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Today in Patriots History
Ken Herock
Ken Herock
July 16 is another slow day for Patriot birthdays: we have four players that combined to get on the field for just twelve games with the Pats.
Happy 83rd birthday to Ken Herock
Born July 16, 1941 in Munhall, PA
Patriot TE, 1969; uniform #36
Claimed off waivers from Cincinnati on August 14, 1969
Ken Herock played in six games with no stats for the Patriots in his sixth and final year as a pro football player. He became a scout and director of player personnel for the Raiders in 1975 (when Oakland was winning super bowls), and then took the same position with Tampa Bay (somehow miraculously turning the Bucs into a playoff team, despite owner Hugh Culverhouse's infamous frugality).
Herock then moved on to Atlanta, where he drafted both Deion Sanders and Brett Favre, among others; on the other hand he was also the one NFL scout who believed in Tim Tebow. In 2010 Herock caused a bit of an uproar when he was quoted as saying that he didn't feel there are any topics off limits in pre-draft interviews. That comment raised eyebrows since it was made after the backlash when it became public that Miami Dolphins general manager Jeff Ireland had asked Oklahoma State receiver Dez Bryant if his mother was a prostitute during one of those interviews. Herock still operates a company that prepares NFL prospects for that very same interview process.
Ken Herock | Pro Prep
The One NFL Scout Who Believed in Tim Tebow | The Post Game
Ken Herock says no question is off limits during pre-draft interviews
As the Dez Bryant-Jeff Ireland controversy continues to draw conflicting opinions, a former NFL front office employee who now prepares players for pre-draft interviews has provided his two cents, via Tim Graham of ESPN.com.
profootballtalk.nbcsports.com
As the Dez Bryant-Jeff Ireland controversy continues to draw conflicting opinions, a former NFL front office employee who now prepares players for pre-draft interviews has provided his two cents, via Tim Graham of ESPN.com.
“I don’t feel there are any topics off-limits,” Ken Herock told Graham. “If anybody thinks they’re off-limits, put yourself in the eyes of an employer that’s going to hire a 21-year-old and pay him $15 million or $20 million.”
So, basically, Herock thinks teams have the right to ask incoming players whether their mothers are or were prostitutes. “They already know about his family,” Herock said. “They just want to see how he reacts and how he’s going to explain it and how he’s going to handle it. . . . I don’t think that question was out of line.”
Herock’s viewpoint fits with the attitude of most people in the NFL. And that’s likely why the league office has handled the issue gingerly. Punishing the Dolphins or Ireland would ignore the reality that far worse questions have been asked.
The bigger question is whether an industry-wide tolerance of inappropriate questions somehow makes the questions appropriate.
NFL interview coach: No question off-limits
Ken Herock's business is preparing prospects for NFL interviews.He's not interested in 40-yard dash times or bench press repetitions. His mission is training college kids to make an impression when it's time to shake hands with general managers, scouts and head coaches before the draft.
www.espn.com
Side note: while looking up information on Ken Herock I came across two articles, which I found pretty interesting. If you enjoy or are interested in National Football League history then these may be of interest, both of which involved Herock.
The first was an absolute gem, that revolved around the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and the 1982 draft. It has mysteriously disappeared, so following that SI dead link are some other colums tht may fill in the lost gap.
The Most Botched NFL Draft Pick Ever
One ill-fated 1982 phone call jump-started the NFL's longest run of ineptitude. The bizarre and calamitous story of Booker Reese only got worse from there
www.si.com
This Buccaneers draft story must be seen to be believed
With the NFL Draft around the corner, let’s look at a story from the Tampa Bay Buccaneers past that doesn’t seem real. Such was life for the Buccaneers.
thepewterplank.com
Remembering When the Buccaneers Picked the Wrong Player in the 1982 NFL Draft
The Tampa Bay Buccaneers selected the wrong player in the 1982 NFL Draft because of a noise issue, which is wild.
www.12up.com
40 years ago, a draft mishap triggered the worst era of Buccaneers football
The biggest mistake in the history of the NFL draft resulted in the selection of a damn fine professional football player. What made the error so noticeably ruinous is everything that happened afterward.It was 1982. The Tampa Bay Buccaneers were coming off their second division championship in...
www.thescore.com
The second article is a mind-boggling timeline of events and circumstances that led to the Patriots trading away their number one overall pick of the 1991 draft.
