Ozzie Newsome: NFL Draft Genius or Intern Slum Lord?

From the New York Times by way of the City That Reeds, it’s a story of Baltimore Ravens General Manager and NFL Draft guru Ozzie Newsome on how to construct the perfect talent evaluation machine with young scouting talent, and a salary scale that gracefully tiptoes the poverty line:

One reason Newsome has such faith in his system is because he has trained almost everybody who works in it.

In a program Newsome borrowed from Belichick, the Ravens rarely hire a scout from outside the organization. Rather, Newsome has his 20-20 club.

He pays 20-somethings who hope to rise through the personnel department $20,000 a year. They work 20 hours a day filing tapes, picking up free agents at the airport and cleaning out the refrigerators of released players who have abandoned their apartments.

So there you have it, the core of Ozzie Newsome’s draft enterprise is based on starving the scouts into expert ability assessment. And that may not be such a bad thing.

Forego a few burger sliders and trips to Howl at the Moon on the weekends, and you too can be an NFL GM in just a few years.

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