Rossetti eyes CFL talent
“If they’re a good player, I’ll be the first guy to say ‘this guy can hit.’ There are guys who had good shots at me. I’m just glad that I can now say that in my scouting reports”
Argos GM Jim Barker has high praise for Rossetti, who makes no bones about wanting one day to be a GM either in the CFL or the NFL.
“He’s a personnel junkie. He knows everything about every player,” Barker said. “I think he’ll be a great general manager one day. He’ll develop contacts over time. I really believe strongly in this young man.”
The fact Rossetti that has just finished playing — and knows many of the players personally — is a huge scouting advantage for the Argos, Barker said.
“There are guys in this draft whom he played with in high school so that gives us a huge advantage,” Barker said. “As a quarterback, he understands the game, he understand the personnel. He gets it.”
Since joining the team as a media assistant in 2010, Rossetti has been sitting in coaching meetings, shadowing Barker, watching tons of film and asking questions. He also spent a week last summer at the training camp of the NFL’s Atlanta Falcons with their GM Tom Dimitroff, who played defensive back for the Gryphons in the late 1980s and whose nephew roomed with Rossetti at college.
“It was the most amazing experience of my life, to be able to watch from the inside how things were done with an NFL team,” Rossetti said.
In preparing for the CFL Combine, Rossetti has spent hours watching film on every single player. He knows their strengths and weakness. Now he gets to see whether the player in person matches his evaluation — and those of Barker and Canadian scouting director Ted Goveia.
Rossetti expects to have more responsibility scouting other CFL teams next season as he learns the game with an eye to his ambition of one day becoming a GM.
“That goal drives me,” he said. “Growing up, I really never thought about being a GM. I always thought about being a director of player personnel. But why not shoot for the top? It’s a lofty goal but we’ll see.”