Former San Francisco 49ers safety Merton Hanks is moving to a new job with Conference USA, as Commissioner in charge of football and baseball operations. However, his departure to college football did not happen until after he spoke with the 49ers about a job, according to Mike Freeman.
There is no word on what role was discussed with the 49ers. The team has brought in ex-players in ambassador and various player development roles. Maybe Hanks wanted to get into that, maybe he wanted to get into football operations. We don’t know, and so, he is off to college football.
Hanks had previously served as VP of Operations for player conduct, before stepping down in April. Pro Football Talk reported at the time that it was part of a move by the NFL to upgrade the department, but there were no other specifics about the departure. Hanks was off the radar after that, before news recently of his hiring by Conference USA.