Kevin Armstrong is a journalist working in print, digital and film.
His assignments have ranged from chronicling the opioid epidemic and coronavirus pandemic to reporting on anti-Semitic attacks and domestic terror bombings. In January 2020, “Killer Inside: The Mind of Aaron Hernandez,” a three-episode docuseries that he executive produced, premiered as a Netflix Original. Armstrong covered Hernandez, the late tight end for the New England Patriots, during his football career and while he was under criminal investigation for three homicides, as well as both of his trials in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Hernandez allegedly hanged himself while serving a life sentence in prison, and was diagnosed with Stage 3 Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy, or C.T.E., after his death in April 2017.
Armstrong is a writer at The Star-Ledger in New Jersey. His reportage explores a wide array of subjects. At Monmouth Park, he investigated racehorse deaths and the track’s use of the Rake Yard Pit amid rising fatality rates. Inside Student Athlete Academy he uncovered child welfare issues as the unregulated, for-profit middle school skipped town twice following cease-and-desist orders and allegations of child endangerment. He also chronicled a peripatetic independent baseball team’s woeful season, Saint Peter’s Cinderella run to the Elite 8, UConn coach Dan Hurley’s pursuit of a second consecutive national title and the NFL’s venture into South America.
For Sports Illustrated, he probed the unsolved homicide of Aamir Griffin, a 14-year-old struck and killed by a stray bullet on a basketball court inside the Baisley Park Houses, where he lived. He has contributed to The New York Times’s metropolitan, business, national and sports sections. He covered policing changes in Camden, N.J., profiled a same-sex coaching couple in college basketball, reported on small business, wrote about speakeasy hockey in the Adirondacks and followed prison releases amid the pandemic. He also covered breaking news and criminal trials for The Washington Post’s national desk, style section and front page. In The Wall Street Journal, he wrote an A-Hed about Catholic confession, track meets being run in parking garages and the pent-up demand for church bingo.
As a national enterprise reporter at the New York Daily News for more than eight years, he wrote about a father accused of kidnapping his daughter from Venezuela, a plane crash in the Ouachita Forest of Arkansas, sexual abuse at Penn State University, a child homicide in South Dakota, the death of a dirt-track racer in upstate New York, a markswoman at West Point, the contradictions of Super Bowl XLIII MVP Santonio Holmes, All-Pro quarterback Tom Brady’s muse and an alleged loanshark in Rockland County, N.Y.
He has filed stories from 44 states, as well as Brazil, Haiti, Germany, Austria, England and Canada. He has covered the Olympics, Super Bowls, Final Fours, College Football Playoffs, U.S. Opens, PGA Championships, Boston Marathons, NYC Marathons, Belmont Stakes, Stanley Cup playoffs, UFC cards, World Championship Sumo matches and Frozen Fours.
In 2023, the Society of the Silurians awarded his “Ghanaian Grace” profile the medallion for outstanding sports reporting, and the National Association of Black Journalists honored the piece with a Salute to Excellence Award. His reportage on Monmouth Park was given first-place honors from the New York Press Club and was cited for honorable mention by the National Press Club’s Ann Cottrell Free Animal Reporting Award. In 2022, the Society for Features Journalism recognized Armstrong’s “Nomads of Summer” with first place honors for best sports story, and judges called it "an eloquent argument for long-form sports journalism.” In 2018, he received the National Headliner Award for best sportswriting portfolio. His profiles, projects, breaking news stories, obituaries, event coverage and investigative narratives have been recognized by the Society of Professional Journalists, Education Writers Association, Associated Press Sports Editors, The Best American Sports Writing series and Penn State University’s John Curley Center.
A Hudson River Valley native, Armstrong graduated from Boston College with a bachelor’s degree in history.
