You may have expected yesterday’s lineup of Super Bowl players to be filled with A-list players but a closer look reveals that many came to the NFL with a less-than-stellar pedigree. Tampa Bay quarterback Tom Brady was not selected until the 6th Round, the 199th choice in the Draft. Kansas City has 22 players on their roster who were drafted in the 3rd Round or later, some not ever being drafted at all. Several of the Chiefs starters joined the team in later rounds.
While many teams create profiles of the athletic abilities sought in their future players, these championship teams sought characteristics beyond running speed or bench-press limits.
“It’s not that we said we wanted to draft a tall, lanky quarterback that ran a 5.3 [time in the] 40 [yard dash]. Those weren’t the traits we were looking for,” then-member of the Patriots personnel staff Jason Licht said at a press conference before the 2014 season. “But we were looking for the mental makeup…”
The Chiefs operated with a similar philosophy. “When they’re looking for guys to add to our roster,” Chiefs offensive line coach Andy Heck said, “they’re looking for guys that love football, love to compete. Self-starters.”*
Take a lesson from this year’s Super Bowl teams and look past the basic stats for your next hire. Having a solid resume is important, but a mindset is what creates a winner.
*Source: Talented, but overlooked by Dave Skretta for the Associated Press, in the Telegraph Herald, February 3, 2021, p. 5B.
