Her Playbook | Hannah Burnett on becoming Giants' first full-time female scout

Hannah Burnett is the first full-time female scout on the New York Giants' staff. She is the current Midlands Area Scout and has formerly worked as a Scouting Assistant/ Coordinator for the Atlanta Falcons and Player Personnel Assistant for the NFL League Office.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome to her playbook. I'm Madeline Burke. Joined this week
by Giant scout Hannah Burnett. First of all, um working
with the New York Football Giants as the first female
full time scout on this scouting staff. How does someone
go from graduating and U massen to being a trailblazer
as a full time scout? How did that journey come about? Yeah? So,

(00:22):
um I started out as an intern, which I think
a lot of people in this industry kind of start
out as so um I was with the Buffalo Bills
and I was an intern with them, just a training
camp intern, so that I did that in between my
junior and senior year at UMSS. SO did that over
the summer, and then, like everybody else, I just kind
of looked for internships and I just applied to all

(00:43):
these different places and ended up landing with the NFL
E Golfice in New York City, and being from New
York it was awesome. So I got I got to
be home for a little bit after college and you know,
commuting in and out from Long Island in New York
City every day doing the grind. So I was there
for seven months as a player personnel assistant and and
you know, when I was there, I tried to network.
I went out to the Jets, I went out to

(01:04):
the Giants um and met some people and just kind
of learned about scouting and figured out that's kind of
what I wanted to do. And got on with the
Atlanta Falcons for two years and was a scouting assistant
and coordinator with them, And you know, one thing led
to another, and lucky enough to be here and have
the opportunity to be a college scout, which is really
Once I got that foundation and figured out which way
I wanted to go, that was the dream job. So

(01:25):
it's been awesome. A lot of times, you know, you'll
hear from these Armshare quarterbacks or fans at home will say, well,
this person has never played the game at a pro level.
This person can't know how to scout or how to
evaluate talent. But there are a lot of people male
and female who never played pro football or college football
and can still see that. What do you how do
you respond to that? Yeah? I always say that gender

(01:47):
doesn't define your knowledge for football. I like feel very
strongly about that. I just think that if you work hard,
and if I'm working just as hard or harder than
somebody else. Why can't I get the knowledge that they have,
you know? And so that's the way that I look
at it. Even though I didn't play the game, you
know what, it doesn't matter if I continue to work
harder than the person next to me than I can

(02:07):
gain the knowledge that they have and maybe even gain
a little bit more. How much scheme do you have
to know to be able to evaluate these college prospects? Yeah,
I would say that. You know, you want a good foundation,
So you want to know, like what kind of defense
they're running, what kind of offense they're running, and know
the basics. I think a lot of times like we
are required to know like the basics, and it's better
to know a little bit more, so, hey why are

(02:28):
they running this? And a lot of times we get
that information from talking to coaches, we talked to sources
and hey we're talking about a player. Why was he
doing this when you were in this defense? Oh, that's
his responsibility. So it gives us a better idea. Okay,
he knows what he's doing. That was what his assignment was.
So we can learn a little bit more from just
digging in. And that all comes to the the background piece.

(02:49):
Knowing your player and knowing who he is and what
his responsibilities are, well, it's got to be challenging to
write because there are so many schemes that have such
variations that you could say, this looks kind of like this,
but is that his job? Or is this his job?
And when you're not as familiar with what exactly the
player is supposed to be doing? Is there a body
language tell is there something that you see that it

(03:09):
looks like, okay, this is him kind of scrambling here?
Or how does that work? Yeah? I mean a lot
of it, like offense and defense, you kind of especially
the quarterback position, right, if he's scrambling, if he's making
plays on his own, you can kind of tell that.
I think a lot of times on the defensive side
of the ball, it's harder to tell. And what we
like to grade our instincts, Right, how instinctive is the player? Like?
Is he doing his assignment? Does he know what he's doing?

(03:30):
Can he feel that there's somebody behind him? Can he
read the front? Can he make a play like that?
Can he track the ball? All those little things so
we put together and we call it instincts and so
I think that, for me, is the best tell tale
of somebody, like if they're instinctive, that's the guy that
you want on your team. So, but a lot of
times it is, like I said, like the digging and hey,
what was his responsibility in this play? And a lot

(03:52):
of times when we talk to the guys and we
talk to the coaches, that's when we figure all that
stuff out. Now, a lot of you know, when you're
scouting and compiling this information. I understand there's a bit
of a shorthand involved as well. And I know that
different coaching staffs or different organizations have different ways in
approaching this. But you know, when in your time with
Atlanta and your time with the Giants, is there a

(04:13):
different way in which they record information or collaborate information
and how do you learn the same language essentially, Yeah,
So we kind of call it like the scouting manual
is that and every team has one, and so every
team does it a little bit differently, and so coming
from the Falcons, they did it differently over there, we
do it differently, and with regime changes and all that stuff,

(04:34):
it all becomes a little bit different. But it's kind
of it is speaking a different language, but it's kind
of the same foundation. You know what you're looking for,
Like you're looking for smart, instinctive, fast players, right, everybody
wants that. So you kind of have those what we
call critical factors, and it's going to be the same
for every position, and so we kind of base we
base everything off of what those critical factors are, and

