Wednesday, Oct. 4, 2000

A personal tribute

Former Titans scouting director Cumbee showed the ropes to many

By Ellen M. Zavian

Glenn Cumbee, director of college scouting for the Tennessee Titans, passed away recently from a massive heart attack while working out in his home.

In a career in which he was truly one of the unsung heroes of the NFL, Glenn was an angel to some, a "character" to everyone.

For over a decade, I had the blessing of Glenn’s friendship. We were an unlikely pair of buddies — me, the New York Jew, and Glenn, the Southern cowboy. He had a knack for storytelling, and I had the desire to listen and learn. But underneath our outer shells, we learned we had much more in common. I was able to look past the slow-speaking, Southern-twanged, black-booted, cowboy-hat-wearing NFL scout, and he was able to look past my gender, that of a woman.

In the late ’80s, not a single NFL person would teach me the business. They misunderstood my motives for wanting to work in the NFL as an agent, and trivialized my questions about the business.

That is, until I met Glenn.

From the beginning, he taught me how to evaluate a player, watch film, write up a scouting report and banter in the lingo common within the fraternity of the scouts. Cursing became part of the sentence structure, not an added adjective.

Many considered Glenn their dear friend and mentor. He considered himself the "man on the corner, cheering all those he helped — in silence." Either way, a day did not go by where he did not help another scout, open a job opportunity for a fired football colleague, fight for an unknown player to be drafted or speak of his family with great love.

The last time I saw Glenn was while he was scouting at the University of Maryland.  We met for dinner, and I picked him up in my 1965 Mustang (we both enjoyed old cars), which my mother gave me before she passed at the age of 53. I can remember Glenn saying to me, while we drove with the top down and the cool air around us, "Your mother died too young."

Glenn was 52.

Ellen M. Zavian is a former NFL agent and professor of sports law for American University Law School and George Washington University.

The Archives
2000 - 2001 Season