Paul Zimmerman dies; pioneering football journalist was 86

Paul Zimmerman, a journalist whose extensive analysis of the NFL's complicated schemes changed the way many fans viewed the sport, died Thursday. He was 86.

Nicknamed “Dr. Z” for his intellectual approach, Zimmerman wrote about football for 55 years. He covered the Joe Namath-era Jets for the New York Post and joined Sports Illustrated in 1979. He wrote for the magazine until 2008, when he suffered the first of a series of strokes that left him unable to write. Shortly before his first stroke, he correctly predicted the Giants would upset the unbeaten Patriots in Super Bowl XLII.

Zimmerman is survived by his wife, Linda Bailey Zimmerman, whom he affectionately nicknamed “The Flaming Redhead,” and her two children. Zimmerman had two children from his first marriage.

“When I started covering football in 1984, [Zimmerman] was Peter Gammons and Bob Ryan and Tex Maule rolled into one,” said NBC Sports' Peter King, the former longtime Sports Illustrated football writer. King also covered the Giants and the NFL for Newsday in the late Eighties. “His football knowledge was peerless. He knew the technical side and loved it, and he loved the personal side, too.”

Zimmerman had a cantankerous personality and wasn’t afraid to verbally challenge players, including Namath, as well as other high-profile players and coaches throughout his career. But he was universally respected for his knowledge of the game.

“After I got over being on his team [at Sports Illustrated] and learned to talk to him on his level, I learned to yell at him when necessary and learned a lot more about covering the game,” King said. “ 'Talk to the offensive linemen,’ he’d say, ‘they’re the smartest guys. Avoid the crowds, get your own stuff.’ ”

King called Zimmerman "totally unforgettable, in so many ways.”

Zimmerman was born in 1932 in Philadelphia to Charles S. Zimmerman and Rose Zimmerman and moved to New York at an early age. He graduated from Horace Mann School in the Bronx and played college football at Stanford and Columbia. He also wrote for the Columbia Daily Spectator. He was an offensive lineman for the United States Army football team while stationed in Germany and played one year of minor-league football in New Jersey.

Zimmerman wrote for the New York Journal-American and the New York World-Telegram and Sun before joining the Post in 1966. Football coverage was different back then, and Zimmerman got an up-close look at the NFL when he covered the Jets. He often recalled stories of being in their huddle at practices, something that would be unheard of in today’s NFL.

Zimmerman’s most impactful writing was for Sports Illustrated, where he translated the X’s and O’s so readers could understand offensive and defensive schemes.

Zimmerman wrote several books, including “The Thinking Man’s Guide to Pro Football” in 1970. He also wrote “Football Lingo,” “The Last Season of Weeb Ewbank,” and “Duane Thomas and the Fall of America’s Team.” His “Dr. Z: The Lost Memoirs of an Irreverent Football Writer,” was released in September 2017, with stories compiled and edited by King.

The Pro Football Writers of America recently named an award after Zimmerman - the Dr. Z Award, given for lifetime achievement as an assistant coach in the NFL. Zimmerman was selected in 1996 as the PFWA’s McCann Award winner, the organization’s highest honor for a football writer. 

By Bob Glauber

Special to NewsdayBobGlauber

Bob Glauber retired in 2022 after covering the NFL for nearly 40 years. He was selected in 2021 for the Bill Nunn Career Achievement Award by the Pro Football Writers of America, and is a three-time winner of the New York State Sportswriter of the Year by the National Sports Media Association. President of the PFWA for the 2018-20 seasons, he is the author of “The Forgotten First” and “Guts and Genius.”