Category Archives: Scouts

WST: “Scouts Tell Me”

16 Thursday Apr 2015

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For War Story Thursday (since we missed Wednesday), a brief story about draft info and where it comes from (and why).

In the days before Inside the League in the early ’00s, I was able to befriend an NFL GM, and we spoke occasionally. He was amazingly forthright and always spoke openly, which I appreciated. At the time (as now), I was thoroughly interested in how information flowed through the league. Why would an NFL scout risk his highly coveted, hard-to-replace job to tell a beat writer who the team liked in the middle rounds, or even in the early rounds? The GM was succinct.

“I spent some time in the media doing broadcast work between jobs, and I saw that media-friendly GMs and scouting directors always got friendly treatment in return,” he said, as I recall. “It’s a quid pro quo relationship. If you give a reporter good inside scoop, he’ll take care of you when times are tough.”

He added that, most of the time, information that’s coming from the bigger media personalities and better-known ‘draft gurus’ was coming from director types, not road scouts. Directors were the ones that benefited from media exposure and the ones who regularly dealt with beat writers.

In succeeding years, it was fascinating to watch him live this out. This GM became one of the most media-friendly, if not the most media-friendly, NFL officials in the game. I knew a writer who tells a story about being on the golf course when the GM’s team signed its first-rounder, and he got a ring on his cell phone. It was the GM, and while the writer stood on the 15th hole, the GM spelled out in detail the terms of the contract while my friend scribbled madly on his score card. This was an unsolicited call, mind you. That’s a GM who’s eager to stay on writers’ good sides.

I got another dose of reality today when I was chatting with a longtime member of the scouting community who’s now between jobs. During our conversation, he mentioned a current NFL head coach and how much he respected his work ethic and smarts before his voice trailed off. I could tell there were things he’d left unsaid, so I asked him what he didn’t like about the coach.

“He thinks about his career first,” he said. “He’s always talking to the media. That’s why he has his job now, why he got a head coaching position. He’d been feeding the media for years and it paid off.”

I could tell you dozens more stories in this vein, from how agents control information release to how NFL officials have benefited from cozy relationships with people on the representation or media side.

The media can be a fickle beast. Writers will turn on you in an instant if the wind changes direction. Still, if you apply your instincts to the information you read and track it back to who benefits from its release, you can usually figure out where it came from. That’s one of the most important traits you can have as a member of the business. If you don’t already think about where draft info comes from when you read it, change how you read. It will serve you well in your career.

Your Life’s Work

31 Tuesday Mar 2015

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Yesterday I was meeting with a gentleman in the financial industry. He’s super-wealthy and has been able to accomplish more than probably anyone I know when it comes to creating financial resources. I think that’s great and I have tremendous respect for that.

Given the choice, who wouldn’t want to be wealthy? And who knows? Maybe I’ll be wealthy one day, too. It would be a wonderful way to make a positive impact on the people I love and a whole lot more people, too.

On the other hand, great wealth is not a priority for me. Maybe it’s because of my middle-class upbringing. Maybe it’s because I care far more about changing people’s lifestyles and attitudes. I guess I’ve always felt that money would take care of itself if I succeeded.

I don’t travel in the corridors of power that lead to true wealth. To do that, I would have had to map a very different path for my life. Maybe you did that at a young age, but my guess is that if you are reading this blog, simply making big money as quickly as possible is not your primary goal. Anyway, I hope that’s the case.

Here’s the thing. If you get into this business, whether on the scouting side or the agent side (the two paths I write most about), you’re going to have to be satisfied with the things I really value, the things that attracted me to the business. No. 1, it’s the game. Football is special to me. It offers the violence, aggression, passion, athleticism and other qualities that I want in my life. No. 2, and it’s a pretty close second, is camaraderie. The shared sacrifice, the blood and sweat of the game, is just something people in the business understand. There’s a shared respect.

What’s more, I’ve never seen the gaps in racial harmony in sports that I’ve seen in the rest of my life. If I roll through the names in my phone, it’s probably close to 50-50 black to white. I can’t speak for others, obviously, but I can’t think of one time my black friends (agents, coaches, scouts, players) treated me differently, talked to me differently, or otherwise treated me with kid gloves because we were different races. Can you find that in other businesses? Maybe, but I think sports comes as close to crossing that chasm as any other business does. It’s just a brotherhood.

No. 3 would have to be the direct impact you can have on lives. So many young men and their families have expressed deep appreciation for what I would consider little things I’ve provided — tips, advice, counsel, introductions, whatever. I’m fortunate enough to be able to make a living doing this, but it’s awfully rewarding to be able to help others in a substantial way.

