Before concluding his 50-year career in the NFL as a buddy and mentor in the youthful Bengals personnel department that helped form one of the most recent Super Bowl teams, Bill Tobin established one of the NFL’s super squads. He was eighty-three.
Father of Bengals director of player personnel Duke Tobin, Tobin joined his son as an area scout prior to the 2003 NFL Draft after 27 years as an executive with the Bears, Colts, and Lions, during which he selected eight members of the Pro Football Hall of Fame.
A proud, old-school, grass-roots scout who, in the autumn of 1974, studied 16-millimeter video of the first Hall of Famer Walter Payton on the wall of the locker room at Jackson State, Tobin also worked for the Bengals in the Southeast and then the Midwest.
Mike Brown, the president of the Bengals, described him as “a true NFL success story.” “I thought of him as a good friend since he was a good man. I listened to everything Bill said. I just assumed that to be so. He was able to predict athletes’ future potential. That would be all I would need to know if he had indicated the individual was a good player. He will be missed.
Tobin’s most well-known role was serving as the centre of a Chicago draft room that produced six Hall of Famers for the insane 1985 Bears team, which went on to win the Super Bowl and demolish the league with an 18-1 record. Furthermore, he had no problem sharing his experiences with the
“I learned a lot from him. Many scouts learned from him along the road. “He’s going to leave a lasting legacy,” Mike Potts, director of college scouting for the Bengals, said. He cross-checked a lot of tapes. When it comes to appraisal, there is no more reliable eye. Not just with the Bengals, but perhaps around the NFL as well. merely in terms of his talent-spotting ability.”
Steven Radicevic, director of pro scouting, recalled Friday how Tobin brought him into his office and showed him offensive line footage when he arrived in 2012 from UCLA.
“He was among the finest. I had the good fortune to have him as a mentor when I began my NFL career,” Radicevic remarked. “He quickly put me under. taught me how to assess players. Early on, I watched tapes with him. He sent me a picture of an NFL player. He imparted his knowledge and insight on the game. He demonstrated his methods to us. For it, I will always be appreciative.”
In a Bengals.com article from February 20, 2016, which described Duke Tobin’s ascent inside the team’s personnel department, Bill Tobin shared his perspective.
“I think the team out here is very similar to what we put out up there (in Chicago),” said Bill Tobin. “There were no losers among us. Though we might have had one
“They were intelligent. They possessed unbreakable toughness. They exhibited courage. They had a strong sense of teamwork. They weren’t the largest all the time. Not all the time were they the fastest. However, they enjoyed the game and were stable, bold, and extremely intelligent.”
Duke Tobin stated of his father in the same narrative, “I’m proud to look at myself as an extension of him.”We both view players in the same light. Guys who are important members of their teams are liked by us. Men who improved the team performance. made the greatest effort possible. Eliminate the players who just play because they can, not because they want to.”
Bill Tobin was raised on a farm in Missouri. He met Dusene Vunovich, the future wife and Miss Missouri 1960, while attending Columbia University to play running back. The 49ers selected him in the 14th round of the 1963 draft, but he spent a year with the AFL Oilers before spending a few seasons playing in Canada. After becoming his coach at Missouri, Dan Devine, the new head coach of the Packers, called him into the league, and a scout was born.
“At his core, he loved to scout,” Potts stated. “Many individuals are only interested in the outcome. He cherished the procedure and many of the small nuances involved in the scouting process. He enjoyed doing that work.
“The amount of experience and knowledge he had and the talent and skill that he had on top of his work ethic was unbelievable. Even the last year he was working. He was working as hard as anybody and very detailed for a guy like me, that rubs off on you. You can see why he was successful everywhere he went in his career.”
Tobin bridged the eras from carrying projectors on scouting trips to using a laptop to punch up video. He’s got a ninth Hall-of-Famer in the wings. Although he didn’t call the shot on Georgia tackle Geno Atkins in the fourth round in 2010, he scouted him early and often in his region and recommended him enthusiastically.
Bengals coaches also got along well with Tobin. In a 2020 Bengals.com story, former secondary coach Kevin Coyle recalled how they compared notes daily before the 2006 draft and the selection of South Carolina cornerback Johnathan Joseph, a player that became a 15-year NFL standout.
“Bill Tobin always said the toughest position to evaluate is quarterbacks and corners coming off college tape,” Coyle said.
The no-nonsense man Coyle kiddingly called “Crusty,” had another side beyond the demanding detail man who detested what he viewed as non-essential personnel in the draft room. They just might spill the beans, he feared. He once told a wide-eyed employee, “We had guard dogs in Chicago,” but he said it with a smile.
“I can’t say enough good things about the guy and how he treated me as a mentor and a friend,” Potts said. “I learned a ton just being around him.”
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