This is from the CL, I know a no-no (but you don't have to click on it). We have hired a very qualified individual!
STARKVILLE - Andrew Warsaw landed an attractive gig in December 2016.
He had anticipated that he may soon be in need of one, because Purdue was undergoing a staff turnover. But before he formally accepted the job as one of only two directors of game operations for the NFL, Warsaw made a phone call.
That was to Joe Moorhead. At the time, Moorhead was in his first season as Penn State's offensive coordinator and was a popular name on the hot boards of some media outlets covering searches for new head football coaches.
Warsaw asked Moorhead during the call if Moorhead was going to take a job.
"Because if you are, I'm not going (to take the NFL job)," Warsaw said. "If you're not this year, then I'm going."
As Warsaw recalled the exchange, Moorhead responded by telling Warsaw he wasn't leaving State College and that they'd possibly revisit this conversation the following year.
Warsaw, 32, trusted Moorhead's word, accepted the NFL job and moved to Connecticut. He was a liaison of the league for teams, spent six weeks in London while planning for the NFL?s international games there and helped coordinate team logistics for last year's Super Bowl. And when it comes to the behind-the-scenes stuff that few people ever think about - picking out teams' hotels, selecting teams' practice sites and securing airplanes, buses and rental cars - Warsaw is linked to Sunday?s Super Bowl in Minnesota as well.
He won't be there though, because he is now in Starkville. Warsaw was one of the first hires Moorhead made and, as Mississippi State's director of football operations, was the only new staffer to be involved with the TaxSlayer Bowl (Warsaw is actually still working with former interim coach Greg Knox on ring designs).
"The NFL was really great - don't get me wrong," Warsaw said. "I could've had a really good career there."
Warsaw replaced Jon Clark, who went to Florida with Dan Mullen, and Warsaw said he took a salary comparable to what he was making at the NFL. Warsaw?s future at his previous job was more secure than his peers? jobs in the college ranks because he wasn?t tied to the success or failure of a team or coach.
Like how it is for football coaches, the NFL is the destination for many working in operations. But not everyone.
Warsaw grew up loving football in Maryland and played in high school, but knew he wasn't talented enough to play at the next level. He went to West Virginia because he wanted to be around a big-time program and spent four seasons as a student-manager. For Warsaw, working last year in football for the first time in his life without building bonds with players and coaches and without a rooting interest was "weird." If he didn't join Moorhead, his future planning would've probably included trying to be a director of football operations for an NFL team.
"Still," Warsaw said, "I know some people probably would think I'm crazy because I probably would have had a really stable career there."
Without any context, sure. This isn't the first time Warsaw made a somewhat unconventional move to join Moorhead.
Warsaw left the director of football operations job he had at Merchant Marine Academy on Long Island, New York, to join Moorhead at Fordham in 2012. It was a step up from the Division III ranks to Division I. But it also meant Warsaw was leaving a government job set to pay him $56,000 a year on a three-year deal for a $15,000 job with no benefits at a program that went 1-11 and had just hired Moorhead as its new head coach.
"I went and interviewed with Joe and, man, I just ... I knew I had to be a part of it," Warsaw said. "But if it wasn't for my wife, I wouldn't have been able to do it."
Warsaw said he never intended to leave Moorhead, but even though his wife, Ashley, held a solid corporate job, living in NYC and making that kind of salary doesn't work. When Warsaw left Fordham for Arizona in 2013, he said he told Moorhead, "Hey, this isn't it. Down the road somewhere, we are going to get back."
Warsaw's journey has taken him to Starkville for a job he expects to receive professional fulfillment from, that allows him to be closer to his family with less time on the road and with a boss he believes in. Warsaw is one of several new staffers who left attractive positions to join Moorhead. So maybe he isn't crazy, after all. Warsaw wouldn't have left the NFL for just any location Moorhead took, either. At Mississippi State, Warsaw sees a job he doesn't view as temporary, a program that is in line for success and a place he wants to raise his two children, who are 3 and 1.
"Look," Warsaw said, "you would not see me at any other college job in America right now."