So this is my point: if you’re going to go the distance in this business, great wealth may not come your way. Getting rich quick doesn’t usually happen in this business. Be ready to accept this, and value the good things that do come with it. At the same time, don’t apologize if you don’t value what the world may greatly value.

Pro Day Thoughts

24 Tuesday Mar 2015

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Two or three times every March, I try to get out and hit pro days that are not too far from me in South Houston. Monday was one of those days; I attended the workout held by Packers scout Alonzo Highsmith at Lamar University in Beaumont, about two-and-a-half hours from me.

Here are a few things I found interesting.

  • Highsmith came to Beaumont to work out a handful of players, probably 10-12, who are far from blue-chip prospects. At best, two of them will be in camps, and it would be a real long shot if either get drafted. Still, Highsmith was there, doing his due diligence. That’s a real credit to him. He’s a true old-school scout who does his job the old-fashioned way, watching film and relying on his network to find undiscovered gems. He’s pretty much the antithesis of the modern view of scouting, which is moving way more to ‘analytics’ and a view of evaluation that is more related to measurables and less to what happens during a game.
  • This catch has made an indelible mark on players across the country, and maybe not in a good way. It’s become so bad that I saw multiple receivers yesterday catching the ball one-handed in warmups, as if this is supposed to impress Highsmith. One kid, a transfer from a bigger school who has had multiple off-field issues and didn’t even finish the season with Lamar, caught every pass thrown his way (warmup throws, drills, tosses from the ball-boy) one-handed, as if he thinks this will translate to the NFL. Want to impress a scout? Run good routes, put up good numbers, listen to your coaches, make plays, train hard and catch everything thrown your way with two hands.
  • Even though Lamar is a smallish school without a whole lot of tradition, yesterday was the school’s second of three pro days. The first was on March 10, which was run by scouts from the Texans and Chiefs. On Saturday, a Rams scout will have a workout for a handful of invited Cardinals. This is why, when it comes to college football and pursuing a chance in the NFL, geography counts. An FCS school that’s only been playing football for five years may not even have a pro day if it’s located in the Pacific Northwest, the Southwest or even parts of the Northeast, but the Cardinals seniors almost have to prove they can’t play after getting three separate audiences with NFL scouts. Texas and the Southeast are different, special, when it comes to football.
  • There are some parents that overdo it a little. I know they are well-intentioned, but that doesn’t help a young man’s prospects. I’ll leave it at that.
  • On the way back, I stopped at a restaurant. I was wearing my ITL gear and a waiter (probably about 5-8 and wiry, around 150 pounds) noticed the logo. We had this conversation:

Waiter: “What’s that (gesturing at my shirt)? What do you do?”

Me: “I have a football consulting service. I work with agents, financial planners, combine trainers, some scouts, some coaches, some parents, lots of people who are in college and pro football.”

Waiter (eyes lighting up): “Oh really? I need to get an agent. I was supposed to play in college but I had an incident in high school.”

Me: “Where did you wind up playing in college?”

Waiter: “I didn’t. I was supposed to but I didn’t.”

Me: “Have you played since then?”

Waiter: “No.”

I recommended he attend an open tryout for a CFL or Arena League team. Which is to say, I probably didn’t practice what I preach, which is to tell young men like that to move on with life. I guess my strategy was for him to attend a workout, find out how long his odds are, and hope that he comes to his own realization.

Commodities

19 Thursday Mar 2015

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You may be reading this from a tablet, laptop or phone while sitting in a sports management class. You might even be a sports management major. Ever wonder what kind of company you’re in?

Based on this link, there are 471 schools in America that offer either an undergrad or masters program in sports management. Let’s say that, conservatively, each program dumps 20 graduates with either a four-year degree or master’s degree in this discipline every year. That’s just under 10,000 men and women vying for a place in the world of sports business.

Now, if you’re trying to get a degree in sports management, I applaud you. Based on my research, more and more young NFL scouts have just such a degree (some a master’s, even). It’s not as common a degree for young agents, most of whom were pre-law in college, but I’m sure the number is growing. What’s more, I’m fully aware that not all young folks in these programs have the passion for football that I — and maybe you — have.

Still, I think it’s fair to presume that many, maybe most, are at least open to a career in football. Let’s say half. That means whatever year you graduate, you have to be better than about 5,000 people every year just to get an internship or entry-level job with an NFL team.

That means, in the business world, you’re a commodity. Generally speaking, unless your last name is Rooney or Kraft or you’re Jerry Jones’ nephew, you’re not a Ferrari but more of a Ford Taurus. Your job is to make yourself unique.

