Like another Chicagoan who recently made some news, Christian Sarkisian's family came from all over way back to huddle up in Chicago. This headline lands him on the lakefront again as Northwestern’s general manager for athletics.
It's not exactly the stuff of Pope Leo XIV, but Sarkisian also brings a resume as varied as his lineage after serving seven years as a Bengals full-service scout.
He began his career in the coaches' box charting for head coach Marvin Lewis' defense, sat in meetings as the club chose Zac Taylor as head coach, and ended it last month in director of player personnel Duke Tobin's draft room in charge of the trade value chart he helped develop.
"I feel extremely grateful for my time in Cincinnati. I don't think that there was a better situation for a young scout to learn from in terms of growth," said Sarkisian Monday from his Northwestern office. "You're with the ownership family every day that you're in the office, and their only focus is how to win games and be the best at winning games that they can be from top to bottom. I had a lot of really unique exposures, just because of the way that Duke and the family have decided to structure the personnel department.
"The great thing about that structure is you have your hands involved in so much. You can see how everything works in conjunction. You can see the importance of communication, and leadership, and operating with a clear plan and being as organized as possible."
Sarkisian continues to be intertwined with the Bengals and Northwestern. After his grandfather became one of the greatest players in Wildcats history, Alex Sarkisian became a high draft pick of Bengals founder Paul Brown's 1948 Cleveland Browns. Seventy-seven years later, Brown's son saluted Sarkisian's grandson.
"Christian has been an invaluable member of the Bengals organization since he joined the team seven years ago," said Bengals President Mike Brown. "He is bright and hard-working, but most importantly, he is a good person. He deserves this opportunity. Northwestern made a smart move in hiring him."
As a 32-year-old executive, Sarkisian learned many of the skills in the Bengals front office that Northwestern and the rest of the nation's colleges seek on the rapidly shifting landscape of intercollegiate athletics.
According to Northwestern's press release, Sarkisian oversees "all aspects of salary cap management for Northwestern Athletics, with a primary emphasis on football." He's responsible "for developing and executing the department's revenue-sharing strategy, including tracking and distributing revenue share payments and additional scholarship allocations."
He's also the point person for "student-athlete evaluations, contract negotiations, and will be accountable for the Name, Image, and Likeness (NIL) clearinghouse."
But Sarkisian is a lot more than that to people such as Alex Spanos, Northwestern's director of football performance.
When Spanos played high school football in Chicago's western suburbs at Maine South High School, he went against Sarkisian's team from New Trier High School on the north shore. After Sarkisian graduated from Miami of Ohio, he got his Master's while working in a scouting role for Northwestern at the same time Spanos worked in the weight room.
"He brings a lot of passion. He's a hometown guy. He's got deep ties to the program. He's motivated to make a huge impact," Spanos says. "He's a team player. He's an extremely bright, driven, and personable individual who thrives on making connections."
Spanos has seen it right away this week with Sarkisian wasting no time making himself at home once again.
"He's hit the ground hot. That's the type of person he is," Spanos says. "He's not trying just to get his feet wet. He's got boots on the ground. He's not walking, he's sprinting. In my office. In meetings. In the weight room. Forming relationships right away.
"He comes from an incredible organization where they have some of the best prospects in the world. I'm fired up to see what he'll bring from them."
Sarkisian is as Chicago as deep dish. He can recite how his grandfather came to the U.S. from Armenia in the 1930s when he was in high school and chose Northwestern over Alabama to start a College Football Hall of Fame career. Alex Sarkisian went right from being a two-way captain of the Rose Bowl champs to an assistant coach for them. Last month as prepared for the draft, Christian Sarkisian's most-up-to-date files shared a desk with some of his grandfather's yellowed playbooks.
When he went home for Mother's Day last weekend, it was another reminder that he was the first male on his mother's side to get a college degree.
"She came from Puerto Rico and grew up in East Chicago," Sarkisian says. "So my whole family ended up meeting in Chicago."
But his life took a big turn through Cincinnati when Duke Tobin hired him in 2018. Like he does with his other scouts, Tobin didn't blink in giving him large areas to scout in college, or divisions to scout in the league (AFC North or NFC South), as well as big projects to research.
For example, the trade value chart. Sarkisian teamed with Caroline Blackburn, senior manager of digital strategy, and Sam Francis, football data analyst, to create it, and he oversaw it during the draft.
"Christian is perfect for this vital leadership role at Northwestern," Tobin said. "He has a keen eye for talent on all levels and a great feel for what it takes to succeed. He's a team player with outstanding organizational skills and leadership."
The Bengals had such an impact on Sarkisian, he wants to replicate a similar all-inclusive approach at his new job.
"One huge thing I'm taking from my time with the Bengals and I'm instituting here at Northwestern is I am not going to silo anyone into just doing either high school or college scouting," Sarkisian said. "Just like with the Bengals, they didn't silo us into pro or college scouting, and I think that it allowed us to have a lot more conversations.
"There's a lot higher level of interconnectedness. There's a lot higher level of like a family environment, and it just fosters a lot more conversation and involving perspectives that maybe other NFL teams are missing."
Sarkisian may be back on the lake, but he knows he got there through his opportunity on the river.
"They let me pursue my dream of being in an NFL front office," said Sarkisian from his new office.
