When the Godfather of the NFL speaks, people listen, people learn and people change.
Since 1959, the year he was drafted by the Cleveland Browns in the 5th round, John Wooten has been a fixture in professional Football. After retiring from the game in 1969, Wooten has held a multitude of executive roles in player personnel and scouting with NFL teams including the Cowboys, Ravens and Eagles, and currently acts as chairman of the Fritz Pollard Alliance.

“Respectfully, professionally and affectionately, John Wooten is known as the Godfather, because of the breadth and depth of his service and what he has meant to the NFL as a player, scout and front office executive,” acknowledges Ray Anderson, former NFL Executive Vice-President of Football Operations.

Wooten has long fought for diversity and inclusion in the sport, helping to establish the “Rooney Rule” requiring teams to interview minority candidates for head coaching and senior football operations positions in the league. As chairman of the Fritz Pollard Alliance, Wooten has helped establish processes to develop talented minority candidates for NFL positions.

A longtime mentor in our Football GM and Scouting course, John Wooten brings a perspective that not many in the business of sports can replicate.