomplishments in her field of Journalism.

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