RIP Mike Giddings—An NFL Pioneer

By John Turney 

Born November 16, 1933, Michael Roy Giddings passed away Thursday, July 27th due to complications from a stroke. He was 89.

He is survived by three children: daughters Vicki McMenomy, Jacqui Celsi and son Mike Giddings.

Giddings was a pioneer of pro personnel, NFL independent scouting and analytics/Moneyball. Giddings invented (and copyrighted) a scouting color code system (Blue-Red-Purple-etc.) that many NFL teams use and that made such a difference within pro football circles that NFL analyst Charles Davis once told a group of scouts "This man created the language we all use." 

The language Davis was referring to was terminology such as shutdown corner, off-ball linebacker, edge rusher and designated pass rusher (later nickel rusher) among other terms used in Proscout binders in the eighties and nineties and beyond.

He is best known for founding Proscout, Inc., in 1977, a pro player evaluation service serving NFL teams that is still in operation, now owned by his son. 

From its inception, in addition to providing an "extra set of eyes" to scout NFL players for subscribing teams, Proscout provided an annual Research and Development book -- a binder filled with trends, analysis and statistical breakdowns not available from official statistical outlets. It was a giant leap forward in NFL analytics.

"He's just so damn bright", Hall-of-Fame general manager Jim Finks told Paul Zimmerman in 1982 when commenting on Giddings adding, "and he's almost always right on the money."

Proscout was devised to help teams with their rosters but it also came to help some players after they retired. Grades were always confidential to subscribing teams but once a player is out of the NFL for a significant amount of time with no possibility of coming back Giddings would share them with Hall-of-Fame voters who had a player who was Hall-worthy but may not have garnered as many Pro Bowls as some more well-known players who played the same position. 

For the past twenty-five or so years the name "Proscout" and "Mike Giddings" have come up regularly by voters presenting a player's case. It's a sign of the level of credibility and respect that Giddings established in his profession in a nearly 45-year career of scouting and analytics.

A year prior to starting Proscout, in 1976, Giddings became the NFL's first director of pro personnel with the Denver Broncos, focusing on NFL players -- not scouting collegiate players.

In football his entire adult life, Giddings coached at every level—high school, junior college, college, and the NFL. He was a head coach in the collegiate ranks and professionally. 

He received wide national publicity in 1982 when Sports Illustrated’s Paul Zimmerman did a feature on him and his company and the impact he was having on the NFL and advising the NFL movers and shakers like George Halas, Paul Brown, Jim Finks, Bud Grant and others.

Scouting and evaluation grew from his coaching experiences both as the head man and as an assistant. 

He was the head coach of The Hawaiians in the World Football League in 1974 and '75 and at the University of Utah in 1966 and '67. Being a recruiting was part and parcel of being a college coach but with the Hawaiians, being part of a new league, he had to build a team from scratch and he draw from his time with the San Francisco 49ers when he was the linebackers coach to do that.

It was there that he, in addition to working with his unit Giddings was also tasked by 49ers' coach Dick Nolan to scour the waiver wires and aid the front office in ways to upgrade the team. That duty was the wellspring from which Proscout idea would originate -- upgrading the bottom of a team's roster.

Giddings was with the 49ers from 1968-73 and coached Hall-of-Famer Dave Wilcox to some of his best seasons. He also worked with Matt Hazeltine, Skip Vanderbundt, Frank Nunley and others.

The job as the 49ers' linebacker coach came about because after being fired ("every coach needs to be fired once in a while", Giddings once said) from Utah he had an opportunity to assist Dallas Cowboys' personnel man Gil Brandt with the 1968 Draft. Brandt, pleased with the work, recommended Giddings to Dick Nolan who'd just left Tom Landry's staff to take the 49ers job.

Prior to being named the head coach at Utah he served for five years under John McKay at the University of Southern California where he was the defensive coordinator and helped the Trojans win a National Championship in 1962 -- the school's first since 1939.

He went to USC after a year as the head coach at Glendale College where he led the Vaqueros to a 7-2 record in what was called by the school's president, "one of the finest football seasons in (the school's) history. 

He'd begun his coaching career at Monrovia High School (a Los Angeles suburb), where he led the Wildcats to the CIF finals in 1959.

Giddings took the Monrovia job in 1957 after two years serving in the United States Marine Corps. He'd been commissioned to Second Lieutenant out of college and assigned to Marine Recon in Quantico, Virginia. Giddings remembered "loving recon because it’s right up my alley jumping out of airplanes, coming out of submarines ..."

While serving active duty Giddings also played service football for the Quantico Marines Devil Dogs who were 8-3 in 1955 and after a transfer to Camp Pendelton near San Diego played for that installation's football team while fulfilling his recon duties.

It was at Pendleton, playing for Colonel Joseph W. Stribling that Giddings found his life's work calling him the "best football coach strategically I’ve ever seen, or been with." Giddings told his coach, "Colonel, you’ve made me just fall more in love with this game than I ever have. I now know what I wanna do in life. After I’m a Marine, I wanna be a coach."

Prior to his military service, he played football at the University of California. The 6-2-1/2, 225-pound pulling guard lettered twice under the legendary coach “Pappy” Waldorf. There he was teammates with Hazeltine, Hall-of-Fame center Les Richter, and Jim Hanifan who would become one of the NFL's great offensive line coaches. 

He'd been recruited to Cal and also USC out of South Pasadena High School where he starred in football, baseball and basketball. Tempted to stay home to play college sports he ultimately opted for Berkeley. 

Giddings was originally born and raised in Newport Beach, California he attended Newport Grammar School through the third grade before moving to San Marino and attending South Pas.

During his time running Proscout, he moonlighted as the head coach of Newport Harbor High School from 1982-85. There he led the Sailors to the CIF Southern Section Central Conference semifinals once and the quarterfinals three times.

Growing up in Southern California Giddings spent a lot of time at beaches -- big wave surfing, something he kept up through his adult life. As a young man he excelled in baseball and other sports. He was an avid golfer and would cycle weekly until a stroke felled him earlier this year.

It was a unique and extraordinary life. 

He changed how NFL teams looked at scouting and team building and at how they managed their cap but not overspending on players who were not truly producing or were hitting walls or had alerted Giddings' eyes in some way.

His ideas were original, no one got there first but many followed.

Rest in peace.