No. 1 Pick Headed to Falcons : Ismail: Patriots trade top choice to Cowboys, who are expected to trade it again.
The Atlanta Falcons will get the right to pick Notre Dame star Raghib (Rocket) Ismail before the pro football draft begins Sunday, sources close to two NFL clubs said Friday.
www.latimes.com
The Atlanta Falcons will get the right to pick Notre Dame star Raghib (Rocket) Ismail before the pro football draft begins Sunday, sources close to two NFL clubs said Friday.
The teams are the Dallas Cowboys and New England Patriots, who, earlier Friday, worked the trade that took Ismail out of New England.
Officials with all three clubs were unavailable for comment. But Atlanta and New England have been prevented from dealing directly, the sources said, because of a personality conflict between Falcon Coach Jerry Glanville and Patriot personnel officials.
That set up a rival coach, Jimmy Johnson of Dallas, as the NFL broker for Ismail, the young receiver, runner and kick returner who is widely conceded to be the only potential superstar in the draft.
Friday’s play-by-play:
--With the draft’s No. 1 pick, the financially weak Patriots, unwilling to match the Toronto Argonauts’ two-year, $6-million offer for Ismail, traded the first choice to Dallas for two lower choices, No. 11 in the first round and No. 14 in the second, and other undisclosed considerations.
--The Cowboys, intending to pass the No. 1 along to Atlanta, went into immediate negotiations with Falcon officials and were confident they would come to an understanding that would put Ismail in Georgia and strengthen the Cowboys even more in the draft, in which they already hold three first-round picks.
--The Falcons, with the No. 3 and No. 13 first-round choices, were unwilling to give up No. 3 and, instead, offered the other pick and other considerations to Dallas.
--Glanville was able to pressure Johnson and Dallas owner Jerry Jones to make a deal favorable to Atlanta because Cowboy quarterback Troy Aikman’s contract is standing in the way of a move to Dallas by Ismail. This year, Aikman will make about $1.3 million. The Argonauts have established Ismail’s value at closer to $3 million a year, although the Patriots reportedly offered him only $1.7 million. If Ismail gets $3 million or so from the Cowboys, Aikman will balk.
--The Cowboys, however, were able to pressure Glanville with equal vigor, for it is Glanville who wants Ismail.
--Finally, Argonaut owner Bruce McNall’s $6-million offer is still pressuring both of them, as well as the rest of the NFL. The NFL doesn’t want Ismail in Canada.
. . .
There are three reasons the Falcons have been trying to pry the top pick away from New England:
--They want to pair Ismail with Andre Rison to give Atlanta two spectacular targets for quarterback Chris Miller in Glanville’s wide-open offense.
--In a stadium that seats 59,000, the Falcons have sold fewer than 40,000 season tickets this year. They agree with McNall that Ismail would sell enough additional tickets to pay his salary.
--More important, the Falcons are moving next year into the new, even larger Georgia Dome. And Ismail, they say, will give them an even bigger boost in the new place.
Even so, the Falcons have been unable to deal this spring with the Patriots, whose director of player operations, Joe Mendes, has had long-standing feuds with Glanville and Ken Herock, Atlanta’s vice president of player personnel.
Thus the Cowboys stepped in to do the job for Glanville. And in so doing, the Cowboys apparently bested the Patriots’ new leader, President Sam Jankovich--unless the “other considerations” Jankovich got from Dallas are better than most in the NFL expect.
He didn’t get much with two mid-round selections in the first and second rounds and other undisclosed considerations, but the Patriots later Friday picked up the 17th pick overall from the Houston Oilers for second and fourth-round selections.
The Cowboys now have the Nos. 1, 12 and 14 picks. And by Sunday, they will have either another one from Atlanta, along with the other considerations, or they will have Ismail.