Hey, that’s not impossible. This blog is about going for it and trying to beat the odds, and I’m hopeful that our daily read gives you an edge in that endeavor. But you’re gonna need to help yourself along by volunteering with a team, networking until you find that key mentor, or doing something that separates you from the pack. Here’s an interesting thought.

As I think I’ve mentioned in this space, I attended a conference on ‘EntreLeadership’ hosted by Dave Ramsey earlier this month. He said you don’t have to ‘kill’ the competition, or ridicule them, or even hate them to beat them. I’m paraphrasing, but he said you’re going to be smarter than about a third of your competitors, and you’re going to be able to outwork another 50 percent of them, so that leaves only about 20 percent of the competition that you really have to worry about. That really reduces the numbers. It doesn’t guarantee you anything, but your odds just got a lot better if you make that realization.

If you’re getting a sports management degree, good for you. I wish I’d had that chance when I was in college. But realize that attending the right classes and hearing the right lectures is a long way from guaranteeing you’re going to get where you want to go.

WSW: What Would You Pay?

18 Wednesday Mar 2015

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I think I’ve referenced today’s story before, but I thought I’d tell it in full in the words of my friend Miller McCalmon, a former scout with Washington, Houston and Detroit who also coached at several NFL stops. It goes well with our theme this week of pursuing jobs in March.

It details the lengths he had to go to in order to work for free as an NFL scout. Incidentally, if you’d rather watch him tell this story rather than reading it, click here.

“They didn’t know what to do with interns. It’s kind of interesting. Does anyone know who John Ralston (was)? He was head coach at Stanford University in the 70s, then he was the head football coach of the Denver Broncos (from 1972-76). Well, I was in high school coaching and I wrote him a letter . . . because I wanted to get into something besides high school coaching.

“I wrote him a letter and he visited with me, and I went down to his office, and we talked about it, and he was a great guy, great motivating coach and all that stuff, but he said, ‘well, we don’t have interns and graduate assistants like you have on the college level,’ so he kind of pooh-poohed it. But I still wrote (a letter to the Washington Redskins), because I remember in the Sports Illustrated article, (‘70s Redskins head coach) George (Allen) talking about (having an interest in hiring high school coaches as scouts).

“So I wrote the letter, and one of the stipulations of becoming an intern was my dad had to co-sign a letter of credit for me, because (Allen) didn’t want us to go there without any financial backing. . . What’s really interesting about the whole thing is that this was 1976, and I was the head football coach (at a Colorado high school), assistant basketball coach, and I taught history and earth science, and I was making $15,000 a year doing all those things. I went to the NFL for nothing, with a $10,000 line of credit, but they would give me $600 to go out on the road, so I actually ended up making more money working for nothing than I did as a high school coach, which tells you something about high school and public education and that sort of thing. Which is kind of sad, but it is kind of a commentary about it.”

You may want to be an NFL scout with all your heart. But would you be willing to ask your parents to go $10,000 into debt to make your dreams come true? And to work for free while they were taking on that debt?

It’s something to think about. There’s always a price to pay, and a risk to take. But if you succeed, as Miller did, it’s well worth it.

Know Your Audience

16 Monday Mar 2015

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As this is ‘application season’ if you’re seeking a position with an NFL team or a football agency, I thought I’d give a couple more thoughts on how to best position yourself for the internship of a lifetime.

This weekend I was speaking to an NFL scout who’s been a longtime friend. I had asked him to speak to a young man I know who’s seeking to work as a scouting assistant this summer or next fall (I work with several young people of this status), and in the course of our conversation, this young man’s name came up.

Unsolicited, my friend told me the young man would probably not fit in with his organization. The student’s mistake had been that, in his zeal to sound intelligent and organized, he had come across as too refined and ‘executive-level’ for the tastes of my friend. Maybe because of the way he had spoken, the scout saw him as a person who would not be as willing to do the ‘dirty work’ of scouts, such as entering phone numbers into a database, calling agents to get contact information, picking up interviewees from the airport as well as returning them to the airport, and all the kinds of player engagement duties and basic information-gathering that are less than glamorous.

This is unfortunate, because I know he read the young man wrong. He may be refined, but he’s in no way too good for such duties. In fact, I think he’d relish them, but it doesn’t matter now. He hadn’t come across as enough of a ‘regular guy’ for my scouting friend. And because of that, he’d sealed his fate.

