FILE - Catherine Hickman, assistant GM & vice president of football operations for the Cleveland Browns, is pictured during an interview at an NFL football practice, Thursday, Nov. 2, 2023, in Berea, Ohio. (AP Photo/Sue Ogrocki, File)
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) – The Tennessee Titans have been granted permission to interview Catherine Hickman by the Cleveland Browns as the team looks for a new general manager, a person familiar with the request told The Associated Press.
Hickman, from Montreal, has been assistant general manager and vice president of football operations with the Browns since 2022 after being hired in 2019 as the football operations coordinator for the Philadelphia Eagles. The person spoke Wednesday with The AP on condition of anonymity because neither team is commenting on interview requests.
She currently is the NFL’s highest-ranking executive with a team. Meeting with Hickman will help Tennessee meet the Rooney Rule that requires a team to interview at least two outside candidates who are either a person of color or female for the Titans’ general manager opening. The Titans controlling owner is Amy Adams Strunk.
Hickman, who went by Catherine Raîche before her marriage last year, previously worked for the Montreal Alouettes of the Canadian Football League, where she began as an intern and eventually was promoted to assistant GM before joining the Toronto Argonauts.
The Titans sent out several requests for interviews to fill the GM job that opened Tuesday with the firing of Ran Carthon after two seasons on the job. He was the franchise’s first Black general manager, and he was fired after the Titans went 9-25 in his tenure. Chad Brinker, the Titans president of football operations, is running the search and told the AP on Tuesday that they already had lots of interest in the job.
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AP freelance writer Tom Withers contributed to this report.
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