Interview

For my interview of a sports professional, I choose to interview aindividual that works within the front office of a NFL franchise.I chose to interview the Director of Pro Personnel for the San Francisco 49ers, Ran Carthon.He started out his career being a Pro Scout for the Atlanta Falcons for fours year, then move on to be the Director of Pro Personnel for then the St Louis Rams for five years, and now is in fourth year of being the Director of Pro Personnel for the San Francisco 49er’s. The reason why I chose Mr. Carthon was because like myself he played big time college football andlater went on to play in the NFL. After his playing days were done in the NFL, Mr. Carthon made a seamless transition into front officepersonnelaNFL franchise the Atlanta Falcons.He has been working in the NFL personnel department for fourteen years and has been on both sides of the table, first as the player and now as the evaluator the person who is either making decisions or helps make the decisions. Like Mr. CarthonI hope to one day be at the level he’s on, so interviewing him and hearing his experiences while he worked his way up the personnel ladder was very beneficial.

Ran Carthon playedcollege football for the University of Floridafor four yearswhere he played at the running back position, he later played in the NFL for the Indianapolis Colts for three years. Ran quickly realized that he wasn’t going to have a 12 year career, so while still playing he started working on his next career which was personnel in the NFL. During the offseason while in the NFL, Mr. Carthon would volunteer in the Colts scouting department so he could learn the inner working of an NFL team. After getting released by the Indianapolis Colts Mr. Carthonwould go on to have workouts with other teams, after workouts Mr. Carthon would asked for the workout footage and evaluate the workouts with him and the other players working out. Mr. Carthon would also speak with the general manager while on his visit and tell the GM of his future goal of getting in personnel, he also mention that he would schedule workouts just toget in the door to speak to general managers and tell them of his future plans. After going back to school to finish his degree Mr. Carthon reached out to his agent to notify hisfriends and connection in the NFL of his plans to get into NFL personnel. All the networking he did while playing and working out paid off, an executive from the Atlanta Falcon brought him in justfor ainterview because of what Mr. Carthon told him when he had worked out for the Atlanta Falcons. A few months later he was hired to be one of the Atlanta Falcons Pro Scouts.

Mr. Carthon has his Bachelors degree in Sociology but mentions that there is no one specific degree requirementexcept having abachelors degree, a good football acumen, has to be willing to work,and like every otherprofessional industry having a master degree in networking helps too.His job duties consist managing the pro department for the 49er’s where he has to write reports on all the up coming free agents in the NFL and whoever has been released on the daily transaction wire, preparing the department for upcoming free agency every year, and making sure the advance scouting reports each week for the coaches. Even though he has people working under him Mr. Carthon will get his hands dirty and do the less desired job of advance scouting reports just to show his employees that he is willing to work. The one thing that is unique with Mr. Carthonand his position is ability to be bi-lingual. Meaning he can go in the locker room with the players and communicate with them because he can relate with them and in the very next moment he can be in command of a personnel meeting talking aboutwhat  playersto acquire or be on business call speaking to a agent or another representative for a player.

He bases his management style on the way he wanted to be manage while working his way up the ladder, he doesn’t micro manage and he is strictly hands off, but if he sees an issue or problem he will address it.He is a fox hole guy that will go to bat for his employees. Mr. Carthon makes it a point to get to know his employees and learn what they are good at and what they are not good at, so that he can give them a job towards something that they are familiar with and good doing. Whatever his employees hastrouble doing Mr. Carthon and his staff will work with each individual to improve the things that they have trouble doing. He developed a thing called the Breakfast Club, it is when he has the younger scouts meet him early in the morning at the office before everyone else gets in to watch tape together.They talk over the what they see, what words to use when describing players, and have them stand up and say what they see so they can get use to speaking in front of people in personnel room. To him a good employee is someone that a hard worker, has a good work ethic, takes on everything with passion, and can communicate properly. Like every employer or mangers he doesn’t likesurprises. He believesthat if you want your department to be successful you must have a good work place environment and good camaraderiein your department.

He mentions the potential growth in the position he started in as Pro Scout is a little better than starting out as college road scout. He explains the reason is the Pro Scout is in the building everyday and they get to experience and seethe inner working of the personnel department every day compared to college road scout who is always on the road out the office.

The thing that is the most rewarding to him is seeing a young player that he stood up for develop and turn into everything that he thought they would. The worst part about his job is seeing a young player with a lot of talent that going thru things and he can’t get through to him and can’t see their talent develop. Throughout his career Mr. Carthon has learned a lot through his experiences and said he wouldn’t change a thing because without his experiences he wouldn’t have learn what to do and what not to do. The one thing that he did wish he had done was to start his career a little earlier.

Inconclusion the conversation I had with Mr.Carthon was very valuable. He stated the necessary requirements for the industry and highlighted that networking is aimportant requirement, something that I need to work and to be better at.Mr. Carthonstated that being a former player not just gives him a great football acumen for the professional game of football but it also makes him unique because he has the ability to relate and communicate to the players in locker room and in the very next moment hold dialog in the front office. He has been at the table on both sides, first as the player, and now as the decision maker, working his way up the personnel ladder starting as a Pro Scout, now in the position of Director of Pro Personnel, and hopefully one day being a General Manager. His path and the decisions he’s made has shown former players like myself that you too can make the transition to front office personnel through networking and hard work. Youalso will have the opportunity to work on things that you are not good at to make yourself a well rounded personnel evaluator so you can work your way up the personnel ladder.