{"id":541873,"date":"2026-01-25T13:32:22","date_gmt":"2026-01-25T13:32:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/541873\/"},"modified":"2026-01-25T13:32:22","modified_gmt":"2026-01-25T13:32:22","slug":"vince-ferragamo-turned-rams-football-lessons-in-lifetime-achievements","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/541873\/","title":{"rendered":"Vince Ferragamo turned Rams football lessons in lifetime achievements"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The sixth in an occasional series<\/a> of profiles on Southern California athletes who have flourished in their post-playing careers.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s been nearly four decades since Vince Ferragamo<\/a> took his last NFL snap and most of his football exploits have been eclipsed by the passage of time.<\/p>\n

The 509 passing yards he had in a 1982 loss to the Chicago Bears, most in an NFL game in 31 years? It\u2019s been bettered 14 times. The club-record 30 passing touchdowns in 1980? That\u2019s now seventh on the team\u2019s single-season list.<\/p>\n

But there\u2019s one milestone no man, not even Father Time, can ever take away from Ferragamo. At the end of the 1979 season, he became the first quarterback to take the Rams to the Super Bowl<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The team has returned to the NFL championship game four times since then. A Rams\u2019 win over the Seattle Seahawks in Sunday\u2019s conference title game will keep alive Matthew Stafford\u2019s chance to become the first quarterback in franchise history to win the Super Bowl twice.<\/p>\n

Ferragamo, however, got them there first.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere was just something so mystical about the whole thing,\u201d says Ferragamo, who made his first NFL start that season.<\/p>\n

He competes in a different arena now, managing a mortgage company and an eponymous real estate firm. He and his wife, Jodi, have helped raise millions for a variety of local charities and they also grow the grapes for their boutique wine label on 230 vines next to their home in central Orange County. The transition from the gridiron to the regular grind has been seamless.<\/p>\n

\u201cFootball prepares you for life beyond football,\u201d he said. \u201cMore than anything it adds credibility to my work. They have to trust you. We\u2019ve built our whole company around that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ferragamo\u2019s football career also depended on earning trust. Although he was tall and blessed with a strong right arm, Ferragamo had to win over critics everywhere he played, beginning in high school where he had to convince his brother, the coach, he should start.<\/p>\n

After two years at Cal, where he had to share playing time, Ferragamo transferred to Nebraska and became an All-American. Yet the Rams<\/a> waited five picks and four rounds before selecting him in the 1977 draft, then handed him a clipboard and told him to find a spot on the bench.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere was a lot of trials and tribulations. A lot of ups and downs,\u201d Ferragamo said. \u201cBut I think it teaches how to live life that way. Because every day you wake up with struggle.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Rams <\/p>\n

Rams quarterback Vince Ferragamo prepares to take a snap during a game in 1980.<\/p>\n

(Associated Press)<\/p>\n

Yet for one glorious two-month stretch in the winter of 1979-80, the struggle was over and Ferragamo was arguably the best quarterback in the NFL, engineering one of the most improbable playoff runs in Rams history.<\/p>\n

After starter Pat Haden<\/a> was injured and rookie backup Jeff Rutledge proved ineffective, Ferragamo took over a team with a losing record. He was supposed to just finish out the season; instead, he carried the Rams to four consecutive victories.<\/p>\n

He led the Rams to road playoff wins over Dallas and Tampa Bay, the first time in franchise history the Rams had won two playoff games in the same season.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe began to show us that he had the arm to make the plays,\u201d said Hall of Fame offensive tackle Jackie Slater, Ferragamo\u2019s longtime teammate. \u201cThat\u2019s when everybody began to rally to give the young guy as much support as we possibly could.<\/p>\n

\u201cEverybody kicked it up a notch. And that\u2019s what makes a good quarterback right? His leadership brings that out of you, makes you all a little bit better than you might have been without him.\u201d<\/p>\n

In the Super Bowl, played before nearly 104,000 people at the Rose Bowl \u2014 still the largest crowd to attend a Super Bowl \u2014 Ferragamo had the Rams leading heading into the fourth quarter before the Pittsburgh Steelers rallied to claim their fourth championship.<\/p>\n

He won just one more playoff game, retiring seven years later following a career<\/a> that took him to four cities and two countries \u2014 but just one Super Bowl.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t really have any regrets when I look back on my career,\u201d Ferragamo, 71, said earlier this month, surrounded by football memorabilia in his second-floor corner office in Anaheim Hills. \u201cIf everything was just carte blanche and just easy for you, it wouldn\u2019t be worth living. So there\u2019s always a challenge.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe ups and downs, maybe that\u2019s what kept me going.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Vince <\/p>\n

