Inside the War Room At team headquarters across the NFL, the draft means waiting, working through th

[BrAinPaiNt]

Inside the War Room
At team headquarters across the NFL, the draft means waiting, working through the chaos, waiting some more and trusting The Board

Andrew Brandt

With the draft fast approaching, I want to take readers inside a team’s command center: the war room. We were told to cease using that moniker in the months after 9/11 as it felt inappropriate, but as with all things that emotion faded and eventually the phrase again became common NFL parlance. Here are some insights and experiences from my time in the war room, an exercise of sustained concentration and focus.

The Setup

During my time with the Packers there were actually two war rooms. First, there was a traditional personnel-based room featuring sorted player cards with scouting measurables: height, weight, speed, vertical, hand size, Wonderlic, and so on. Then there was a financial-based room I designed, featuring sorted players cards with business measurables: salary, prorated bonus, cap number, dead money acceleration, expiring contract year, age, agent, etc. Our cap room (the physical room, not the monetary gap) drew particular interest from then-NFLPA chief Gene Upshaw, who requested his staff visit in order to model a similar room at union headquarters. (The NFL, in the middle of CBA negotiations, advised us to refuse the request.)

Read the rest... http://mmqb.si.com/2014/05/07/nfl-draft-war-rooms/

 

[JD_KaPow]

The best part of the article is the end:

• In the 2003 post-draft chaos, one of our scouts yelled out, “Anyone want to sign this quarterback Romo? He’s from Wisconsin.” Crickets.

• And my favorite story: I once told a player we would sign him for a $500 bonus. His answer was, and I quote: “Well, I only have about $100 now, but I can get you the rest in about a week.” “No,” I answered, “We pay you.”

 

[MonsterD]

• Once I talked directly to a player—he did not have an agent—and agreed to terms. Later I noticed his name on the list of signed players for two other teams, as well as ours. I called the player, who politely said, “Oh, I thought I could sign with all of you and then pick one.” I told him he had to pick a team. (He went to the Cardinals and lasted a week.)

Wow he could have googled contracts or signing in NFL.