If you turn on CBS at around noontime on a Sunday in the fall, you will see a man by the name of Charley Casserly analyzing recent NFL events and making predictions about upcoming games. Currently, Mr. Casserly is an NFL insider for the CBS show, The NFL Today. His career with the National Football League dates back to 1977.
Students and faculty alike recently gathered in the Heights Room to welcome Charley Casserly to Boston College, and to hear him speak about his very intriguing experiences with the NFL. Mr. Casserly’s lecture, part of Boston College’s Chambers Lecture Series, focused on the importance of motivation and was filled with real life examples from Mr. Casserly’s NFL career.
Charley Casserly began his NFL career in 1977 as an unpaid intern for the Washington Redskins, hired by Hall of Fame coach George Allen.
“He told me that I needed to be the first one there in the morning, and the last one to leave at night, and I took him literally,” joked Mr. Casserly.
The work ethic that he showed during his early days as an intern encouraged the Redskins to hire him full time as a scout the following year. Mr. Casserly stayed with the Redskins and worked his way up to General Manager in 1989. He remained in that position for ten years, and then became General Manager of the Houston Texans from 2000 until 2006.
While with the Redskins, Mr. Casserly saw the team go to four Super Bowls and win three of them.
Mr. Casserly’s lecture to the Boston College community was centered on how to motivate people, and the importance of motivation in the business world, the sports world, and in everyday life.
“One of the best ways to motivate people is through recognition, because people enjoy being recognized in front of others for their work. When Washington won the Super Bowl, everyone at the stadium got the same championship ring, from the MVP of the game to the guy who cuts the grass,” Mr. Casserly explained.
Mr. Casserly also stressed the need for communication when trying to motivate people.
“Never let anyone feel that they don’t have a voice. If they have a voice in decision making, they will be motivated,” he stressed.
“Now, everyone can’t be motivated in the same way. One of the keys to motivation is finding the right button to push for each person,” he added.
After Charley Casserly was hired full time, the Redskins eliminated their intern program. Because Mr. Casserly began his NFL career through this program, he felt a loyalty to it. Therefore, in 1983, he petitioned to restart the program so that other young people could have the same opportunity that he had.
“Washington allowed the intern program to start up again, and the first intern that I hired that year was Steve Spagnuolo, who is now the head coach of the St. Louis Rams” said Mr. Casserly.
After his lecture on motivation, Mr. Casserly opened up to questions from the audience. When asked what his most memorable experience in the NFL is, Mr. Casserly discussed the 1987 season with the Redskins.
He explained that in 1987, many of the players in the NFL went on strike. Nonetheless, the season went on, and therefore the Redskins had to find new players to replace those on strike. This was a very difficult task for Mr. Casserly, who was General Manager at the time, and he was forced to hire people from all walks of life.
“We had four guys from a half-way house, and one guy who was a security guard at a 7-11 in Washington,” Mr. Casserly remembered.
The Redskins had a difficult time convincing their starting players to cross the picket line, and therefore had to play several games with this new lineup. The last game the Redskins played before the end of players’ strike was against the Dallas Cowboys. The Cowboys had convinced some of the starting players to stop striking, and therefore the Redskins were the clear underdog.
However, Mr. Casserly explained, “Even after all that, we won 12-7 on national television. That game is definitely my most memorable experience.”
Mr. Casserly also told his audience that this experience was the inspiration for the 2000 film, The Replacements, staring Keanu Reeves and Gene Hackman.
Besides his position on The NFL Today, Mr. Casserly also works as a professor at George Mason University and Georgetown University. His courses, which are extremely popular among students, often focus on relating his experience in sports management to the business world as a whole.
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