The San Francisco 49ers are conducting follow-up interviews with George Paton on Friday and Terry McDonough on Saturday, and will hopefully get something sorted out at that point. However, if neither candidate works out, the team will have to consider other options. Jed York has said the team will hire externally, but just for completeness, we wanted to go through Tom Gamble’s background, as we did with Paton and McDonough.
Gamble received his bachelor’s degree from High Point University in 1984 and a master’s degree from Rowan University in 1988. He is presently assistant general manager of the 49ers.
Tom Gable grew up in a football family. His father was head coach of both Lafayette University and the University of Pennsylvania before joining the Philadelphia Eagles and eventually becoming General Manager in 1985 and President from 1986 to 1995.
1988-1994
Tom worked for the Eagles from 1988 to 1994. He held a number of different position during that time such as College scouting administer, area scout, contract negotiator, and director of pro scouting.
1995-1996
Defense assistant for the New York Jets
1997
Pro scout for Baltimore Ravens
1998 -2004
College scout for the Colts under Bill Polian
2005-2011
Director of Pro Personnel with the 49ers under Scot McCloughan
Tom’s main job was to monitor every NFL roster with an emphasis on scouting talent of upcoming free agents while also maintaining continuous depth of personnel of the 49ers roster but he also worked with Trent Baalke starting in 2010 in collegiate scouting in order to maximize the use of his talent evaluation expertise.
2012
Director of Player Personnel with 49ers after Baalke was promoted to General Manager
2013-2014
Vice President of Player Personnel with the Eagles
2015
Director of Player Personnel with the 49ers
2016
Assistant General Manager with the 49ers.
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It is really too bad the Philadelphia Inquirer has archived a couple of articles that I read earlier in the year. One of them was from an interview with Gamble when he first arrived in Philadelphia. Gamble basically stated what a great team Harbaugh, Baalke and he made. The almost immediate falling out between Baalke and Harbaugh after he left, makes me wonder if Gamble was the glue holding the three together.
The second was an interview with Baalke where he was acting rather clueless by rambling on about the next man up after being asked how he planned to replace Gamble. That obviously did not work since Joel Patton only lasted a year.
I have always wondered why McCloughan and the Jed continually passed over Gamble for Baalke when it seemed like Gamble had better football intelligence and the kind of personality that gets along with others. I think Gamble would probably make a good GM in the NFL but his ability to get along with others may be a double edged sword. Everyone knows nice guy finish last.
Hopefully we hire Shanahan and Paton and they actually want Gamble to stick around as the Assistant General Manager. I think that has a great chance of being a winning combination.
Couple of other tidbits.
Gamble interviewed for General Manager with the Jets Chargers and Jaguars in 2013. He refused a second interview with the Jaguars to concentrate on the job with the Jets that he did not end up getting.
A Few Interesting Links
Gamble is considered around the league, and shown by the list, as one of the top talent evaluators in the NFL. As director of player personnel, it is safe to assume that Gamble had a fair amount to do with the acquisition of running back Darren Sproles, as well as the signing of safety Malcolm Jenkins -- two moves that have played a huge role in the Eagles' success this season.
http://www.nj.com/eagles/index.ssf/2014/12/will_another_team_try_to_hire.html
A very demoralizing view of Gamble from bleeding green nation
http://www.bleedinggreennation.com/2015/1/29/7947713/san-francisco-49ers-tom-gamble-senior-
Speculation about Harbaugh and Gamble taking jobs together with the Raiders in 2014 by Tim Kamakawi (Kawakami).
Tom Gamble Bio
http://www.49ers.com/team/staff/tom-gamble/17f5afbb-6679-4250-bc18-6bfb470bb433