. Brandt worked as a photographer who specialized in newborn babies and was employed as a part-time scout for the
Los Angeles Rams based on a recommendation by
Elroy Hirsch. Brandt served as the
Dallas Cowboys' chief talent scout from the club's inception in 1960. such as: • Creating a new scouting and evaluation system for prospects, which would later spread throughout the
NFL. In the
NFL Films' documentary series
Finding Giants,
Ernie Accorsi mentioned how then-general manager
George Young built the
New York Giants scouting process based on the Cowboys system. • Using computers for scouting and talent evaluations. To achieve this level of automatization, the Cowboys had to systematically define which were the traits, measurable qualities and skills that could be expressed into numbers and formulas in order for a computer to understand them. Different traits were prioritized for different positions. • Finding potential prospects in other sports such as:
Bob Hayes,
Cornell Green,
Peter Gent,
Toni Fritsch,
Percy Howard, The Cowboys also set up hospitality suites for coaches at the
NCAA basketball tournaments. • The use of psychology tests to identify the mental and personality make-up of prospects. • Finding players in the
undrafted free agent and small college talent pool, such as
Drew Pearson,
Cliff Harris, and
Everson Walls. • Helped to create the
NFL Scouting Combine as a centralization of the scouting evaluation process. He also made a reputation of acquiring high draft choices by making impactful trades, which were used to select players like
Randy White,
Ed "Too Tall" Jones, and
Tony Dorsett. Brandt was fired from the Cowboys on May 2, 1989 by new owner
Jerry Jones, ostensibly in a cost-cutting move. Brandt's ouster completed a purge that began with Jones' purchase of the franchise just over nine weeks prior on February 25 and also resulted in Landry's firing and Schramm's resignation. ==Dwayne Haskins comments==