On the other hand, his style of communication would work perfectly for an agency. There, the people interviewing him might have a legal background or at least the kind of high-level professional manner that would expect a certain polish. And as it turns out, this young man did, in fact, land a place with a high-level firm that handles top athletes across several sports. He’ll be with them this summer.

I guess the moral of the story is to know your audience. By a wide margin, scouting assistants and interns are hired by scouts themselves who are a bit more down-to-earth. They are used to hanging around the locker room, talking to ‘little people,’ and maybe even have coaching backgrounds. They’re used to getting sweaty and dirty and they talk like it. On the other hand, appealing to an agency might take a smoother approach. They’ll want to see that you can handle life around a boardroom, a courtroom, or the like.

This is just something to keep in mind as you position yourself for career enhancement this summer. Best of luck in your search.

It’s Time

13 Friday Mar 2015

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Ever thought about being an NFL scout? Ever wanted to intern for a major football agency? If the answer to either question is ‘yes,’ consider brushing up your resume. Fast.

There’s a lot going on in the football world these days between free agency, pro days and the various combines the NFL will be holding in the next two weeks. However, behind the scenes, where we ‘live,’ there’s plenty of maneuvering for what happens after the draft, namely, making a few hires.

I’ve been working with a couple college students on their applications with NFL teams over the past month, trying to find a good fit for a scouting internship. Now is the time to really start bearing down on this process. NFL teams gather resumes in March, start sifting through them and cutting to a few finalists in April, then choose a few lucky winners in May, when the draft is over and things slow down. The application process is tricky, of course, but you don’t want to wait if that’s something you’re entertaining. And of course, it doesn’t hurt if you know someone in the game.

The same is true of agencies or sports marketing firms. If you’re looking to help out at a big firm this summer, now is the time to start looking for options. Look locally first, but if you don’t find many agencies, you may have to throw out caution and just go for it, applying with whoever will take you. The bigger the firm, the less your responsibilities, usually, but the better your chances of early success in the business if you decide to pursue it.

Today, I learned that one of my top interns landed a summer internship with a firm that could be representing the top pick in the draft next month. I couldn’t be happier for him or more excited that he’s getting this opportunity, but it wouldn’t have happened if he hadn’t started the process very early, applying this winter and interviewing over spring break.

It’s always tempting to put things off, but don’t make that mistake. Get rolling on making your dreams come true so that someone else who acted sooner doesn’t make them come true for them. And if you need help or have questions, and you’re serious about the business, let me know at nstratton@insidetheleague.com.

Don’t do this

09 Monday Mar 2015

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I want to start this post out by saying that we probably have more information on draft prospects, and the draft process, than we’ve ever had. Most of it is based on good analysis. The has played a big role in this. Everyone with a Twitter account or a WordPress page can critique draft prospects, and with practice, can get pretty good at it.

I guess, at this point, I should tell you I strongly recommend you don’t pursue this avenue if you’re thinking of a career in football.

Evaluating talent is a lot of fun, and with a little studying of the process, you can learn all the buzzwords and figure out the things that make a player attractive to NFL teams. In fact, you can quickly do this well enough to impress your friends and maybe even sound like Todd McShay or Mike Mayock in no time. However, at the end of the day, this is (IMO) the wrong way to go, simply because the market is flooded with such people. It’s just far too difficult to distinguish yourself and gain real recognition for your efforts. Why?

Well, one reason is that simply making observations about players and ranking them is not that hard to do. After all, very rarely do we see analysis of a draft guru’s work 3-5 years later, when we can fairly analyze it. There’s so much info on the Web that you don’t really have to have original thoughts about things. You can gather up enough data to craft it in virtually any way you want. And after all, there’s really not a lot of variation among draft evaluators out there.

I’m not going to hold my breath waiting for someone to rank Marcus Mariota, Jameis Winston or Leonard Williams as a fourth- or fifth-rounder, even among those who have legitimate doubts about such players. Even scouts have difficulty expressing such reservations in the war room. There’s tremendous pressure to ‘go along;’ that’s one thing I’ve learned over years of talking to scouts about the process.

Of course, none of what I say precludes you from having opinions, conducting evaluations, and weighing your rankings against the experts. About two months ago, I posted info on a player who at the time was seeking representation, and soon after I got an unsolicited text from an agent who’s a former subscriber. “Although I am no longer a paying client I still read your tweeter fees,” the text began, then launched into a lengthy, blow-by-blow critique of the player, generously sprinkled with buzzwords and comparing him to previous draft prospects. My only reaction was to offer him thanks for his text, though I’m still not sure of his point in giving me a lengthy breakdown of his draft prospects. I guess there’s a little bit of Mel Kiper Jr. in all of us.

