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Adam Teicher, Editor of ESPN
NOW 6:30 am, and the first light was yet to come over the Mayacamas Mountains as Dick Vermeil climbed into the seat of a tractor.
On this September day in California’s Napa Valley, it’s harvest season. Vermeil is transporting tiny sirah grapes from the field to a collection point, where they will be taken to the winery to be converted into one of Vermeil Wines’ 11 wines.
Vermeil observed the frenzied speed of the workers around him. Seventeen years away from a career as an NFL coach, Vermeil, 86, still thinks and acts the same. He spent time studying the 12 workers and noted how each of them went about pruning grapes from the vines in a slightly different way.
Vermeil nodded with one and called him “my first round draft pick.”
“He’s outstanding, but they all work hard. There’s not a single guy that I’m going to knock out of the team. But I rank them and I’ll pick him in the first round.”
Vermeil, who won 120 games as a coach for three NFL teams and a 1999 Super Bowl championship with St. Louis Rams, is not the only Pro Football Hall of Fame member with a name on the winery. For example, Mike Ditka is a different person.
But Vermeil doesn’t just lend his name to the winery. He did it too. He lives on the other side of the country, on 100 acres outside of Philadelphia, but said most days he still works something out of the liquor business.
As a trainer, Vermeil is known for his intense and demanding style. He used to work 20 hours a day and ended up sleeping in his office and he asked his assistants to do the same. He would conduct lengthy physical training sessions that sometimes made his players revolt.
A former football coach, Vermeil attends the wine company’s annual meetings with notes that resemble one of his massive books.
Michael Azeez, one of Vermeil Wines’ top investors, said: “The preparation he has for those meetings is like a game plan in football. “He writes everything down on a piece of paper. He has a whole list of things for us to look at, whether it’s a better way to do something or make some different wines or a different way of doing things. we sell them.
“The quality of the challengers that show up in our management meetings.”
Winemaking is not a substitute for the hasty training it offers. But there is satisfaction nonetheless. Vermeil says he’s pleased to see people enjoying his wines.
And while turning Vermeil Wines into a business wasn’t his idea, he says it’s like running a football team.
“You should have good coaches,” Vermeil said. “In the wine business, you’re better off having good winemakers who know what they’re doing.”
Vermeil Wines is not a big producer, producing about 2,500 cases per year compared with the largest US producers producing tens of millions of cases per year. But wines often receive high ratings, with some coming in the top 90 on a 100-point scale from Wine Advocate. Vermeil has a cabernet sauvignon coming out in 2024 in honor of his inductance into the Professional Football Hall of Fame in 2022.
Despite the harvest season, Vermeil was primarily involved in the marketing portion of the business. He often travels around the country to sell alcohol.
“Large corporations or country club golf courses, if they can get Dick Vermeil out and recommend wine, whether it’s wine dinners or wine tastings, that often stimulates sales. pretty good,” said the former expert. Chief of Kansas City Chairman and CEO Carl Peterson, who owns 15% of the winery. “He’s willing to do it with his time. He’s the catalyst, no doubt about that.
“We’ve had 14 years of losses and the last two years have been dark. We’re making money. Not much but we don’t have any more funding rounds. On top of that, we’re making some money. really great wine. We think that’s directly related to Dick’s involvement. It’s Dick and the emphasis he puts on it.”
VERMEIL GROWING UP FEMALE in Calistoga, California, in the northern part of the country’s most famous wine-producing region. His great-grandfather, Jean Louis Vermeil, originally from Tuscany, came to the United States and settled in the San Francisco area. Napa Valley reminded him of his hometown, so he started buying real estate, vineyards and orchards.
The Vermeils make wine with their grapes on a small scale, mainly for household consumption. Even when he was only 6 or 7 years old, Dick was tasked with helping the grape crusher by turning the press and was exposed to the business for the first time.
For meals on special occasions, his parents would offer Vermeil a glass of half wine and half water.
“Wine has always been an important part of holiday meals,” says Vermeil. “We’re going to open my grandfather’s new classic and the adults will discuss it. I’ll sit there and listen to every word. I’m blown away by it.
“It left a deep impression on me how important this product is to our family and so many other families.”
It took several years before Vermeil started the wine business. Coaching came first, initially in high school in California, then college at UCLA and finally 15 years in the NFL with Philadelphia Eagles, Rams and Chief. His time in the NFL was interrupted by a 14-year hiatus, during which Vermeil felt he needed a break to combat the stress, making for a most unusual break. Career Coaching Hall of Fame.
