HENDERSON, Nev. -- Two decades before he was running the Las Vegas Raiders, John Spytek got his foot in the door of an NFL franchise as an intern for the Detroit Lions. For six weeks in 2004, he was earning $250 a week assisting the operations staff, and occasionally spent time with scouts in the film room.
The young intern from Pewaukee, Wisconsin, would arrive at the facility early and stay late, gobbling up projects and asking for more, despite this not being his only job.
"I bartended at a bar in Ann Arbor for three nights a week just to make ends meet," Spytek, now the Raiders' general manager, told ESPN.