The Downside

05 Thursday Mar 2015

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In this space, I spend a lot of time encouraging you to ‘go for it’ in the football world, to roll the dice and pursue your passions. I haven’t retreated from that position one iota, but I wanted to give you a couple downsides to such a path.

This post is maybe only half-serious, but I guess the idea is that life changes as you make football not just your passion, but your profession.

You’ll never watch SportsCenter again: In the 90s, there’s nothing I wanted to be more than Craig Kilborn or Chris Berman. Today, I can’t remember the last time I watched more than 10 minutes of SportsCenter when I wasn’t on a hotel treadmill. There are a couple reasons for this. No. 1, in the rare instances I actually watch the show, they’re trying to sell me something or be too cutesy. No. 2, in the age of the Internet, I already have all the information I need. No. 3, shows like SportsCenter have little to no application to the football business. They’re more fan-driven. I understand this, obviously, but your tastes change once you’re in the business.

You can’t talk football with anyone: I live in Greater Houston, so once someone finds out I’m in the business, the first thing they ask me is something about the Texans. Hey, they’re just trying to be friendly and congenial, and once again, I get that. The thing is, my tiny corner of the business is so all-consuming that I don’t get to really be a fan as much anymore. I can’t remember the last time I watched all four quarters of a college game, and the only NFL games I watch are Saints games (I’m not a Texans fan, which is another problem). Even when I go places like the combine or all-star games or whatever, it’s rare when I meet a client and we talk about on-field, traditional football stuff. We wind up talking about our families, our common non-football interests, or about real ‘inside football’ stuff. Again, your tastes change.

You’ll never enjoy football movies again: About this time last year, the movie ‘Draft Day’ came out. My wife, who knows I hate sports movies, nonetheless declared that we were going to go see it. Well, I humored her and agreed to go, but for one reason or another we never made it while it was in theaters. I breathed a sigh of relief, and so far, I’ve ducked renting the DVD, as well. Most people don’t believe me when I tell them I haven’t seen ‘Jerry Maguire,’ either. They think it should be the one movie that I’ve seen, if any. Once you’ve seen the inside of this business, it ruins sports movies for you because they have to make so many concessions to drama, entertainment, selling tickets, whatever.

I know these issues seem pretty small in the greater scheme of things, and heck, maybe they apply only to me. Still, you should probably get used to thinking in different terms as you move into this world in a more official capacity.

WSW: A Foot in the Door

04 Wednesday Mar 2015

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Today, I came across this story from about a month ago. It deals with Nolan Teasley, a young pro scout for the Seahawks, and his climb to an internship, then to employment, with the NFC champions.

I don’t know Teasley, but the story is pretty illustrative of what it took for him to make it, and I thought it might be instructional for people reading this who are considering a career in scouting. There are a few themes here that are pretty consistent among people who are able to make it into the biz.

Think regionally: I think that living in an NFL city increases your chances of success by at least half. I remember when I got my one shot at an NFL internship in the mid-90s, I was not living in the city of the team where I had applied (New Orleans). Though I got an interview, I think it hurt me that I wasn’t seen as a guy that was nearby, which would give team officials plenty of chances to get to know me and perhaps put me to work. If you’re already in an NFL city, you have a huge advantage because it makes it so much easier to be persistent about applying, trying to meet people, make contacts, etc.

Common roots: This is related to the above point, but this story says that Teasley flooded all NFL teams with letters before finally getting traction with a scout who shared his alma mater (we have a list of scouts and alma maters here). The NFL is a relationship business, and nothing underscores the point more than the that. Just this week, I had a similar experience. I’m trying to get one of my interns a job with an NFL team, and one of my contacts mentioned that the person handling applications went to the same college as my guy. I think that gives him a big advantage. We’ll see.

Don’t wait: If you really want to go for this career, get started early. I’d say you have five years from the time you graduate college to get an NFL opportunity, or at the very least start looking for one. That’s just a guess, but I bet it’s pretty accurate. You want to be young enough to be seen as malleable by team officials. You also need to be seen as cheap to employ, because entry-level scouts don’t make much money.

A supportive wife or fiance: In 1999, I had recently met my future spouse, and simultaneously had started the service that would one day lead to ITL. I’ll never forget driving to work one day, wondering if my passion for my business could coexist with my passion for my (future) wife. If I had decided to end my engagement based on my expected profession, it would have been the biggest mistake I ever made. However, if I had not introduced that business passion to Polly, that probably would have been my second-biggest mistake ever. I know countless people who made progress toward success in football, but had to turn back due to family considerations.