gotchanewsdaily.com 
The Free Press Sports department won four honors in the largest competition category of the Associated Press Sports Editors awards, the organization announced last week.
This year’s competition acknowledged work published in 2024. The Free Press’ awards include:
∎ Jeff Seidel was named one of the top 10 columnists in the country with his entry, which included stories on philanthropy by the Detroit Lions players, a life-saving Lions fan and a Michigan Tech basketball victory that went viral.
∎ Seidel won Top 10 in the Long Features category for his profile of ailing Tigers legend Chet Lemon.
∎ Photographer Junfu Han’s photo of San Francisco wide receiver Brandon Aiyuk making a game-changing catch after the ball bounced off Lions cornerback Kindle Vildor’s facemask in last year’s NFC championship game was named as one of the top 10 action photos. The award is Han’s second from APSE, with his previous coming in 2021.
∎ And the Free Press’ daily and Sunday sports print section was honored as one of the Top 10 among the country’s biggest news organizations. Among the entry was the coverage of Michigan’s national title football game, the Lions in the NFC Championship game and the weekly Lions Blitz section.
It’s the first column award for the Free Press since 2020, when Mitch Albom won for the second consecutive year. Seidel had never before won an APSE column honor, but had won awards for feature writing five of the past eight years.
The Free Press print section had not won a Top 10 award since 2018, though it was honored as one of the top 10 Special Sections in 2022 for its Miguel Cabrera commemorative section.
The contest annually recognizes the best in sports sections, sports writing and sports reporting. The organization includes representatives from most daily newspapers and major sports websites in North America.
Bill Bradley is sports editor at the Free Press. He can be reached at bbradley@freepress.com. Follow on Twitter at billbradleyDET.
