With all the activity in the Saints front office lately, it's time to study one of the unsung heroes who is currently busting his butt for the team in this abbreviated free agency/NFL labor reboot period.
Khai Harley has served as the Saints Director of Football Administration since coming to the team in 2008.
Make the jump to learn more about what his job is, and the path he took in getting to the Saints.
Just what does the Saints Director of Football Administration do?
Well, for starters, he eats, breathes, and lives "salary cap" for the Saints (from the team's bio page on him):
...Harley's primary focus is salary cap management. He works in conjunction with the player personnel department, making the club's player acquisitions fit within the structure of the cap.
This paragraph tells us a bit more:
On a daily basis, Harley researches contracts and cap statistics from not only the club but from around the league. It is similar to the daily and yearly reconciliation he did for all 32 clubs in his former position, where he calculated cap figures for each team, made adjustments for the following year and analyzed statistical trends related to player signings.
He also negotiates some player contracts, coordinates certain aspects of the football operations, and has a hand in some of the administrative functions in the running of the team. (These last two items mean absolutely nothing to me.)
OK, now that we all "understand" what his role with the team is, let's see how he got to us...
Harley went to Rutgers (Scarlet Knights RULE!) and earned a degree in Accounting in 1998, and then completed his Master's in Sports Management at Springfield College (Panther Pride?) in 2001. While at Rutgers, he received the National Association of Black Accountants scholarship...twice (go here to read how to apply for it).
Harley can consider himself a self-made man, as it looks like he worked his way through school.
Prior to entering the NFL, Harley was a financial analyst with Bloomberg, L.P. from 1995-2000, analyzing domestic and international bond markets, studying trends in European markets for clients, training employees and international staff and ensuring debt issuance within Emerging, Latin American, and U.S. Private Placement Markets were in compliance with corporate and SEC guidelines.
The Colts gave him his first NFL "job" in 2001 as an intern in football operations. Harley moved to the Philadelphia Eagles next, working for a year as an administrative intern (intern TO THE administrator, perhaps?) in which he spent his time...
gathering data used to determine whether players earned performance-based incentives while also handling other administrative duties
Then the NFL Home Office came a-calling, and he joined it in 2002 as a Player Personnel Analyst, dealing with team compliance with the salary cap, checking into college player eligibility, and studying player contracts.
The next five years bring us to 2008, and saw him working as the Manager of Labor Operations with the NFL Management Council. During this time...
He was responsible for ensuring personnel transactions and player contracts submitted by each team complied with the CBA and the NFL's Constitution & Bylaws while also providing advice to club officials during contract negotiations.
Diversity is a passion of his:
Harley has also been a member of the NFL's Diversity Council since 2005, which is designed to promote diversity throughout the NFL's administrative offices, recommend diversity initiatives and implement/oversee approved programs.
On the personal side, Mr. Khai is from Somerville, NJ, and has three daughters (Na'imah, Samiyah, and Asiah) with his wife Vicky. (Oh, man - I sure hope he doesn't read this blog when we're joking about Mickey and Vicky Neumeyer and think we're talking about his wife...backfiring jokes causing hurt feelings - GAAA!)
Here's a blurb from Dave about Khai back when he came on board in June of 2008. The bit includes a link to a Jersey article about him.
And now you know more about Khai Harley, our Director of Football Operations. Please use this knowledge wisely.
To read this information sans "cuteness", cut in a completely different format, AND to see a picture of the man, go to this SOURCE of mine.