After getting feet wet with Argos, Rossetti scouts for the Dolphins
Chris Rossetti was in the library at the University of Guelph in southern Ontario, studying, his mind drifting as it always did to his favourite subject, his favourite dream. How was he going to get a job in professional sports?
He was playing quarterback for the University of Guelph Gryphons back in 2011, knowing that wasn’t going to take him to the next level. He was a huge high school star at St. Michael’s College in Toronto. The game consumed him.
“I was always playing Madden,” Rossetti, a young pro scout with the Miami Dolphins, said of the NFL video game. “I’d input all the roster names, make my own teams, just spend a lot of time doing that. Playing Madden, changing rosters, simulating games — that was me.”
Near the end of Rossetti’s junior year at Guelph, at the annual Gryphon football gala dinner, the guest speaker happened to be Thomas Dimitroff, a Guelph alumnus. He is, and was back then, the general manager of the Atlanta Falcons.
When the night ended, he seized an opportunity.
“I saw him off to the side. I had about three minutes, I figured,” Rossetti said. “I went up, introduced myself, told him I was friends with Dylan (his nephew, then a receiver at Guelph). He was really easy to talk to and down to earth. I asked: How do I get into the business of scouting? He spoke highly of the CFL and his starting out there.”
Rossetti had already worked as an intern for the Toronto Argonauts in media relations the summer before. He had emailed every team in the CFL looking for an internship. Eric Holmes, then with the Argos, was the only one to respond.
After his conversation with Dimitroff, he reached out to Jim Barker, then the GM of the Argos. Rossetti told him he wanted to work in the scouting department.
“I was willing to work for free,” he said. “I was willing to do anything.
“I was in the library when Barker first called me. He was pretty clear about things. He said, ‘It’s not going to be easy. It’s going to be a lot of work, a lot of low, tough jobs, long hours, grunt work. You’re going to miss the cottage and I’m not going to pay you anything.’
“I said, ‘Let’s do it.’ I needed a way in. This was the way.”
It wasn’t a magical beginning. The Argos’ trailer office had just burned down in nearby Mississauga. There was basically no front office.
“I shared a desk in the lockerroom with (Argos longtime therapist) Danny Webb,” Rossetti said. “My first job was to go through all the DVDs that had been mailed to the team and see if there was anyone with any talent…
“Jim told me the scouting part is easy. He said, ‘The thing you have, the memory, the recall, the details, that is going to set you apart.’ He was teaching me.”
The world opened up for Rossetti when the Argos sent him to NFL camps during his first training camp period. He was in his 20s — younger than most.
When he went to the Falcons’ camp, Dimitroff took care of him. He brought him to the front office. He explained their technology, how their database worked and how they operated. It was an eye-opener.
The first NFL team to contact Rossetti, who had advanced from intern to unpaid scout to Argonauts scout, was the Houston Texans in 2014. He was 24. They brought him down for an interview, but he didn’t get the job.
Barker was aware enough of the rising Rossetti to promote him to director of player personnel, an unusual appointment considering Rossetti’s youth.
“I was disappointed I didn’t get (the Houston) job, but Jim gave me a ton of responsibility after that,” Rossetti said.
The next team to call was the Kansas City Chiefs. They wanted Rossetti in for an interview. When word somehow leaked he was heading to K.C., the Miami Dolphins called. Then the New York Jets called. Suddenly, Rossetti’s world was getting wonderful and complicated.
“Jim wanted to keep me,” Rossetti said. “But I never really considered staying in Toronto. I’ve always been a football junkie, really passionate about the CFL, really passionate about the NFL, but this was an opportunity I couldn’t turn down.”
Rossetti started in the Dolphins personnel department in June 2015 and has since been promoted to the position of pro scout. One day, he would love to follow in Dimitroff’s footsteps and become an NFL general manager. One day — he’s only 27.
“It’s a ton of work in this business,” he said. “And I love it. I’m proud to be a Canadian doing this. Sometimes I get kidded about my accent, But it’s all in fun.
“Every day I’m just trying to learn and get better. I’m working with some tremendous people … I figure if you work hard, do a good job, people will notice. I’m not actively trying to move up. I just want to learn as much as I can and keep learning. This is just the beginning.”