Paul Zimmerman Paul Lionel Zimmerman ( born October 23 , 1932 in Philadelphia , U . S . ) is the son of Charles S . Zimmerman and Rose Zimmerman . Zimmerman , also known to readers as " Dr . Z " , is an American football sportswriter who wrote for the weekly magazine " Sports Illustrated " , as well as the magazine ' s website , SI . com . He is sometimes confused with Paul D . Zimmerman , a sportswriter who covered college football for the " Los Angeles Times " from 1931 to 1968 . Zimmerman suffered a stroke on November 22 , 2008 , which , so far , has left him unable to walk or to communicate . According to fellow SI writer Peter King ' s MMQB column , Zimmerman has also recently suffered two other strokes and is undergoing rehab in a New Jersey facility , at this time unable to speak and with right - sided hemiparesis . Biography . Early career . Zimmerman graduated from Horace Mann School in the Bronx before becoming a college football player at Stanford and Columbia University , where he wrote for the " Columbia Daily Spectator " . An offensive lineman , he was a member of a United States Army football team while stationed in Germany , and later played minor league football in 1963 for the Westchester Crusaders of the Atlantic Coast Football League . Zimmerman began his formal journalism career at the " New York Journal - American " and the " New York World - Telegram and Sun " before moving on to become a regular at the " New York Post " in 1966 . In addition to football , Zimmerman covered three Olympic Games for the " Post " , including the hostage crisis at the 1972 Summer Games in Munich , Germany . Zimmerman also wrote a regular wine column for the " Post " , and his wine opinions are often referenced in his weekly mailbag , with football fans adding wine queries to their football questions or comments . Sports Illustrated . In 1979 Zimmerman moved to " Sports Illustrated " , where he wrote a weekly column and game predictions , and awards the magazine ' s yearly All - Pro s until his stroke . Zimmerman was best known for NFL picks published every week during the NFL season . He is notorious for hedging his bets . For instance , he ' ll ' pick the Cowboys — as long as they can stop the run . ' Since the mid - 1990s , Zimmerman was a frequent contributor to " Sports Illustrated " < nowiki > ' < / nowiki > s website . Zimmerman provided the site with a weekly column - " Power Rankings " - of his estimations of the relative strengths of each NFL team , as well as a reader mailbag feature , in addition to his other contributions to the magazine . Zimmerman ' s method of football analysis is a comprehensive one . His charts include both subjective opinions on the players and gameplay as well as objective statistical information . At any point afterward , he can then give detailed analysis of the players , teams , and games that he charted , tracking who plays well against whom , which players are improving or declining , which superstars are over - hype d , and which underrated players to " plug " in his writings . Zimmerman also answered a weekly on - line mailbag . He wrote in a stream of consciousness style rather than a simple question - and - answer , liberally sprinkling in tidbits of football history , pieces of popular culture , quotations , admittedly bad joke s and pun s , rants , and wine advice . He also frequently attributed a running commentary to his wife Linda , a . k . a . the " Flaming Redhead . " Annually , Zimmerman rated the performance of television NFL sportscaster s , criticizing those announcers who do little more than hype the stars while making inane comments on the game , ignoring the strategy or play of the game , or generally making mistakes in their commentaries . Zimmerman also went out of his way to praise the sportscasters who provide meaningful , intelligent commentary for football fans . Zimmerman himself briefly worked as an analyst for NBC ' s NFL coverage in 1985 . While covering the NFL draft for ESPN in the ' 80s , Zimmerman was asked what the NFL player of the ' 90s would be like . Zimmerman responded , controversially , " The player of the ' 90s will be so sophisticated that he ' ll be able to pass any steroid test they come up with , " ending his television career . In January 2008 , Zimmerman correctly predicted that the New York Giants ( an overwhelming underdog ) would win Super Bowl XLII over the New England Patriots . Until his incapacitation , Zimmerman served on the 44 - member Pro Football Hall of Fame selection committee . He formerly was a member of the Hall ' s smaller Senior Committee , a position that Zimmerman resigned in protest over the committee ' s repeated rejection of players he deemed worthy candidates . Influences . Zimmerman ' s style shows similarities to New Journalism , and this influence is especially evident in his web entries . Zimmerman named Jimmy Cannon as one of the sports writers he most admires . Zimmerman described George Orwell as his " literary idol , " and his writing shows some thematic similarities with that of the late novelist . In the 1980s , Zimmerman , a self - described " round - head " , was the last writer at Sports Illustrated allowed to continue using a typewriter and fax to file his stories when the rest of the writers had started using computers . Books . Zimmerman is the author of the football tome " The Thinking Man ' s Guide to Pro Football " ( Dutton ; revised edition , 1970 ) and his 1984 update of that book , " The New Thinking Man ' s Guide to Pro Football " ( Simon and Schuster ) . His other books include " Football Lingo " ( WW Norton 1967 , with Zander Hollander ) ; " The Linebackers " ( a 1972 short text for Scholastic Press ) ; " The Last Season of Weeb Ewbank " ( Farrar Straus and Giroux 1974 ) ; and " Duane Thomas and the Fall of America ' s Team " ( Warner Books 1988 ; credited to Thomas and Zimmerman , it contains diary entries by Thomas but otherwise the text is that of Zimmerman ) .