BATON ROUGE – Members of the LSU football team along with scouts from four NFL franchises gathered Friday morning inside the Cox Communications Academic Center for Student-Athletes (CCACSA) Auditorium for the 5th annual NFL Scout Symposium.
The event put on by the CCACSA discusses the importance of balancing school work, academics and life after football.
Scouts from the New York Jets, St. Louis Rams, New England Patriots and Pittsburgh Steelers were all present to share their firsthand experiences with the NFL to try to better prepare the young men for their journey throughout football careers.
“It just helps and really motivates you, especially if you have a family,” rising sophomore running back Leonard Fournette said. “It keeps you on your toes to know that you should never slack, especially with the scouts. They know everything about you. It kind of helps you to keep on the right path because you don’t want to fall short.”
The scouts discussed all types of important tasks that come with life in the NFL, stressing to keep in mind that it is a job and a competitive one at that. Steve Kazor with the St. Louis Rams mentioned their team looks for the whole package: smart, passionate and productive.
“You heard about accountability, and it’s an opportunity for us to get them prepared for things like life after football,” CCACSA Director of Academic Affairs Walt Holliday said. “It’s about making the right decisions not only on the field but off the field. Hearing it from outside of us, they are living the message every day, so it sinks in and they get it.”
The presentation helped the players get a better grasp on how to plan for the future, whether that includes a career in the NFL or pursuing another path. For Patriots scout James Liipfert, the message was all about developing a sense of urgency in whatever you do.
“For them to hear that our society is all about doing whatever you can do to be a first round pick, but not everyone is a first round pick. If you’re going to be a businessman or a dentist, that’s okay. These messages you hear from scouts, it’s not always all about football.” Liipfert said.
Pittsburgh Steelers scout Mark Gorscack drew attention to the importance of the life résumé players are building alongside a football résumé and to remember to keep a balance between both. He sees the importance of people in his position coming in and sharing their experiences with young student-athletes.
“They’ve been doing this the last five years now, and I’ve been doing it four out of the last five,” Gorscack said. “To me, it’s important because of the fact that people are important. You have to give back. Someone helped me out to be where I am right now, so I’m going to give back and that’s why I’m here.”
Redshirt freshman offensive linemen Garrett Brumfield saw the importance of hearing from men in the industry. Valuable information was given out to both veteran players and those that have yet to play a snap at LSU.
“It was just a great opportunity this morning, being able to come here and get some good information,” Brumfield said. “These are men who are in the position of where I want to be. Of course, the NFL is something I want to pursue. These are gentlemen that came here and volunteered their time to give us valuable information. I appreciate that, and I came in this morning ready to soak all that up and be able to use that as fuel to help me get to the next level.”