What follows is a snippet from an interview I did a couple years back with a rather prominent NFL front office executive. This guy has been in the league, in various front-office and personnel slots, since the mid-1980s. He knows everybody in the league ... and where all the bodies are buried.
Exec X: And he’s told … and … believe it or not, I’ve never met Bill Parcells, how about that?
Lowly Wordsmith: Really.
Exec X: After all my years in the NFL I’ve never met the man.
Lowly Wordsmith: How can
that be?
Exec X: Talked to him a lot on the phone …
Lowly Wordsmith: Uh huh.
Exec X: But … I’ve never met him.
Lowly Wordsmith: Uh huh.
Exec X: But … I mean he tells all his tree … all this coaching tree …that they’ve got to get the power. I mean, look at Dan Quinn! Dan Quinn goes in … who’s he going to give a first-year head coach control of the 53 and 46 …
Lowly Wordsmith: Oh!
Exec X: That’s ridiculous!
Lowly Wordsmith: You’re right! You’re right!
Exec X: But they did. So … so, yeah … [Thomas] Dimitroff’s the GM … but he’s not really the GM. Because he doesn’t have control of … of the team. I mean, he does, he doesn’t select who’s on the team! He doesn’t select who plays! Um …
Lowly Wordsmith: Well, well … just as, as, as a, as a insight … I, I grew up a Ram fan. And I’ve kind of … yeah, I don’t know about that franchise anymore … but, um … the Fisher Snead thing … uh … who’s making the, who’s making the decisions there? Just off the record?
Exec X: Oh, Fisher!
Lowly Wordsmith: Is he? Okay.
Exec X: Oh, yeah.
Lowly Wordsmith: Personnel? Personnel?
Exec X: Fisher on personnel choices?
Lowly Wordsmith: Yeah.
Exec X: Oh, yeah! Absolutely.
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/03/2017 10:11AM by The_Bad_Guy.