Vince Ferragamo stands in his home wine cellar in Orange County.<\/p>\n

(Allen J. Schaben \/ Los Angeles Times)<\/p>\n

Ferragamo, the youngest of four children, grew up in Wilmington, which was a gritty, working-class city in the 1960s, much as it is today. His father, Vince Sr., a World War II veteran who dropped out of the school in the eighth grade, was street smart and tough, working his way up to union president of UAW local 923 at Ford\u2019s sprawling Pico Rivera plant.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe was a great role model for me,\u201d Ferragamo remembered. \u201cWe were the only Italian family in the neighborhood. It was, you know, tough, tough beginnings. It makes you desire and appreciate things and help others.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s what football is,\u201d he added. \u201cIf I can help my receiver look good, we all look good.\u201d<\/p>\n

And Ferragamo certainly looked good when he threw a football.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen he was about 14 years old, he\u2019d go out in the front of the house and he\u2019d throw the ball from one light pole to another. It\u2019s a long way,\u201d said Chris Ferragamo, Vince\u2019s eldest brother and his coach and Banning High.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe loved doing that kind of stuff. That\u2019s how he started his throwing ability.\u201d<\/p>\n

Still, Chris, who would go on to win eight City Section titles at Banning, already had a quarterback when Vince joined the team as a sophomore, so he wasn\u2019t about to hand him the starting job just because they were brothers.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople thought it was a cake walk. And it wasn\u2019t,\u201d Vince said.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe never wanted to play me. The other coaches said, \u2018Hey, you\u2019re crazy. You\u2019ve got to play him. He\u2019s better than the other guys.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

So Chris Ferragamo said he talked his returning quarterback into moving to wide receiver and Vince went on to become a high school all-American and the City Section player of the year, eventually earning induction into the California High School Football Hall of Fame<\/a>.<\/p>\n

That earned him a scholarship to Cal, where he played 22 games in two seasons, throwing nearly twice as many interceptions as touchdown passes. The Bears were placed on NCAA probation shortly after Ferragamo enrolled and when he found himself sharing time with Steve Bartkowski<\/a> at quarterback, Ferragamo transferred to Nebraska and proved himself again, leading the Cornhuskers to a 10-2 record in 1975 and the No. 1 spot in the AP preseason poll a year later.<\/p>\n

The critics weren\u2019t convinced, so Ferragamo fell to the fourth round of the NFL draft where he was the 91st player \u2014 and fourth quarterback \u2014 selected.<\/p>\n

\u201cBasically he had to prove himself every place he went,\u201d Chris Ferragamo said. \u201cHe always did.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Rams <\/p>\n

Rams quarterbacks (from left) Joe Namath, Pat Haden and Vince Ferragamo pose for a photo at Cal State Fullerton on July 29, 1977.<\/p>\n

(David F. Smith \/ Associated Press)<\/p>\n

Playing behind Haden and an aging Joe Namath, Ferragamo threw just 15 times as a rookie for a team that lost in the first round of the playoffs. A year later, as Haden\u2019s backup, he threw just a few more passes, the last in a one-sided loss to the Cowboys in the NFC championship game.<\/p>\n

Ferragamo finally got his chance late in 1979. With the Rams struggling at 5-6 and Haden out because of an injured finger on his throwing hand, coach Ray Malavasi<\/a> turned to Ferragamo, who lost just one of seven starts to get the Rams to their first Super Bowl.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe knew Vince had a good, strong arm. And we knew he hadn\u2019t played a lot of NFL games,\u201d Slater said. \u201cSo I think that everybody just kind of relaxed and said that we\u2019ve got to help this young guy be successful. Let\u2019s just make sure we do our jobs and then hopefully our quarterback position won\u2019t be a liability.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd that\u2019s kind of the way it worked out.\u201d<\/p>\n

The play that sealed Ferragamo\u2019s status as the team\u2019s new leader came with just over two minutes remaining in a first-round playoff game in Dallas. With the Rams trailing 19-14, Ferragamo threaded a pass to Billy Waddy, who was surrounded by six Cowboys. Waddy escaped the pack to score on the 50-yard play, Ferragamo\u2019s third touchdown of the game and one he described as \u201ca spiritual pass, one that was guided from up above.\u201d<\/p>\n

The almighty apparently abandoned the Rams three weeks later when they twice blew leads in a 31-19 loss to Pittsburgh in the Super Bowl. Ferragamo had played well, throwing for 212 yards, although a late interception set up the Steelers\u2019 final touchdown.<\/p>\n

