Dolphins' executive Gaine climbs up from the bottom

[DR RAM]

Nice article on the first GM prospect reported to already interview with the Rams for the GM position.

http://www.lohud.com/article/201105...olphins-executive-Gaine-climbs-up-from-bottom

Dolphins' executive Gaine climbs up from the bottom

When Brian Gaine was a fifth-grader and playing for the Orangetown Patriots, he rode the bench for most of his very first season in organized football. It could have been the end for him. He was scrawny, couldn't find his way onto the field and very nearly saw his career derailed before it ever got going.

He didn't quit, though. Stayed with it. And in his second year, as a sixth-grader, he went from bench-warmer to a starting spot. "My football career took off from there," he says now, laughing.

Truth is, it has. And all along the way, whether it was in Pearl River or at Don Bosco High School or the University of Maine and on into the NFL and its team front offices, Gaine has followed the same script: Start at the absolute lowest point, grind and grind and grind some more before somehow, some way, finding a path to the top.

"Every step I've taken in football, I've started at the bottom and worked my way up," he says. "I've never known any other way."

Gaine is talking from his offices in South Florida. He has worked for the Miami Dolphins for four years, following one of his mentors, Bill Parcells, there when Parcells left the Cowboys for the Dolphins.

Recently, Gaine was promoted to director of player personnel, which means he oversees all potential player acquisitions, whether through the draft, free agency or anything else. Essentially, Gaine is constantly evaluating players, forever trying to decide whether a player is capable of helping the Dolphins win.

"If any player is honest with their skill set and their ability, you immediately see what is good and what is not and what is right down the middle," Gaine says. "From being a former player to now, once you come into the business and see how players are evaluated, it can be an eye-opener. It's comprehensive and expansive."

Fortunately for Gaine, he always reveled in the "cerebral" side of the game, he says. While some of his teammates at Maine might grumble about more video work or pregame scouting of the opponent, Gaine loved it.
He grew up physically at Don Bosco, going from a 6-foot, 150-pounder as a freshman to a 6-4, 220-pound tight end by graduation, but his mental development peaked at Maine. Playing under Kirk Ferentz (now at Iowa), Gaine devoured game plans and schemes and formations, soaking up as much knowledge as he could about how players and teams were judged.

After graduation, he ended up on the Jets' practice squad in 1996 and the Giants' practice squad in 1997. Though he never played in a game in the NFL, he did have the opportunity to work out with former Giants tight end Mark Bavaro — a hero of Gaine's growing up — when Bavaro was a guest coach for the Giants.

"Just to be around him was amazing," Gaine says. "I was like a sponge just trying to soak it all up."

As it turned out, that might have been the high point of his playing career. Gaine tried again in '98, but was waived by the Chiefs before training camp and turned his attention to the next stage of his life. Even if he couldn't play, he had decided, he wanted to work in football anyway.

"I knew it would hard," he says. "But I also knew everything that I'd done before it had been hard."

It was always the same story. From string bean to standout at Bosco. At Maine, he'd been an afterthought as an underclassmen; by senior year, he was a captain. Now he was just going to do it again. He started with the Jets in the college scouting department in 1999, working his way up to pro scout and then assistant director of pro scouting by 2004.

"I still remember what (Parcells) told me when I became a pro scout," he says. "He said, 'The opportunity is all up to you now.' And it was. I had to make something of it."

He followed Parcells to Dallas in 2005, then stayed a year after Parcells left before heading to Florida. When he arrived, he was the assistant director of player personnel, and his only purview was pro scouting; with this promotion, he is the "umbrella," he says, over all the available prospects for the Dolphins.

It has been an amazing ride, one that started 14 years ago when Gaine's playing career ended. He was at the bottom then, just like he'd been so many other times before. Now he is near the top. Again. All that is left, really, is being a general manager, and Gaine hesitates when he's asked about it. Right now, he says, he just wants to be the best director of player personnel he can be. The future will take care of itself.

