Photo: EyeEm
The Minnesota Vikings have named Kwesi Adofo-Mensah as the team's new general manager. Mensah who comes to Minnesota by way of Cleveland was not originally slated for a career in the NFL but after dabbling on Wall Street he landed a job with the San Francisco 49ers.
But it was a change encounter in an elevator bay at the NFL combine that really jump-started his career and meteoric rise to become a general manager in the NFL.
After joining the Cleveland Browns in 2020 as the Vice President of Football Operations, Mensah met the Cleveland media and share a story that led to his hiring with the Browns.
As Kwesi told the story, he wasn't exactly an extrovert but found himself inclined to introduce himself to Andrew Berry as the pair waited for an elevator to arrive at the 2019 NFL Scouting Combine. At the time Berry was the Vice President of Player Personnel for the Philadelphia Eagles.
"There was something about him that made me want to [talk to him]," Adofo-Mensah shared. "I had heard about him in league circles and it was somebody I’d always wanted to meet...I guess some co-workers had talked about me, so it was a mutual wanting to meet each other. We took the elevator up and walked to our suites and talked football and life for 10 or 15 minutes, exchanged numbers and decided it was a relationship we wanted to pursue...I knew he was going to be in the position he was in, you talk to that guy for five minutes and know where he’s going to be in his life. But I didn’t know this was going to be the manifestation of our relationship. So humbled, honored that he believes enough in me and the organization believes enough in me for this position. I’m going to do everything in my power to make sure I repay that."
One year later, Berry found his way to Cleveland as their new General Manager and reconnected with Kwesi to bring him on staff and the rest is history. Two years later Adofo-Mensah himself was named the new General Manager of the Minnesota Vikings!
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