Vince Ferragamo

Vince Anthony Ferragamo (born April 24, 1954) is a former professional football player, a quarterback in the National Football League and Canadian Football League.

College career
Born in Torrance, California, Ferragamo was heavily recruited as an All-American high school quarterback from Phineas Banning High School in Wilmington, where he was the L.A. City Schools MVP. Ferragamo accepted a football scholarship to the University of California, Berkeley. Buried on the quarterback depth chart behind Cal teammate Steve Bartkowski, Ferragamo transferred to top-ranked Nebraska in 1974. As a Cornhusker, he lettered in 1975 and 1976; during his senior season he was All-Big 8 and All-American, and also an Academic All-American.

Ferragamo's Nebraska was ranked No. 1 in 1976 but managed only to tie LSU, 6-6, in a game in Tiger Stadium on September 11. The two teams were said to have waged "unrelenting trench warfare". The LSU record was 6-4-1 against the No. 1 opposing team.

Ferragamo capped off his college career by leading the Huskers to a victory over Texas Tech in the Astro-Bluebonnet Bowl in the Houston Astrodome.

National Football League
He played for the Los Angeles Rams (1977–1980 and 1982–1984), Buffalo Bills (1985) and Green Bay Packers (1985–1986). After leading the 9-7 Rams to road victories over the Dallas Cowboys and Tampa Bay Buccaneers in the 1979 NFL Playoffs, Ferragamo started for the Rams in Super Bowl XIV, in which the Rams led after three quarters of play before falling to the Pittsburgh Steelers 31-19.

Ferragamo enjoyed his best statistical season in 1980 in which he threw for 30 touchdowns, tied for second most in the NFL. The Rams again made the playoffs, but were defeated by Dallas, 34-13 in an NFC Wild Card Playoff game.

Canadian Football League
Ferragamo played for the Montreal Alouettes of the Canadian Football League for just one season in 1981. He was signed to a large contract by both CFL and NFL standards at the time ($600,000, compared to $250,000 the Rams offered him, and the $47,500 they had paid him for 1980.) However, Ferragamo had a difficult time adjusting to the style of Canadian football. Montreal went on to win only 3 games against 13 losses. He was demoted to backup to Gerry Dattilio in the latter half of the season and then third string quarterback for the final 3 games after Ken Johnson arrived in a trade. Ferragamo's last game in the CFL was a loss to the Ottawa Rough Riders in the Eastern semi-final which he watched from the pressbox. His stats during his one season in Montreal were 175 of 342 passes completed (51.2%) for 2175 yards, with 7 TD passes and 25 interceptions.

Return to NFL
On December 26, 1982, Ferragamo threw for 509 yards in a game against the Chicago Bears, at the time the third highest passing mark in league history behind former Ram Norm Van Brocklin. It was the third time in league history that a quarterback had passed for over 500 yards in a game, the first by Norm Van Brocklin (554 yards) and the second by Y.A. Tittle (505 yards). Subsequent to his return, Ferragamo led the Rams back to the NFL playoffs during the 1983 season behind the running of rookie Eric Dickerson. After beating the favored Cowboys in Irving in the wild card matchup 24-17, Ferragamo and the Rams were drubbed by the defending Super Bowl champion and Super Bowl-bound Washington Redskins by the score of 51-7.

He has been featured on the cover of Sports Illustrated twice, once in 1980 and again in 1981.

Present
Ferragamo currently owns Touchdown Real Estate in southern California-and is about to launch a private label company, Ferragamo-Migneco Vineyards, featuring fine quality domestic and imported wines. He is also the chairman of the Vince Ferragamo Foundation a charitable organization that focuses on raising donations for children's organizations such as the Special Olympics, the Speech and Language Development Center and the Ronald McDonald House.