John Wolford can finally remove his LinkedIn profile after the NFL player made a historic debut as the starting quarterback for the Los Angeles Rams on Sunday. Wolford can at least update his resume to show that, in addition to his experience as a private equity analyst, he has now helped an NFL team make it to the playoffs.
Wolford, who has come a long way to start in the NFL, joked before making his first start, “If this Sunday might go well, I’ll just delete it,” he said of the LinkedIn profile. “I think when I was a junior in college, I thought, ‘I probably have to make this,’” he said Wednesday.
After all, despite leading the 18-7 victory over the Arizona Cardinals on Sunday and securing Los Angeles a spot in the playoffs, Wolford wasn’t sure just two years ago whether he would play in the NFL at all. The former Wake Forest quarterback was decommissioned and embarked on a career in finance – until the Jets called.
After finishing a relatively successful college career in 2018 (Wolford was Wake Forest’s team captain and earned second-team All-ACC accolade), Wolford got some interest from NFL scouts, but still wasn’t among the 13 quarterbacks selected in that year’s NFL draft. So with a summer internship at a private equity firm in 2017, Wolford prepared to embark on a career in finance after college.
Wolford landed a job with North Carolina private equity firm Teall Capital, which he would start in August 2018. But just three days before he would start working as a private equity analyst, Wolford received a call from the New York Jets, which eventually landed him as an undrafted free agent during the team’s training camp. Wolford played in a preseason game that summer before the Jets cut him to make way for another freelancer quarterback on the team.
Wolford returned to North Carolina to work with Teall Capital for about six months before being invited to join the Alliance of American Football (AAF), a short-lived rival to the NFL who only played one season before joining the team in April 2019. filed for bankruptcy. Wolford played quarterback for the Arizona Hotshots, one of the league’s eight teams, and his play caught the attention of the Rams’ front office (Wolford was named AAF’s Player of the Week twice).
In August 2019, Los Angeles Wolford signed with the team’s exhibition squad (where players are not on the team’s official roster, but earn more than $ 8,000 per week). But at the start of the 2020 season, the Rams added Wolford to the roster as a backup to entry-level quarterback Jared Goff, who was the first overall roster of the 2016 NFL Draft making $ 33.5 million a year. (By comparison, Wolford earns the NFL’s minimum salary this season, $ 610,000, along with a $ 150,000 signing bonus, according to Spotrac. Wolford will also remain under contract with the Rams for next season, when he would earn a base salary of $ 780,000. )
That means Wolford, 25, waited on the bench until Sunday, when he started as a quarterback for the injured Goff.
With that game, Wolford made history as the very first quarterback to make his first career start in a team’s last game of the season with the playoffs at stake. And despite throwing an interception on his first throw of the game, Wolford bounced back to become the first NFL quarterback to throw at least 200 yards and run at least 50 yards in his first career start.
Now Wolford’s initial success as the Rams’ quarterback could even lead to a new career – a start in a playoff game. Sean McVay, head coach of Rams, said after Sunday’s game that he is “not sure” if regular starter Goff will be able to return from a thumb injury in time for next Saturday’s playoff game with the Seattle Seahawks. Wolford might start over if Goff remains unavailable.
Following the Cardinals’ defeat on Sunday, Wolford told reporters he will celebrate the win, while also planning as if he could play again next week. “I’m here to do a job …” he said, noting that he’s not sure Goff will be healthy enough to play. “I’m just trying to enjoy this win, and then I’ll bow my head and work on Seattle.”
However, when asked if he’s ready to delete his LinkedIn profile after Sunday’s win, Wolford offered ESPN a response suggesting that he doesn’t take his playing career for granted.
“Football ends at some point,” he said. So I will probably love it [the LinkedIn profile] up. “
For now, however, Wolford’s LinkedIn profile lists him as a “professional athlete” and “quarterback for the Los Angeles Rams.”
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