The gathering at the NFL’s Scouting Combine this week in Indianapolis will include a reunion of sorts, as it always does.
Scouts and player personnel men from Western Pennsylvania have a special bond and there are quite a few of them. You’ve heard of coaching trees? Bill Walsh had one, Chuck Noll had one, Don Shula had one — head coaches who spawned other head coaches.
This then would be a scouting tree, with Art Rooney Jr., Dan Rooney’s brother, the head of it. He was the Steelers’ player personnel chief in the 1960s through the first half of the 1980s, famously helping to build their dynasty of the ‘70s through the draft.