Former Panthers interns now GMs

But Beane said working his way from the bottom up has given him a perspective he needed — and winning several executive of the year awards suggests the lessons took hold.

“I think the thing being an intern gives you, you see how the sausage is made,” Beane said Tuesday. “You see every little nook and cranny. You’re dealing with players, you’re dealing with doctors, you’re dealing with coaches. You may have to run an errand for the owner, or work with the GM. You’re helping any area that needs anything, from running errands, to taking players to the airport. You see everything.

“You have an appreciation for the people doing a lot of the work that doesn’t get credit. I know to not just sit in my office, and that I need to go down to the equipment room, and just have some laughs, talk through some of the things I saw as an intern.”

Beane said as he worked in football operations, former GM Marty Hurney introduced him to the mechanics of the salary cap (the same way former Washington and San Diego GM Bobby Beathard did for Hurney in the ’80s and ’90s). When he started, it was a magnetic board on the wall, that gave him introduction to personnel around the league. He was able to add to those duties over the years, but said there’s a different appreciation for it when you’ve done the laundry.

“If you get plopped into a high and mighty seat, you might not realize what some of the lower-level people have to do,” Beane said. “You understand all the dynamics, what departments affect the others.

“To me, I don’t know that I’d have had that perspective from the GM’s seat without having to come up the way I did.”