KIRKLAND, Wash. (AP) -Key information on the Seattle Seahawks' draft picks this weekend may have come from a college cafeteria. Or a dorm hallway. Or even a utility closet.
Tim Ruskell has gathered lots of intel about college players from such places during his two decades of NFL scouting.
Ruskell, now in his second season as the Seahawks' president and player personnel chief, remembers going to a college campus more than a decade ago, when he was a Tampa Bay Buccaneers scout. He skipped the head coach's office, walked right past the film room and headed instead for the team's cafeteria, the groundskeeper's shed and the nook where the janitor stored his mops.
``The first time I talked to people that worked in the building, I asked them, `Any guys give you trouble?''' Ruskell said Wednesday, three days before his 20th NFL draft.
``I got a half-hour answer. I said, `Gee, we've got something here.'''
That particular type of player never made the ``hot list'' of prospects Ruskell helped compile each April in Tampa.
``If we know players don't treat the cafeteria people the way they treat the coaches, that's important to find out,'' Ruskell said.
Ruskell implemented a new Seattle scouting system in 2005, honed after 17 years with the Bucs and one as the Atlanta Falcons' assistant general manager. It now requires Seahawks scouts to talk to at least five people on each campus they visit: the academic counselor for the football team, the housing director, then the team trainer, head coach and position coach - just about in that order of priority.
The interviews become reports that help the Seahawks assign a letter grade for a player's character. That grade is a huge factor in whether a player is one of 70 on Seattle's ``hot list'' - with Ruskell sticking an adhesive dot next to the names of the guys he wants most. Ruskell said he keeps extra dots in his pocket to anoint more players to best-of-the-best status as the draft plays out.
The system worked in the first year. Seattle took Southern California middle linebacker Lofa Tatupu in the second round last April. Most teams thought Tatupu was too small and slow to be in the middle of an NFL defense. The Seahawks saw a born leader.
Ruskell was impressed with how sincere USC coach Pete Carroll seemed to be while raving to league personnel about Tatupu's personality at the Trojans' draft day workouts.
Tatupu became the leader of the most improved part of a Seattle team that reached its first Super Bowl. He also became a locker room commander and a Pro Bowler.
In the third round, the Seahawks took Clemson outside linebacker LeRoy Hill. He became a popular teammate right away and a starter in October. Hill finished with 7 1/2 sacks.
Of course, Seattle scouts aren't the only ones going beyond coaches and players and becoming their own private investigators.
Today, most teams spend hundreds of thousands of dollars annually researching players' character. They interview. They give personality quizzes. Then, they interview and test some more.
``I remember when I first started visiting academic counselors, they would say, `What are you doing here? You are the only one doing this,''' Ruskell said.
``Now, it's pretty much standard.''
Ruskell said he learned his snooping tricks from Jerry Angelo, who was the Buccaneers' director of player personnel. Angelo, now the Chicago Bears' general manager, did not return a message for comment Wednesday. Perhaps he was too busy finishing the Bears' character rankings and placing dots on his ``hot list.''
``We said, `How can we get an angle outside of that group, that football operations group, that would give another perspective of that player?'' Ruskell said of his brainstorming with Angelo. ``I would credit Jerry, but who knows, maybe it happened before that.
``I just knew that when we started doing it, it was very rare.''
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