(04:55):
you know, we want guys that represent that. But yeah,
it is different throughout every team. Every team does it differently,
and I wouldn't say there's one correct way of doing it.
It's just learning the way that you know, our boss
wants us to do it. Is it ever intimidating walking
into a room with people who have been doing this
for decades and things like that, or is there ever
kind of a oh wow, this is the moment or

(05:15):
how how has that experience meant for you? Yeah? I
think the first and I think anybody will say this,
like it's exciting, Like I I love the guys, I
love being around him. Um, obviously I love everybody that's
in this organization. So I just kind of looking at
it as like a learning experience and you know, taking
different tendencies from all of our scouts, taking tendencies from
our directors, from Joe, from Brandon, from everybody, and just

(05:37):
listening to the way that people present and talk and
being like, hey, I like the way that he does that,
and so maybe I can take a little bit from there,
or Hey, I like the way that you know, he's
talking about this player in this way. So I'm just
trying to absorb as much as I can and then
kind of create myself and you know, do the best
that I can in my presentations and everything like that.
As a college scout, how do you describe what you

(05:58):
go through and the different territory race that you covered,
and what the job looks like in the meat of
the season. Yeah, so you know, a lot of what
we're doing is we're spending a lot of times in hotels,
on flights. It's a it's a huge travel job, and
most of our travel is happening in the fall. So
a lot of times what we're doing is I'm building
my schedule out in the summers, so we're going in,
we're visiting with the coaches, we're watching practice, we're watching

(06:21):
film while we're at the school. So a lot of
all of that is where we kind of gather the
information and we're talking to all the different sources out
there at the colleges, and then on Saturday we'll hit
a game and then just kind of do it again
throughout the week. But um, that's where we're gathering all
of our info. And then when I'm getting home in
my hotel room, I'm writing up my guys. So I'm
watching if I've watched film, or maybe I need a
couple more games. I watched a couple of games, and

(06:43):
then I'm typing up my evaluations and submitting them through
our system and just rinse and repeat. So when you're
setting your schedule in the summer, are there players or
prospects that you know? The GM or the staff will say, hey,
we want you to look out for these people, or
do you say, these are some guys that I'm interested in,
or is their balance of both. I'm required to watch
all the positions, so there's not nothing really like anybody

(07:05):
specific that we need to watch. It's really anyone that
has playing time that's going to be draft eligible for
next year. And then any juniors that we're hearing, hey
they might declare for the draft this year, we definitely
want to get in there and make sure that if
we can get some information on them and watch some
film and then when they do declare, we're a little
bit ahead of the curve. So it's really like anybody
that's that's ready for this year's draft and then you know,

(07:25):
the following year kind of do the same thing. So
that's the way that it goes. Is there ever a
situation which you've planned to go to this game, this game,
this game, but somebody else that you didn't expect is
really kind of showing up and you need to see
them again. And how how malleable is that schedule? Yeah?
It actually it changes all the time. It's crazy. You
just have to be flexible and just go with the flow.
And we're in constant communication with you know, our directors

(07:47):
and our regional guys to make sure that we're not
overlapping or we're not in there at the same time.
And it's constant communication and just being able to kind
of think on your feet and just go with the flush. Yeah. Well,
and i'd imagine with the amount of travel and moving
around in games that you're seeing that you've got a
lot of memorable stories. Is there one moment that comes
to mind that you're like, this is of course this

(08:09):
signifies what it is to be a scout and is like, Okay,
that happened. Yeah, I would say the we always just
say don't let the weather beat you. I was driving
home from the long drive from Nebraska to Colorado and
it's just flat, open fields, and I got caught in
a lightning storm, which was a little insane. So I

(08:29):
was driving through and the you know, it started to
get dark out and then all like lightning is just
popping down all around me. So that was fun. It
pulled over, like stayed under an overpast for an hour.
But I'm like, that's letting the weather beat you. And
because I didn't look at the forecast, I don't know.
So that's kind of like day in the life. It's
like whether it's a flat tire, whether your car is
getting towed, it's always something so right because outwardly people

(08:51):
be like, oh, that's so glamorous. You get to watch
football for a living, and you're like, there's more to
it than that. More to it. Yeah, Now when you
look at you know, I'm sure there are a lot
of young people that look to you and say, hey,
how do I get to where you are? How do
I build to where you are. What advice would you
give to somebody who says, who listens or watches this
and says, I want to be a scout, how do

(09:12):
I even get started? Yeah? You know, for me, the
having the base of playing sport was awesome, you know,
And I'm not saying you have to play sport, but
just being involved in it in some way. So if
you're in college, get involved with your the soccer team,
get involved with the football team if you can, if
that's the area that you want to go into, just
get involved in some capacity. They're always looking for help,

(09:33):
they want volunteers, and you have to start as low
as as you can. And if whether you're not getting
paid or you're making minimum wage, all of us have
done it. We've all had to go that route, and
it's just you have to pay your dues, you have
to do all that stuff. So I think that just
trying to find an internship or a volunteer opportunity, and
then once you get your foot in the door, making
the most of it. You have to be the first end.

(09:54):
You have to be the last out. You have to
make a good impression. You like want to walk away
from the internship and then saying, hey, that was the
best intern that we've ever had, So that's kind of
the way that I look at it. Yeah, and it's
almost like no job is too small, right, exactly exactly.
That's great advice, yeah,