Looking Back At The 1979 Los Angeles Rams & Vince Ferragamo
1979 Los Angeles Rams – Vince Ferragamo
The 1979 season was a magical one for the Los Angeles Rams as they made their first appearance in the Super Bowl. In the regular season they were 9-7 to win the NFC West then went on the road, beating the Dallas Cowboys and Tampa Bay Buccaneers to reach Super Bowl XIV. After starting quarterback, Pat Haden was injured in week 10, Vince Ferragamo, a fourth-round pick in 1977 stepped in starting week 12, leading the club for the rest of the season.
Pat Haden started the first 10 games of the season, leading the club to a 5-5 record. In week 10 vs. Seattle at the Kingdome, Haden completed 21 passes and threw touchdowns in the Rams 24-0 win over the Seahawks. Unfortunately, the Rams quarterback broke his right pinky finger causing him to be out for the rest of the season. Haden’s final stats for the 1979 season were 1,854 yards passing, 11 touchdown tosses, 14 interceptions and a 56.2 completion percentage.
Against the Atlanta Falcons on Monday Night Football in week 12, Vince Ferragamo wearing number 15 made his first start since 1976 when he was in college at the University of Nebraska. In the game the young signal caller showed that he could add another dimension to the Los Angeles offense by completing two long touchdown passes: 29-yards to Preston Dennard and 40-yards to Billy Waddy. Ferragamo passed for 171 yards and two touchdowns in the Rams 20-14 win. Against their division rival, the San Francisco 49ers, Ferragamo led Los Angeles to a 26-20 road victory. He threw for 149 yards and a 71-yard touchdown pass to Wendell Tyler in the third quarter, which turned out to be the game winning score. Playing at the Atlanta Falcons in week 15, the Rams clinched their seventh straight NFC West division title with a 34-13 win. Ferragamo in his fourth start of the season had a passer rating of 92.4, completing 10 of 15 passes for 188 yards and a touchdown.
The Los Angeles Rams went on the road in the divisional round of the 1979 NFC playoffs to play the Dallas Cowboys, who had represented the NFC in the Super Bowl the last two seasons, winning Super Bowl XII over the Denver Broncos, 27-10. Entering the game, the Rams were an 8.5-point underdog against the Cowboys. On the day, Ferragamo threw three touchdown passes in Los Angeles’s 21-19 upset over Dallas. He threw two touchdown passes in the second quarter to put the Rams up 14-5 over the Cowboys at halftime: 32-yards to Wendell Tyler and 43-yards to Ron Smith. In the fourth quarter down, 19-14, with 2:06 to go, the Rams number 15 found Billy Waddy on a short crossing route and the receiver ran the rest of the way for the game winning 50-yard touchdown.
In the NFC Championship game on the road against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, the Los Angeles Rams were a 3.5-point favorite. In a defensive battle between the clubs, Ferragamo completed 12 passes for 163 yards as Los Angeles beat Tampa Bay, 9-0, advancing to Super Bowl XIV to take on the Pittsburgh Steelers.
Playing in their first Super Bowl in franchise history, the Rams were a 10-point underdog to the Steelers. Los Angeles hung tight with Pittsburgh leading the Steelers 13-10 at halftime, courtesy of a Cullen Bryant one-yard touchdown run in the first quarter and two Frank Corral field goals in the second quarter. In the fourth quarter, down 19-14, with less than six minutes to go in the game and at the Pittsburgh 32-yard line, Ferragamo threw a costly interception when Jack Lambert jumped in front of receiver Ron Smith ending Los Angeles’s promising drive. The critical turnover helped clinch the Steelers four Super Bowl championship. On the day, Ferragamo was 15 of 25 for 212 yards, throwing one interception and being sacked four times for a 70.7 passer rating.
In 1980, Vince Ferragamo started 15 games for the Rams going 11-4 as the team finished second in the NFC West and losing to Dallas 34-13 in the wild card round. The Los Angeles quarterback had a good season as he completed 59.4% of his passes for 3,199 yards, 30 touchdowns and an 89.7 passer rating. The signal caller left the Rams in 1981 for a bigger contract in the CFL with the Montreal Alouettes but return to the NFL in 1982. Upon his return to Los Angeles, Ferragamo started five games for the Rams in the strike-shortened 1982 season. Against the Bears at home the day after Christmas, he threw for 509 yards, at the time the second highest mark for passing yards in a single game in league history behind only former Rams star Norm Van Brocklin, who threw for 554 yards in 1951 against the New York Yanks. Vince Ferragamo, started all 16 games for the Rams in 1983, leading the club to a 9-7 record, second in the NFC West. He threw for a career-high 3,276 yards, 22 touchdowns and had a 75.9 passer rating. Los Angeles beat their long-time playoff rival Dallas Cowboys in the wild card round, 24-17, but were crushed in the divisional round by Washington, 51-7. The quarterback from Torrance, California played in his final three games for the Rams in 1984 before finishing out his career with Buffalo and Green Bay, in 1985 and 1986 respectively.
While Vince Ferragamo is not a household name, he did throw for 9,376 yards and 70 touchdowns as a Ram and will forever be the first quarterback to start for a Los Angeles based franchise in the Super Bowl.