Still, the Rams had established themselves as one of the top teams in the NFL. They had made seven consecutive playoff appearances and just two of their starters were over 30. With the 26-year-old Ferragamo taking over at quarterback, the team looked primed to become a perennial Super Bowl contender.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe felt like it was going to be a good team for a long time,\u201d Slater said.<\/p>\n

1 <\/p>\n

\"Vince <\/p>\n

2 <\/p>\n

\"Some <\/p>\n

3 <\/p>\n

\"A <\/p>\n

1.<\/strong> Vince Ferragamo holds his Rams quarterback helmet while viewing memorabilia from his career on display in his home. 2.<\/strong> Some of the memorabilia on display in Ferragamo\u2019s home. (Allen J. Schaben \/ Los Angeles Times) 3.<\/strong> Vince Ferragamo still has many of the footballs from some of his most memorable games. (Allen J. Schaben \/ Los Angeles Times) <\/p>\n

Instead, the Rams won just five playoff games over the next 19 years and didn\u2019t return to the Super Bowl until the 1999 season, their fifth year in St. Louis.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey dismantled the team after our Super Bowl run, which was unfortunate for the L.A. fans,\u201d Ferragamo said. \u201cThey had something in place that could have really been great.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ferragamo\u2019s honeymoon was even shorter. After a spectacular post-Super Bowl season in which he set franchise records by throwing for 3,199 yards and 30 touchdowns, Ferragamo sought a raise from the $52,000 he earned in 1980, the lowest pay for a starting quarterback in the NFL. The Rams reportedly countered with a $250,000 offer during the season, then sweetened that by another $75,000 afterward.<\/p>\n

But Ferragamo, angry that the team hadn\u2019t given him a new deal after the Super Bowl, turned them down and jumped to the Montreal Alouettes of the Canadian Football League, who offered a four-year deal worth about $2 million. That\u2019s when things started to go off the rails.<\/p>\n

A classic drop-back passer, Ferragamo wasn\u2019t suited to the Canadian game, which put a premium on quarterback mobility. As a result, he threw just seven touchdown passes and was intercepted a league-high 25 times, eventually losing the starting job as Montreal stumbled to a 3-13 season.<\/p>\n

Team owner Nelson Skalbania, an engineer and businessman from Vancouver, had an even worse year, first dissolving his company, then declaring bankruptcy, which forced him to return the team to league after one season. Ferragamo, whose contract was not guaranteed, was suddenly unemployed.<\/p>\n

\u201cI went from the Super Bowl back to the bottom,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

He also went back to the Rams, who signed him to a series of one-year contracts valued at approximately $300,000. Over the next three seasons he lost more games than he won and threw more interceptions than touchdown passes before moving on to Buffalo, which had the worst record in the NFL in his only season there.<\/p>\n

His final three games came in a mop-up role for a Green Bay team that went 4-12 in 1986. At 32, his football career was over. But his second act was just beginning.<\/p>\n

Jodi Scarpello was a freshman journalism major at Nebraska when a high school friend introduced her to a transfer student from California. The introduction wasn\u2019t necessary since football was a religion in Lincoln and everyone knew about the handsome quarterback who had come over from Berkeley.<\/p>\n

\u201cI knew what he was doing there,\u201d Scarpello said. \u201cI knew football when I met him.\u201d<\/p>\n

Three years later, after Ferragamo had graduated to the NFL, the couple married and a passion for football became something they shared.<\/p>\n

\"Rams <\/p>\n

Rams quarterback Vince Ferragamo warms up before facing the Chicago Bears at Anaheim Stadium on Nov. 6, 1983.<\/p>\n

(George Rose \/ Getty Images)<\/p>\n

\u201cI used to watch game film. We just watched at home on a reel-to-reel projector,\u201d Jodi said. \u201cI used to sit at games and call plays and people would think \u2018how do you know that?\u2019 I\u2019m a good student.\u201d<\/p>\n

Being the wife of a Super Bowl quarterback had other perks as well.<\/p>\n

\u201cI met, at a charity banquet in Washington D.C., and had a conversation with Coretta Scott King,\u201d she said. \u201cWe just talked about our children. But in my head I was thinking \u2018Oh my God, that is really cool!\u2019<\/p>\n

\u201cWe got to do a lot of traveling and that kind of stuff. It\u2019s pretty amazing, some of the things we were able to do.\u201d<\/p>\n

There were also drawbacks. Unlike today, when wives and children are invited on to the field and sometimes into the locker room, in Ferragamo\u2019s day teams maintained a distance between players and their families.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen Vince was playing, he left on Friday and I didn\u2019t talk to him until he got back on Sunday night,\u201d Jodi said. \u201cHe got hurt one time in Buffalo and he\u2019s rolling around on the ground. He keeps holding his arm. Maybe it\u2019s his hand. I\u2019m thinking, I\u2019m not going to know.\u201d<\/p>\n

