Bio

Vermeil was one of the most recognizable head coaches during an NFL career that spanned nearly 30 years and included a Super Bowl XXXIV championship in 1999 with the St. Louis Rams. However, before he made it to the top tier of the sport, he was an assistant coach at the College of San Mateo before becoming head coach at Napa Valley College (then called Napa Junior College).

Vermeil, who attended Napa Valley College before transferring to San Jose State, became the head coach at Napa Valley in 1964 at the young age of 27. He tirelessly recruited throughout Northern California to form a team that lost just one game in the Golden Valley Conference and helped him earn coach of the year accolades in the league.

That success led to coaching jobs at both the collegiate and professional levels before he took over as head coach of the Philadelphia Eagles in 1976 and his first appearance in the Super Bowl in 1981. Vermeil left the NFL and became a television broadcaster before heeding the call to return to the sidelines with the Rams in 1997.

He led the Rams to the pinnacle of the sport in 1999 when they amassed a 13-3 record on their way to the franchise’s first Super Bowl title with a 23-16 win over the Titans. He left coaching again after that season and after earning his second NFL Coach of the Year honor. Vermeil was later the head coach of the Kansas City Chiefs, posting at least 10 wins twice during five seasons.

Today, Vermeil is a highly successful winemaker in his native Napa Valley. He is still the only coach to be named conference coach of the year at the high school, community college, Div. I and NFL levels, and is enshrined in several Hall of Fames including Napa Valley Community College Athletic Hall of Fame.