Finally he admits it would interest him, would be something he'd like to try someday. "But I wouldn't just want to be a general manger," he says. "I'd want to be the general manager of a champion."

He quotes Parcells again. "There's either winning or misery," he says. "That's the way this business is. And if you want to win, the only way to do it is to work hard."

Gaine knows that better than anyone. Just look at his history. He's been doing it his entire life.

 

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I'd be interested in knowing who he scouted that ended up on a pro team. It's admirable that he's made his way up through the ranks and all, but I'd like to see something tangible from his efforts.

 

[DR RAM]

The Miami Dolphins today announced that Brian Gaine has been promoted to Director of Player Personnel. Gaine’s expanded duties include working closely with General Manager Jeff Ireland, Head Coach Tony Sparano and the rest of the football department on the evaluation of players at the professional and collegiate levels. He will also be responsible for administrative and scouting responsibilities in both of those areas.

“We are very pleased to promote Brian to this position,” Ireland said. “I have worked with Brian in both Miami and Dallas and know that he is an outstanding talent evaluator and a respected, rising executive in this business. He has worked well with our pro and college personnel departments, understands our organizational philosophy and has a strong familiarity with the players on our roster. He possesses good knowledge of the division, other teams in the league and their rosters, as well as players in the collegiate ranks. These will be major assets in his new role with the Dolphins.”

Gaine enters his 14th year in the NFL and fourth with the Dolphins, joining the team on January 15, 2008. He served his first three seasons (2008-10) with Miami as the Assistant Director of Player Personnel, where he was responsible for directing pro scouting operations for the team, including player evaluations on all professional levels, advance scouting, free agency and tracking player movement around the league. Gaine also participated in the evaluation of collegiate prospects in preparation of the NFL Draft.

Prior to his arrival in Miami, Gaine spent three seasons as the Dallas Cowboys’ Assistant Director of Pro Scouting (2005-07), where he worked with Ireland (2005-07) and Sparano (2005-07).

With Dallas, Gaine contributed to the Cowboys’ player acquisition process by managing pro scouting operations and evaluating players and rosters from the NFL and all other levels of professional football. Additional responsibilities included advance scouting, free agency preparation, tracking of player movement and directing the development of the Cowboys’ pro scouting database.

Gaine went to Dallas after spending six years (1999-2004) in the New York Jets’ Scouting Department, including serving as the Assistant Director of Pro Scouting in 2004. Prior to that promotion, he functioned as a pro scout for the Jets from 2001-03. In 2000, he was the Jets’ Manager of Pro Development/NFC where his duties included pro player evaluation and advance scouting as well as the scouting and tracking of players in other professional leagues such as NFL Europe, the Canadian Football League and the Arena League. Gaine began his personnel career as a member of the Jets’ college scouting department in 1999.

Prior to joining the Jets in a front office capacity, he served as a member of the team’s practice squad in 1996, while he also was with the Giants’ practice squad in 1997. He then signed and spent the 1998 offseason with the Kansas City, but was waived prior to the start of training camp.

Gaine attended the University of Maine from 1991-95 where he played tight end. He served as the Black Bears’ captain his senior season and earned his degree in public administration from the Orono, Maine school. Gaine grew up in Pearl River, N.Y., and attended Don Bosco Prep High School in Ramsey, N.J. He and his wife, Tricia, have a daughter, Kelsey, and sons, Ryan and Connor. http://m.naplesnews.com/news/2011/apr/21/nfl-dolphins-promote-brian-gaine-director-player-p/

Well, this may tell you more, but he seems to be a very good evaluator who is highly regarded, and he's probably played a fairly large part in scouting, evaluating talent for the teams he's worked for. You'd have to do research to see how those teams drafted when he was deeply involved. He's a fast mover. You don't do that by accident. Sometimes you gain respect by players that you touted, but didn't go to your team. Other teams drafted them, or your team had a different opinion, so it's not always tangible and credit is not always clear, but people know and that's how you move up in the biz.