Bert Faibish
Ticats.ca
When people consider what goes into building a football team, much of the credit usually goes to the coaches and staff that deal with players on a day-to-day basis. However, behind the scenes, there are men that dedicate much of their summer to the tireless evaluation of thousands of football players that span dozens of NFL training camps.
Scouts give up a considerable amount of time in an effort to identify players that could potentially make their team more successful.
“I basically live like a trucker for three weeks, living off of 7-11 big gulps and flavoured almonds,” said Danny McManus, the Southeast Regional Scout for the Hamilton Tiger-Cats.
This season McManus has already visited the camps of ten NFL teams looking for prospective future Tiger-Cats. On three separate trips, he has driven from Baltimore to Washington to Philadelphia to New York, then from Chicago to Indianapolis to Pittsburgh, then finally from Detroit to Cleveland and back. On the last two trips he has logged over 5,000 kilometres on his visits to those camps alone.
“It’s tough and definitely boring, you end up doing a lot of singing in the car and hopefully you’re lucky enough to get a car with satellite radio,” said McManus. “I know most of the songs on 70’s on 7, some of the 80’s channel and pretty much none of the 90’s” he admitted with a laugh.
When he does get to the camp, it’s a certain type of player he’s on the lookout for.
“We’re looking for guys that may not fit the height and size requirements for the NFL, guys that can catch the ball and run but are maybe 5’8″ or 5’9″ if they’re receivers,” said McManus.
“Maybe defensive linemen that are fast but aren’t heavy enough to play down there,” he continued.
At every stop, Danny only has a limited amount of time to watch practice, evaluate players and send his suggestions back to the boss before its time to keep moving once again.
“I usually watch as many practices as I can over two or three days, then watch some film and talk to the team’s (personnel) guys before I make any recommendations,” he said.
After every practice Danny sends a report to General Manager Bob O’Billovich who makes the final decision about adding players to Hamilton’s negotiation list.
“I’ll send Obie a hot list of who I think might be able to play for us, although sometimes it’s a couple of years before you get a guy up here,” said McManus.
Many of today’s stars are discovered at NFL training camps just like the ones Danny has been visiting this year. Richard Wade, Hamilton’s west coast scout saw former Lion Cameron Wake and current Ticat Marquay McDaniel at NFL camps before they were released.
The discovery of talent works both ways these days, as NFL personnel people routinely scour CFL camps for the next star to come out of the league to the north.
“The guys at camp are always asking me who they should be watching for, who the next big thing is going to be,” said McManus.
“I’m always as helpful as I can be because they are usually very good to me when I’m asking about their guys,” he added.
While fans may not see all the hard work that goes into building a football team it’s the tireless work of guys like Danny Mac who stay in the background but are responsible for discovering many of the stars in this league that we know and love.