Towards the end of his career, Vermeil wanted to honor his great-grandfather by putting his name on a bottle of wine. He mentioned this to a friend in Napa Valley who made the wine in his home, and several hundred cases honoring Jean Louis were made.
While coaching in Kansas City, the last stop of his career, he would distribute bottles of wine as Christmas presents to his staff. Friends came to him after he took a final break from coaching in 2005 with the idea of turning this drinking hobby into a business.
Vermeil agreed, becoming a 15% owner in the operation. The group of investors bought a small winery in 2007 and the following year put Vermeil’s name on the label.
Their first bottle was a blend of cabernet sauvignon, cabernet franc and petite sirah known simply as XXXIV for the number of Super Bowl championships won by Vermeil and the Rams. Tennessee Giantsand there are still several hundred XXXIV cases produced each year.
TODD COLLIN IS was summoned to his coach’s office after an off-season Captains practice. The backup midfielder immediately realized that he was headed for bad news.
“He just wanted to know if I wanted to go wine tasting in Kansas City with him that night,” Collins recalls. “With Dick, he’s not afraid to share his affection for alcohol with some of his players.”
Vermeil’s influence on his former players when it comes to wine has been enormous.
Return to Tony Richardson collecting wine he keeps at home in a cellar he calls “The Vermeil Room.”
Some of Vermeil’s players with the Team Leaders are related to alcohol in one way or another. Collins and another Vermeil midfielder, Trent Green, each own 1% of Vermeil Wines. The third quarterback, Damon Huard, runs a winery in Washington state with Dan Marino called Passing Time. Widespread recipient Eddie Kennison previously owned a liquor store in Kansas City that he sold when he moved to Louisiana, but he recently said he plans to open another one there.
“We were going out to dinner at training camp, just for the midfielders, and suddenly a bottle of fine merlot appeared on our table,” Huard said. “The waiter would say, ‘Coach Vermeil wants you to have this.’ He certainly taught me how to appreciate food and wine. When I was younger, I could drink a glass of wine more like a cocktail than anything. He was more concerned with how it ended. Pair with food to enhance the experience.
“He was a huge supporter of Passing Time when we first started by buying us a lot of wine. Even today, he still gives me advice on how to run the business. .”
Vermeil’s love of wine once got him into trouble with the NFL. Before striker Morten Andersen tried to score a late goal to help the Captain win a close game against the Raiders a season, Vermeil promised Andersen a bottle of Bryant Family Vineyards cabernet sauvignon, priced at around $500. la, if he takes the free kick.
Vermeil later spoke about his planned gift to Andersen, but the union said it violated the rules about salary caps.
Vermeil and his wife, Carol, will be hosting dinners at their Kansas City apartment for groups of players. Originally, the building had a rule that there were no deck ovens but agreed to the Vermeils so they could cook for the players.
“Dick and Carol say they’ve had a lot of these dinners,” Collins said. “They did those things when Dick was coaching in high school, coaching in college, coaching in the NFL. They said they didn’t know how many of them they did, but it must have been hundreds. and hundreds of people Wives came, girlfriends It’s a great thing to build a team.
“We eat steak cooked by Dick on the grill. We eat salads and vegetables. And we always drink some wine. The special thing about Dick is that you will never see him drink too much alcohol. He She always said that when she was a children Wine is on the table like salt and pepper It is an essential part of the meal because it enhances the quality of the meal. Not for drinking too much. level.”
VERMEIL FINALLY ENDS his day in the field but not before getting a call from another Super Bowl-winning coach New York Giants Coach Tom Coughlin, who provided Vermeil with the address to buy alcohol for Coughlin’s upcoming charity event.
Later, at the Vermeil Wines tasting room in Napa, Vermeil served wine to customers from behind the bar. He spoke to a client who lived in Philadelphia when Vermeil coached the Eagles 40 years ago. The fan’s wife then approached Vermeil, telling him that Vermeil had pleased her husband by saying hello.
It’s all in one day’s work for the Hall of Fame coach.
“It’s not a huge sum of money, but at least we’re paying all our bills and making great wines,” says Vermeil. “I’m not a real wine savvy. I know some basics. I don’t pretend to be an expert. I don’t have a discerning palate. I know what I like. I know what flavors are. suits you, and if it tastes good to you, it’s good wine no matter how much you pay for it.”
