The Giants hired Hannah Burnett as their Midlands scout on Thursday. She is the first full-time woman in a scouting position in the franchise’s 95-year history.
Burnett, 25, was an events operations intern at the Buffalo Bills’ training camp in 2017, did a four-month stint as a player personnel assistant in the NFL office and was hired by the Atlanta Falcons in November 2018 where she worked as a liaison between players, agents and schools to schedule workouts, watched college tape and attended pro days, bowl games and the NFL scouting combine. Her athletic background includes playing lacrosse, soccer and basketball at Huntington High School in Long Island before extending her lacrosse career at the University of Massachusetts.
Burnett interviewed on Zoom this spring with vice president of football operations Kevin Abrams, director of college scouting Chris Pettit and assistant director of player personnel Tim McDonnell before being hired shortly after speaking with general manager Dave Gettleman.
Making history with the Giants isn’t Burnett’s primary goal.
“The only thing I care about is for us to win the Super Bowl,” Burnett said in a statement released by the team. “Our main goal as a team is to win a Super Bowl. That’s my goal, that’s everybody’s goal.”
Connie Carberg was the NFL’s first female scout. She worked in a scouting role with the New York Jets from 1976-80.
Burnett wasn’t the only addition this offseason as the Giants overhauled their football operations and coaching staffs. Among the other recently announced changes were the hiring of Dr. Lani Lawrence as the director of wellness and clinical services. She will oversee the team’s player engagement/development program which was run by Giants legend David Tyree, who is no longer with the organization.
Former football operations coordinator Ed Triggs is now director of football operations, Ty Siam’s new title is director of football data and innovation, Courtney Kennedy was added as a football data analyst after interning with the team last year, Marquis Pendleton was promoted to area scout after spending the previous four years as the team’s BLESTO scout, Blaise Bell is the new BLESO scout, Craig Fitzgerald come from the University Tennessee to be the director of strength and performance, Sam Coad is the new performance manager/assistant strength coach and Nick Williams comes from Alabama as an offensive assistant on the staff of first-year head coach Joe Judge.