The New York Giants officially announced the hiring of team legend Chris Snee on Friday. He joins the personnel department as a senior scout.
“I’m super excited about it,” Snee said. “I’m a Giant, and I always have been, despite having worn Jaguars clothes for four years when I scouted down there. Everyone knows my heart has always been here. This is where I feel like I belong and where I want to be, and I’m going to come in and work my tail off.”
Snee previously spent four seasons working for his father-in-law and retired Giants head coach, Tom Coughlin, with the Jacksonville Jaguars from 2017-2020.
“By the final year, it evolved into defensive line as well, which is kind of the natural progression,” Snee said. “I’m sure every scout will tell you they have their positions that they’re stronger at evaluating, but I definitely would like to be able to evaluate all positions and learn. Never been a guy to come in and think I know everything because I don’t. I’m in there and I want to continue to listen to those who have done it for years, which is what I did in Jacksonville. I kind of listened to those vets down there. That’s what I’ll do in this case, too. Just continue to learn the world of scouting.”
After his time with the Jags, Snee spent two seasons serving as an analyst with Boston College. Now he’s back where it all began.
“It came about by me sending a text,” Snee said. “It was one of those where I met with him a few years ago, and I had some things personally that I wanted to see through, so I couldn’t give the amount of time that was required. And then I took the job at B.C. I didn’t want to be there for a few months and leave, so I stayed there for a couple of years and tried to help up there. I think it was March, early March, I sent Joe a text and it kind of went from there.”
Following his retirement, Snee took a break from the game of football but that was short-lived. You can take the man out of football but you can’t take football out of the man.
“It’s been a progression for me,” he said. “The first year I didn’t watch at all. I didn’t watch one game. That was even when Tom was still the coach. I went to a game later that first year. It was just hard for me. And then I’d watch a little, and then it was more and more. The last couple years, I’ve watched as many games as my schedule would allow. If I wasn’t driving to Boston or somewhere else, or coaching (his children’s youth teams), I was watching the game for sure and paying attention. Always rooting for them, but I didn’t watch because I wanted to keep playing. It was just hard to walk away.
“I retired when I was 32. I thought I would be able to kind of survive without the game. Some guys can, but I can’t. I wanted to focus on my family, which I’ve done, but they’re older now and I’ve coached them through their years of youth sports. It probably cost me job opportunities, but I wouldn’t go back and change a thing. Those years you can’t get back. People approached me from the finance world and real estate, and it just boiled down to, do I want to learn something new, or do I want to stay in the game that I love? I love football. I love everything about it. So, even in my years where I wasn’t with an organization, I was still on the field in town coaching the kids or helping out with high school.”
In addition to announcing the Snee hire, the Giants also announced the promotion of two in the personnel department.
Nick La Testa, who was a pro scout, is now the assistant director of pro scouting. Charles Tisch, a football operations assistant, is now the manager, football administration.
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