Bobby Grier (American football coach)

Bobby Grier is the current associate director of pro scouting for the Houston Texans of the National Football League.

College
Born in Detroit, Michigan, Grier attended the University of Iowa, where he played football as a running back in the mid-1960s.

High school
Grier began his coaching career at Waterford Kettering High School in Waterford, Michigan as an assistant coach from 1966 through 1969. He then was hired as the head coach at Martin Luther King High School in Detroit in 1970, a position he held through 1973.

College
In 1974, Grier moved to the college ranks, serving as running backs coach for Eastern Michigan University until 1977. He then moved to Boston College, where he was running backs coach for three seasons starting in 1978.

NFL
Then-Patriots head coach Ron Erhardt hired Grier as an offensive backfield coach for the team's 1981 season. From 1982 through 1984, Grier was a college scout for the Patriots, before returning as offensive backfield coach in 1985, a position he held through 1992. In 1993, new head coach Bill Parcells moved Grier back to the personnel department as the Patriots' director of pro scouting. In 1995, Grier was promoted to director of player personnel. When Pete Carroll was hired as head coach in 1997, Grier was again promoted, this time to vice president of player personnel. In early 2000, Carroll was fired and replaced with Bill Belichick. Grier was fired shortly after the 2000 NFL Draft with then-assistant director of player personnel Scott Pioli taking over Grier's responsibilities, despite being instrumental for helping the Patriots draft Tom Brady in the 6th round of the NFL draft, being the only NFL executive to have contacted Lloyd Carr, Brady's college coach, about drafting Brady. Grier then was hired by the Houston Texans in May 2000 as their associate director of pro scouting, two years before the team began play.

Personal
Grier resides in Houston, Texas, has two sons: Chris, the college scouting director for the Miami Dolphins, and Mike Grier, a former National Hockey League player.