Charley Casserly Rips Kyler Murray's Interview Skills. Guess Who Didn't Pay to Go to Charley Casserly's Interview School.
PFT – Much speculation has occurred regarding the motivations for Charley Casserly’s recent report regarding Kyler Murray’s interviews at the Scouting Combine. As to one potential motivation, no further speculation is needed.
Casserly has a conflict of interest.
He has leveraged his experience as a General Manager and/or his platform on NFL Network into a side business. The side business consists of preparing prospects for Scouting Combine interviews.
During a Wednesday appearance on ESPN New York’s Michael Kay Show, Casserly said of Murray, “Clearly this guy was not trained for the interview. Just listening to it. I train players. I train over 100 players a year for Combine interviews. This guy wasn’t trained.”
By way of full blogging disclosure, I almost wrote the other day about Charley Casserly ripping on Kyler Murray. Ultimately I decided it wasn’t interesting enough. Because by his nature, Charley Casserly is not interesting.
The only memorable thing he’s ever done is the time in the 2009 playoffs when he walked straight into Bill Belichick’s crosshairs by reporting that Tom Brady was playing with three broken ribs. “Who’s been wrong more than Charley Casserly since he left the Redskins? His percentage is like a meteorologist,” Belichick said at the time. “He has no relationship to this team. I’d say less than zero. Based on what? He’s never at a practice, never at a game. … Like he usually is, he was 100 percent wrong.” Which made an otherwise bland, know-it-all, “Hey, hey whaddayasay?!” 1950s-era media guy a hero for getting blasted by a guy who blasts no one in public.
But this? OK, this is blog-worthy. The inherent, self-serving, hypocritical conflict of interest at work here is so blatant, I’m totally hooked. A guy on the NFL’s payroll, running a side gig and then blasting the league’s presumptive No. 1 draft pick for sucking at the very thing Charley Casserly teaches at that side gig? When I was doing radio I had to sign a paper saying I could be fired if I was caught running scams a lot less sketchy than this.
To be clear, this is just some of what he said about Kyler Murray:
“He better hope [Kliff] Kingbury takes him No. 1 because this was not good. These were the worst comments I ever got on a top-rated quarterback and I’ve been doing this a long time. . . . Leadership — not good. Study habits — not good. The board work — below not good. Not good at all in any of those areas, raising major concerns about what this guy is going to do. … This guy is not outstanding in those areas and it showed up in the interview.
“In the interviews I got exactly the same stories. They were not impressed with his leadership skills or potential for the interview. They weren’t impressed with his study habits, and I can’t give you the quotes but they’re pretty bad. And they were not impressed with his board work and understanding football concepts that was quizzed on, and that wasn’t good. I can’t give you the quotes. It was the worst report I’ve ever heard on a top-ranked quarterback from the interview part of it. One thing that stuck out to me: this guy was never trained for the interview. Whoever trained him did a poor job; guys do get trained for interviews now.”
Christ. That’s not even trying to hide what you’re doing. I’ve seen subtler sale pitches from personal injury lawyer billboards. Billy Mays (RIP) did sell his shit harder when he was spilling grape juice on a sweater and getting it out with OxyClean. Casserly might as well have flashed his 888-number on the screen and said “…but with my patented 8-step Combine Interview Prep Method, I can get your prospect ready for anything they throw at him. Call TODAY!”
I’m not one to call for anyone to be fired. If NFL Network wants to look stupid by letting one of their on-air guys destroy one of their league’s next franchise quarterbacks because he wouldn’t go to his interview school, that’s on them. Because in all honesty, the more ridiculous frauds on sports TV the better it is for Barstool. We’re not the Integrity Police. We need more con artists talking out their ass and providing bloggable content.
Charley Casserly is like a meteorologist. Except a meteorologist doesn’t shit all over the weather for not paying money to his side business.