Detroit General Manager Brad Holmes: From an HBCU to a rental car counter to the brink of a Super Bowl
OPINION: The North Carolina A&T alum started from the bottom on his way to becoming GM of the Detroit Lions. Now his team is one win away from its first Super Bowl.
Editor’s note: The following article is an op-ed, and the views expressed are the author’s own. Read more opinions on theGrio.
With only 32 teams in the NFL, aspiring front-office professionals can’t be choosy when an opportunity arises. That’s especially true for Black job seekers who often only get a shot with fixer-upper franchises like the Detroit Lions.
But when you graduate from an HBCU and work the counter at Enterprise Rent-A-Car while trying to launch your career, the prospect of shepherding a perennial loser doesn’t faze you. If all that’s required for a turnaround is smarts, hard work and a little good fortune, you like your chances. Where do we sign?
A laughingstock in 2021, the Lions chose Brad Holmes as their executive vice president and general manager. He became the league’s third Black GM at the time, rewarded for 18 years of service with the St. Louis/Los Angeles Rams. Three years into the job, with Detroit on the brink of its first Super Bowl, it’s safe to say Holmes is crushing it.
This is why we love sports and movies, where inspirational stories enjoy the most visibility. Holmes isn’t the only person who started as an intern in his chosen field and worked his way up to a corner office. But real-life mailroom-to-boardroom tales don’t garner as much coverage as an NFL team reaching a conference final for the first time since 1991.
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Thanks to Holmes’ shrewd roster-building (he’s acquired roughly half the players), the Lions have won two playoff games in a single postseason for the first time since 1957. If they prevail against San Francisco on Sunday and advance to the Super Bowl, I fully expect more guttural yells in the postgame elevator.
Not bad for a guy who graduated from North Carolina A&T with a degree in journalism and mass communications. Hell, he started out as a public relations intern — in the NBA! — after playing defensive tackle and helping A&T win the HBCU national title in 1999.
“I moved back home and was renting cars for Enterprise,” Holmes said on “The Season with Peter Schrager” podcast. “An opportunity came about with the Atlanta Hawks. I could only work 40 hours a week with the Atlanta Hawks; it was a media relations trainee position. Enterprise allowed me to work part-time at the Atlanta airport. I would rent cars until about 11 o’clock at night.”
Plenty of HBCU alums are familiar with that hustle, clocking hours at side gigs while focusing on their true quest. Former Hawks communications chief Arthur Triche knew Holmes’ heart and offered to introduce him to NFL PR directors at the 2003 All-Star Game — which happened to be in Atlanta. Holmes had a lunch interview with the Rams’ Duane Lewis, who offered a PR internship. “I just packed a U-Haul and drove to St. Louis,” Holmes said.
Holmes showed his writing samples to Rams general manager Charley Armey, which led to a scouting internship, which led to a number of jobs in the player personnel department, ending at director of college scouting. “It was intimidating,” he said. “You just had to be ready for that moment.”
He was integral in acquiring Pro Bowlers such as Aaron Donald, Jared Goff, Todd Gurley and Cooper Kupp before the Lions called. “If you’re convicted on what you want to do, people will tell you no,” Holmes said. “But you have to use a no as fuel to keep going. You have to be convicted and know that you’re not going to have the easiest path.”
This can mean openings like Detroit, which had only five winning seasons this century before his arrival. Holmes has proven himself quickly, hitting on draft picks that were widely criticized but formed the foundation of a team that’s won 22 of its last 29 games. Detroit’s regular-season record has steadily improved from 3-13-1 to 9-8 to 12-5, making Holmes a candidate for the 2024 NFL Executive of the Year award.
He’s among several Black GMs in the league today, but perhaps the only one who started in PR. Like others who dream of ascending the ladder, Holmes sought counsel from insiders but found the answer in the mirror.
“You’re asking all these GMs, current GMs, former GMs, mentors that I had, ‘What is the best advice?’” he said on “The GM Journey” podcast. “You’re gathering all this information, and you keep hearing this reoccurring theme: Be yourself. And I’m like, that sounds cliche, there’s got to be something else, there’s got to be some other magic sauce that you sprinkle, that you have to nail in the interview.
“And after I was offered the job and humbly, gladly accepted, that was what it all came back to. It was just being myself.”
That’s why he’s comfortable hollering in elevators.
The city of Detroit and Lions fans everywhere are ready to yell with him.
Deron Snyder, from Brooklyn, is an award-winning columnist who lives near D.C. and pledged Alpha at HU-You Know! He’s reaching high, lying low, moving on, pushing off, keeping up, and throwing down. Got it? Get more at blackdoorventures.com/deron.
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