DETROIT – Brad Holmes is one of the most highly regarded general managers in the NFL, but before he took over the Detroit Lions, he wasn’t exactly on the fast track to the league.
Holmes sat down with Local 4’s Rhonda Walker to discuss Black History Month and the Lions, and they got to talking about his career. Holmes said he had a passion for football coming out of college, but he wasn’t good enough to play and nobody hired him as a scout.
“I had to go back home, and I was at home in Tampa, Florida, working at Enterprise Rent-A-Car,” Holmes said. “Washing cars and renting cars. I was thinking about football all day. So I’ve got this shirt and tie on washing cars and renting cars and I’m thinking about football all day.”
He said his mom was working at the University of South Florida, and she had a contact who knew Arthur Triche, the vice president of communications for the Atlanta Hawks.
It wasn’t the NFL, but Holmes figured at least he could get into the sporting world.
“So I went and did the PR internship,” Holmes said. “It was called a media trainee position with the Hawks. The cool thing about it was that Enterprise allowed me to work part time at the Atlanta Airport at the time.”
He was with the Hawks for a year, and during that time, the NBA All-Star Game went to Atlanta.
“I started there in the fall (of 2002), and then (the next year), the NBA All-Star Game came to Atlanta,” Holmes said. “A lot of the NFL PR directors came. My boss, who was Black, introduced me to other Black PR directors in the NFL who were there.
“He said, ‘Look, this young kid here, he just got done playing college football. He’s been a good worker.' So I met with the PR director with the Rams, Duane Lewis, and did like a lunch interview, and he offered me an internship to be a PR intern there. That’s how I got to the Rams.
“So I’m with the Rams, and I’m in the NFL. I’m seeing they’re coming off this Super Bowl run, and they’re a really good team, and it’s Hall of Famers galore. This is 2003. So I’m an intern, but Marshall Faulk and Kurt Warner and Isaac Bruce and Torry Holt and Orlando Pace, and I’m, like, ‘Wow, this is it.’
“But I’m doing media. I’m setting up interviews.”
Holmes said he never wrote a scouting report in that position. He just loved watching players. His path to scouting actually came through the running backs coach.
“I had received an opportunity,” Holmes said. “I did my PR internship, and then I got a good relationship with our running backs coach at the time, his name was Wilbert Montgomery.
“There was an undrafted free agent that came from my school, North Carolina A&T, named Troy Pelshak, who played for the Rams, and Wilbert said, ‘You went to A&T?’ I said yes. He goes, ‘You know Troy Pelshak?’ I said yeah. I was, like, ‘That was kind of my mentor,’ because we’re both defensive linemen.
He said that kicked his relationship with Montgomery. Holmes would type out the plays for the running backs' wristbands and help with other jobs, hoping to one day become a scout.
“Eventually, Wilbert told our GM at the time, Charley Armey, that he knows this kid in PR that would be a good scout,” Holmes said.
One morning he was passing out the physical scouting reports and passed Armey’s office.
“Charley goes, ‘Hey, I talked to Wilbert and he said you’re interested, so come by my office on Friday,‘” Holmes said. “I was, like, ‘Woah.’ I’m just shocked. I go by -- Friday’s supposed to be a dress down day, but I go Friday with a shirt and tie on.”
Holmes showed Armey all of his writing samples from the gameday publications. He said he wanted to demonstrate that he could write, and that he had a passion for football.
“He looked at it, and sure enough, during that time, Duane Lewis, my boss, walks into the office, and he didn’t even know, so he thinks I’m in trouble,” Holmes said. “Charley’s on the phone and he gets off the phone and says, ‘Hey Duane, Brad’s going to be my intern in scouting after he gets done with you.'
“I was, like, ‘I am?’ It kind of just took off from there.”
Holmes ended up spending the next 18 years with the Rams, first as a scout and then as their director of college scouting.
He held that job until Jan. 14, 2021, when he took over as general manager of the Lions.
You know the rest.
You can watch the full conversation with Holmes here:
