George Chahrouri talking with Dan Patrick in September 2020. George Chahrouri talking with Dan Patrick in September 2020. (The Dan Patrick Show.)

At smaller media companies, it’s not unexpected to see major internal moves that aren’t revealed to or noted by the outside world for a while. It’s a little different to see that at a company with the size and profile of Pro Football Focus, though.

In an extensive feature published Sunday, Front Office Sports’ A.J. Perez dove into that company. It’s had a fair bit going for it; its primary owner is NBC analyst Cris Collinsworth (who bought a majority stake from founder Neil Hornsby for $6 million in 2016), it sold a minority stake to private equity firm Silver Lake for $50 million in 2019 (in a deal valuing the whole company at $160 million), and it has all 32 NFL teams as clients, as well as more than 150 college and minor-league teams.

But Perez’s piece has a lot to say about the various challenges facing PFF. Those include advances in machine learning and NFL Next Gen Stats analysis that are fueling competitors and may get them closer to PFF’s manual-charting focus. He also discusses the high-level people who have left over the past two years, including Eric Eager (VP, research and development), Geoff Lane (head of engineering), Rick Drummond (general manager of football), and Brad Spielberger (research and development analyst).

The most notable things in there may be about the company’s former general manager (consumer), George Chahrouri. Chahrouri started at the company as a data scientist in 2017, but soon took on a larger role. He moved to director (research and development) in 2018, executive director (R&D, product, and content) in 2019, and that GM (consumer) role in 2020. And he ticked off many people along the way.

In his feature, Perez writes that Chahrouri was “quietly fired” from the company earlier this year (despite him still listing it on his X/Twitter and LinkedIn pages). He gets confirmation from a spokesperson that Chahrouri no longer works there, and gets a lot of significant quotes on Chahrouri from anonymous ex-PFF staffers. Here’s some of that:

Chahrouri’s two-year tenure was a complete disaster. The years since 2022 have seen an exodus of talent, and the private equity war chest is nearly spent with little but a new iPhone app to show for it. Chahrouri was quietly fired earlier this year, a move that seemingly came out of the blue but one that was a relief to many of those who worked under him.

“It was long overdue,” one former PFF staffer told Front Office Sports on condition of anonymity.

…Multiple former PFF employees told FOS that the exodus largely stemmed from Chahrouri’s mismanagement. PFF also did its only round of layoffs in late 2022, cutting 16 full-time employees, mostly from the consumer side.

…“George was incredible at convincing people like Cris Collinsworth that he could help make them a billion-dollar company,” one former employee says. “He was next-level terrible at managing people below him.”

…Chahrouri’s management style—which multiple former employees described as far harsher than Hornsby’s—was met with skepticism, a combination of Chahrouri’s shorter résumé and his decisions at the helm that failed to propel the site forward. Chahrouri regularly dressed down employees in meetings and over Slack leading to a toxic environment, multiple former employees told FOS. A social media manager who worked under Chahrouri alleged mistreatment in a lawsuit that led PFF to settle with that former employee for $20,000, according to [Matthew] Coller’s [2023] book

…“When I got asked what was the last straw [for Chahrouri], I had to laugh. He’s been this way the whole [expletive] time,” the former employee said. 

Of course, there are potential other perspectives here. Chahrouri didn’t return FOS’ requests for comment, PFF spokesperson Tonya Carruthers only confirmed he doesn’t work there any more, and all of the comments on him in this piece are from anonymous former employees. But it’s still remarkable to see an exec at a company with this level of funding seemingly pushed out this quietly, and to see so many brutal comments about his leadership (and citation of him as the reason for talent leaving) from ex-staffers. And it’s notable to see the confirmation that he has left; it will be interesting to see where PFF goes from here, especially with that added competition Perez also cites.

[Front Office Sports; image from The Dan Patrick Show on YouTube]

About Andrew Bucholtz

Andrew Bucholtz has been covering sports media for Awful Announcing since 2012. He is also a staff writer for The Comeback. His previous work includes time at Yahoo! Sports Canada and Black Press.