John Wolford can finally delete his LinkedIn profile after the NFL player made a historic debut as a full-time defender for the Los Angeles Rams on Sunday. At the very least, Wolford can update his resume to show that, in addition to his experience as a private equity analyst, he has now helped an NFL team reach the playoffs.
Wolford, who has come a long way to start in the NFL, joked before he started for the first time: “If this Sunday goes well, maybe I’ll just delete it,” he said of the LinkedIn profile. “I think when I was in my third year of college, I thought, ‘I probably need to do this,'” he said on Wednesday.
After all, despite leading Sunday’s 18-7 victory over the Arizona Cardinals, securing Los Angeles a playoff spot just two years ago, Wolford wasn’t sure if he would be playing in the NFL. The former Wake Forest defender was not on the roster and was embarking on a career in finance – until the Jets called, of course.
After ending a relatively successful university career in 2018 (Wolford was the captain of the Wake Forest team and received honors from the second All-ACC team), Wolford received some interest from the NFL scouts, but was not yet among the 13 defenders 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 got a job at North Carolina’s private equity firm Teall Capital, which would start in August 2018. But just three days before he started working as a private equity analyst, Wolford got a call from the New York Jets, who ended up hiring him as a free agent not hired during the team’s training camp. Wolford played a pre-season game that summer, before the Jets cut him off to make room for another free agent quarterback in the squad.
Wolford returned to North Carolina to work at Teall Capital for about six months before being invited to join Alliance of American Football (AAF), a short-lived NFL rival who played just one season before filing for bankruptcy in April. 2019. Wolford played as a defender for Arizona Hotshots, one of eight teams in the league, and his game attracted the attention of the Rams board (Wolford was twice named AAF Player of the Week).
In August 2019, Los Angeles hired Wolford for the team’s training team (where players are not on the team’s official roster, but earn more than $ 8,000 a week). But entering the 2020 season, the Rams added Wolford to the list as a reserve for quarterback Jared Goff, who was the first general selection in the 2016 NFL Draft and earns $ 33.5 million a year. (In comparison, Wolford is earning the NFL league minimum wage this season, $ 610,000, along with a $ 150,000 signing bonus, according to Spotrac. Wolford remains under contract with the Rams for the next season, too, when he would have a base salary of $ 780,000.)
That means Wolford, 25, waited on the bench until Sunday, when he started as a defender for the injured Goff.
With this game, Wolford made history as the first defender to make his first career start in the final game of a team of the season with the playoffs in play. And despite throwing an interception on his first move of the game, Wolford recovered to become the first NFL quarterback to throw at least 200 yards and run at least 50 more yards in his early career.
Now, Wolford’s initial success as a Rams defender may even lead to another career in the first place: a start in a playoff game. Rams coach Sean McVay said after Sunday’s game that he is “unsure” whether titleholder Goff will be able to recover from a thumb injury in time for next Saturday’s playoff match with the Seattle Seahawks. Wolford could start again if Goff remains unavailable.
After Sunday’s loss to the Cardinals, Wolford told reporters he will celebrate the victory while planning to play again next week. “I’m here to do a job …” he said, stressing that he is not sure if Goff will be healthy enough to play. “I am just trying to enjoy this victory, and then I will put my head down and work in Seattle.”
However, when asked if he is ready to delete his LinkedIn profile after Sunday’s victory, Wolford offered ESPN an answer that suggests he is not valuing his playing career.
“Football ends at some point,” he said. “So I’m probably going to keep [the LinkedIn profile] above.”
For now, however, Wolford’s LinkedIn profile lists him as “Professional Athlete” and “Los Angeles Rams Quarterback”.
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