Thursday, 21 November 2024

Gil Brandt

Contest: The US Athletic Hall of Fame - Contributors 2024
Embed from Getty Images
Sport(s): Football
Statistics: 2 Super Bowls (Vi & XII)
Member of the Pro Football Hall of Fame
Member of the Dallas Cowboys Ring of Honor
A scout for the Los Angeles Rams and then the San Francisco 49ers in the 1950s, Gil Brandt, was hired as the head scout for the Dallas Cowboys before they first took the field in 1960. Brandt was good at it that he orchestrated the selection of nine players who would enter the Pro Football Hall of Fame.

Brandt’s success had nothing to do with luck, and it was far more than preparation; it was about innovation. Brandt was the first to use computers, and he used it to help with his new scouting and evaluating system. Brandt was such an outside of the box thinker that he scouted athletes from other sports that he thought had the makeup to be a professional football player. He adopted psychology tests to identify mental and personality fits for the Cowboys, and he aggressively looked at undrafted players and small colleges. Brandt was also integral in the creation of the NFL scouting combine.

What Brandt developed became the blueprint by which all NFL teams all use. It can be argued that there is not a more innovative talent evaluator in any sport than Brandt.

We are proud to nominate Gil Brandt for the United States Athletic Hall of Fame.