Courtesy photo

Tom McConnaughey stands with his daughter Monica at a Chargers game when both were employees of the National Football League team.

Retired scout keeps his foot in door

By Tim Clinton

Tom McConnaughey finds retirement to his liking after over 40 years in the field of football as a player, coach and scout.

He can pursue more leisurely activities like visiting his daughter in Nashville and taking his time getting back to his home in Redondo and still work in football scouting in more casual circumstances.

He can also speak his mind including to media members about issues affecting the game from high school to college and the National Football League levels without worrying about getting in trouble with a principal, school board, athletic director, general manager or owner.

The 67-year-old finds himself working part time as a scout for the Senior Bowl college all-star game for the second year in a row and as a consultant evaluating talent for various football agents.

"It's been fun, and it's kept me in it," said McConnaughey by phone from somewhere in New Mexico on his way back to Washington from Tennessee on a trip also through Texas, Arizona and California.  "There's a lot less stress and certainly not the travel."

McConnaughey is scouting in the Pacific Northwest for the Senior Bowl instead of going all over the country like he did in his three years with the Jacksonville Jaguars and 25 years with the Chargers of San Diego and Los Angeles.

"I'll go to a Husky game or two and make it to a Cougar game, at least one Ducks game and maybe the Beavers," he said of Washington, Washington State, Oregon and Oregon State.  "There are 10 scouts (for the Senior Bowl) who are all seasoned NFL guys who are retired or between jobs.  We determine who should be the 120 guys we invite to the game."

The game, which will be played next on January 31, 2026, at Hancock Whitney Stadium on the University of South Alabama campus in Mobile, is designed to increase the NFL draft rankings of its participants.

"The first rounders don't play," McConnaughey said.  "We'll do free agents in the area and top prospects who want to better themselves.  We'll have a meeting in August and get a list derived from the combines for juniors.  We'll grade the players and determine where they would go in the draft."

The group also uses Inside the League as a reference.

"They have a lot of informative data," McConnaughey said.  "It's a website for scouts and agents.  The agents are trying to pass their certification test, and the scouts keep up with their brethren in the industry.  There's about 500 of us."

McConnaughey points out that most scouts are young now, but when he started most had a college or a high school coaching background.  He worked nine years previously as the head coach at Federal Way High School where he graduated in 1975.

"It really should be half and half," he suggested.

McConnaughey also recommends that the NFL not lean too much on analytics but also on live scouts.

"The analytics staff are engineering and IT computer guys who don't know if the ball is pumped or stuffed," he said.  "There's a lot of information overlap.  It's both a subjective and an objective process."

Analytics is also more complicated in football than baseball.

"With 22 guys on the field on any given play and personnel changes, there's a lot of moving parts," McConnaughey said.  "So, analytics in football is a lot harder than in baseball."

McConnaughey also suggests that the NFL create its own minor league system like baseball.

"That would put the best product on the field," he said.  "Baseball has a minor league system that does a good job developing players, but the NFL won't do that.  They will not spend the money.  They're focused on the bottom line.  The NFL needs to do more than market the game."

McConnaughey also spoke out against college transfers late in careers in hopes of playing for a bigger school and getting more NFL attention.

"It may not be a good fit," he said.  "You may not even play.  Stay where you're at.  Get where you're good enough and the NFL will find you."

McConnaughey suggests the same for high school players seeking to play college ball.

"It isn't to win championships," he said.  "If he's good, productive and dominant, he'll get recruited."

McConnaughey made a college transfer himself, but it was to a lower level of football.

After playing two years at Spokane Falls Community College he went to Oregon one year and walked on.  Then he followed his father Don's school Hall of Fame footsteps to Central Arkansas.

"Central Arkansas had a full scholarship," McConnaughey said.  "And I wound up going to the NFL anyway."

McConnaughey played wide receiver well enough in his two years at Central Arkansas to also be inducted into its Hall of Fame recently.

McConnaughey joined the NFL ranks as an undrafted free agent, signing on with the New Orleans Saints in 1981.

"I was cut the first week of the season," he said.  "Then I was the last cut for the New York Jets and the New Jersey Generals called me."

McConnaughey spent two years with the Generals of the old United States Football League through 1984.

After that he signed with the Philadelphia Eagles for a $5,000 bonus and was cut, then signed with the Minnesota Vikings.

"They called me the next season," he said.  "That's where I broke my jaw and cheek bone.  I spent most of the year on injured reserve.  They said they were going to sign me the next year, but they never did."

McConnaughey went on to South Kitsap High School in Port Orchard as an assistant coach and teacher before being hired as the head coach and a teacher at Federal Way in 1988.

Nine years later he followed his former assistant Don Gregory into scouting, joining the Chargers after attending a coaching clinic with them.

"My last year coaching I spent a week with the Chargers, and that's where I met Bobby Beathard," McConnaughey said.

The late Chargers general manager hired McConnaughey as a scout, launching his new full-time career that lasted through his retirement in May of 2024.

Or make that his partial retirement, which still allows him to follow and help his son, Donny McConnaughey, who is an assistant football coach and the head baseball coach at Todd Beamer High School in Federal Way.

"He is a natural coach," said Tom McConnaughey, whose late father, Don, was a longtime track coach at Highline Community College and also served as that school's athletic director.  "It will be fun to watch him throughout his career."