Cowboys scout Chris Vaughn shares how team picked his son during viral NFL draft moment

One of the best moments from the 2023 NFL draft last weekend came from the Dallas Cowboys, who drafted Kansas State running back Deuce Vaughn, the son of their assistant college scouting director Chris Vaughn.

Deuce Vaughn was atop the Cowboys’ draft board when the No. 212 pick in the sixth round, but Chris Vaughn didn’t pound the table for his son.

Vaughn was already focused on undrafted free agents the franchise would target following the draft before he was asked to join the Cowboys’ draft room to discuss several players.

“I’m not thinking we’re taking Deuce, because when I come in, we’re talking about a couple other players as options,” Vaughn told Sports Illustrated following the draft.

“I commented on the guys we’re talking about, the positives, the negatives of taking him there. I’m completely team first, but yeah, there’s that inner struggle. Once we finished that conversation, we as a group decided on a player. We went on the clock; I thought we were taking that player.”

Vaughn was completely out of the loop with regards to the pick, according to the report.

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But Cowboys owner Jerry Jones and many other members of the organization in the draft room knew the decision they were going to make.

They didn’t let Vaughn know until it was time to make the pick, to which Jones wrote Deuce Vaughn’s name on a napkin and gave to Chris Vaughn.

“That when I was thinking, like, ‘Oh my goodness, we’re gonna take him,’” Vaughn said to Sports Illustrated.

The moment ended all of the intrigue both Chris and Deuce had about where Deuce would be taken in the draft to begin his NFL career, and it was captured and shared virally on social media.

Deuce Vaughn – who rushed for 1,404 yards as a junior and 1,558 yards as a senior, despite his 5-5, 179-pound stature – is now a member of the Cowboys.

“You want to come to work with me next week,” Chris Vaughn asked his son.

“I wouldn’t mind that at all,” Deuce Vaughn responded before speaking with Jones.

“Everybody really in the heart of the Dallas Cowboys is standing here with a tear in their eye,” Jones told Deuce Vaughn. “We’re so happy to have you on the Dallas Cowboys.”

“I can’t thank you enough,” Deuce Vaughn said.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Dallas Cowboys scout didn't know son Deuce Vaughn would be drafted