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There was a 1993 movie, “Six Degrees of Separation.”
It starred Will Smith.
“Six degrees of separation is the theory that anyone on the planet can be connected to any other person on the planet through a chain of acquaintances that has no more than five intermediaries. The theory was first proposed in 1929 by the Hungarian writer Frigyes Karinthy.” – Wikipedia.
Well, in the world of NFL front office and coaching jobs, it’s probably more like two or three degrees of separation.
Today, the Jets hired Jon Carr as their new director of college scouting. He replaces Matt Bazirgan, who left the Jets to become the Houston Texans’ director of player personnel. Prior to becoming Jets GM in 2015, Mike Maccagnan was the director of college scouting for Texans. When he left that job to come to the Jets, Carr replaced him.
Gaine worked with Bazirgan with the Jets in 2004 in the team’s personnel department.
So you see what a close knit community we are talking about.
And you can see why it’s so hard to break into this stuff.
One thing about guys in the world of scouting, they are constantly running into each other on the road while working out players. They all know that their jobs aren’t very stable, and they could get fired at any time. When the GM is fired in a certain city, that means all the scouts are in trouble.
So knowing how unstable their profession is, they are constantly networking at Pro Days, the combine, Linkedin and so forth making sure they have plenty of irons in the fire.
And also, they have talks on the road like, “Hey, If you become a GM, keep me in mind for your staff.”
Aside from working together, Bazirgan and Gaine probably crossed paths on the road myriad times at various and sundry press boxes over the years.
And Carr worked under Maccagnan in Houston, so that was a natural connection.
Here is a little more on Carr – He originally joined the Texans as a college scout in 2007 and was promoted to national scout in 2012. He enjoyed several stints coaching in the collegiate ranks, beginning with five seasons at Tennessee State (1997-01) before moving to Eastern Illinois (2003-04) and Toledo (2005-06). Carr played collegiately at Southeast Missouri State from 1987-89 before transferring to Purdue, where he earned his degree in law and society in 1991.
I’m sure he is fine. The Texans have been a pretty good drafting team over the years.
And he knows Maccagnan’s M.O., he knows what is new boss is looking for, because he was his old boss.
I was wondering why Bazirgan would leave a position with the Jets as college scouting director to become a player personnel director. It doesn’t sound like a big upgrade.
But talking to someone in Houston yesterday, I was told it is considered a promotion, and puts him a little closer to perhaps becoming a GM one day.
An executive with another team told me at the Senior Bowl last year that it’s rare to go from college scouting director to GM. He was actually talking about how what Maccagnan did almost never happens.
May 11, 2018
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