Cleveland, OH. (PFCritics) -- CBS Sports reporter and broadcaster Lesley Visser will be the first woman to receive the Pro Football Hall of Fame's Pete Rozelle Radio-Television Award. The award is meant to recognize people with longtime and meaningful contributions to radio and television in relation to professional football. The award will be presented to her on August 5th, 2006.

Visser will be covering the NFL for her 34th season this fall. She started out as the first female beat writer back in 1976 for the New England Patriots. She later spent seven years with ABC Sports and became the first female reporter to cover the Super Bowl on the sideline.

"Recognition by the Pro Football Hall of Fame is beyond any dream I could have imagined for myself or any other woman when I saw my first game, the AFL Patriots against the Raiders in 1964," Visser said on Thursday. "It is a tremendous honor to be connected with his great legacy and to the list of honorees that have gone before me."

Visser has covered numerous other sports during her career, including the Final Four, NBA Finals, Olympics, U.S. Open, World Figure Skating, Triple Crown, and the World Series. Many popular male broadcasters have won the award in the past, including John Madden, Dick Enberg, Pat Summerall, and Jack Buck.

"Lesley Visser's career has broken many barriers and defined previously unimagined roles for women in professional sports and sports broadcasting," said Sean McManus, president of CBS News and Sports.