When it all came to an end after that dismal season in Green Bay, the Ferragamos still had more than half their lives ahead of them \u2014 yet they were facing a life without football for the first time. Vince had never done anything but play football. Now he would have to learn to live without it.<\/p>\n

So he called an audible and less than a year after retiring, he had a real estate license; eight years later he had his own real estate company. He would later add a mortgage fund.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I retired, I said \u2018what am I going to do\u2019,\u201d remembered Ferragamo. \u201cA lot of guys, when they get out of football they fall on hard times. But I was able to transfer into another field. I also did some investing while I was playing, which was smart. I had some money that could help get me through the transition.\u201d<\/p>\n

The couple, married 47 years, also had three children \u2014 all daughters, Cara, Venessa and Jenna, which proved to be a blessing, their mother said, since none would feel pressured to follow their father into football.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf they were playing now they could probably go play flag football,\u201d Jodi Ferragamo said. \u201cI think it was probably better not to have those kind of comparisons. And they\u2019re all successful in their own way.\u201d<\/p>\n

But if selling real estate paid the bills, wine would become Ferragamo\u2019s new passion.<\/p>\n

With his football money he had purchased an acre lot in a largely equestrian community in central Orange Park Acres converted a horse corral on the property into a vineyard and became a self-taught winemaker, producing award-winning Italian Super Tuscan-style blends. He also became a certified sommelier and lecturer who teaches a community education course on the art and science of winemaking.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m Italian,\u201d he said. \u201cI love all wines.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Vince <\/p>\n

Wine is one of Vince Ferragamo\u2019s many passions outside of football.<\/p>\n

(Allen J. Schaben \/ Los Angeles Times)<\/p>\n

The Ferragamos also created a foundation and have supported multiple causes, ranging from the Special Olympics, Boys & Girls Club and the Alzheimer\u2019s Assn., to the Ronald McDonald House and the Orange Coast Medical Center, where a wing has been named in recognition of the Ferragamo Foundation\u2019s contributions to the fight against breast cancer.<\/p>\n

But football isn\u2019t totally in the rear-view mirror. Ferragamo still attends a couple of Rams games each season, runs a flag football league for grade-school kids and co-hosts the weekly sports-talk show \u201cOn Point Live<\/a>\u201d with Slater.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe hasn\u2019t changed. He\u2019s still Vince,\u201d said Slater, who has known Ferragamo since his rookie season. \u201cHe\u2019s a confident guy, smart guy. And he\u2019s very competitive. So he\u2019s the same guy.<\/p>\n

\u201cKind of laid back. Family guy. Just loves the game of football.\u201d<\/p>\n

The ex-teammates remain close even though Slater says he almost got Ferragamo killed in the quarterback\u2019s penultimate season with the Rams.<\/p>\n

\u201cI got beat clean,\u201d the hulking right tackle said. \u201cMy old high school nemesis, Ben Williams from the Buffalo Bills, beat me and Vince was standing there about to throw and he just put his helmet right in the middle of his back. Oh, it was an ugly thing to see.<\/p>\n

\u201cBlood comes flying out of his mouth. I don\u2019t how he bloodied his mouth when he got hit in the back.\u201d<\/p>\n

That, Ferragamo admits, wasn\u2019t exactly the most memorable moment of his career. Asked to chose the highlight of those 10 years, he leans back in his chair, folds him arms across his chest and thinks for a moment before settling on the obvious answer.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s probably the Super Bowl,\u201d he says, \u201cand leading up to the Super Bowl.\u201d<\/p>\n

After all he was the first Rams quarterback to get that far, a distinction he\u2019ll own forever.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The sixth in an occasional series of profiles on Southern California athletes who have flourished in their post-playing…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":541874,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5123],"tags":[1582,276,238992,238996,238995,1318,2961,238997,224,5337,150649,90726,238994,5950,21686,3007,6620,238993,14164,1628],"class_list":{"0":"post-541873","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-los-angeles","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-california","10":"tag-ferragamo","11":"tag-first-nfl","12":"tag-first-quarterback","13":"tag-football","14":"tag-la","15":"tag-life-achievement","16":"tag-los-angeles","17":"tag-losangeles","18":"tag-playoff-game","19":"tag-ram","20":"tag-rams-star","21":"tag-season","22":"tag-super-bowl","23":"tag-team","24":"tag-time","25":"tag-vince-ferragamo","26":"tag-way","27":"tag-year"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115955993933561896","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/541873","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=541873"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/541873\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/541874"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=541873"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=541873"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=541873"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}