John Stephen Spagnola (born August 1, 1957) is a former

American football American football (referred to simply as football in the United States and Canada), also known as gridiron, is a team sport played by two teams of eleven players on a rectangular field with goalposts at each end. The offense, the team with ...

tight end The tight end (TE) is a position in American football, arena football, and Canadian football, on the offense. The tight end is often a hybrid position with the characteristics and roles of both an offensive lineman and a wide receiver. Like ...

in the

National Football League The National Football League (NFL) is a professional American football league that consists of 32 teams, divided equally between the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National Football Conference (NFC). The NFL is one of the ...

for the

Philadelphia Eagles The Philadelphia Eagles are a professional American football team based in Philadelphia. The Eagles compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's National Football Conference (NFC) East division. The team plays ...

Seattle Seahawks The Seattle Seahawks are a professional American football team based in Seattle. The Seahawks compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's National Football Conference (NFC) West, which they rejoined in 2002 as ...

, and the

Green Bay Packers The Green Bay Packers are a professional American football team based in Green Bay, Wisconsin. The Packers compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the National Football Conference (NFC) NFC North, North division. It ...

Early life and education

Spagnola was born in

Bethlehem, Pennsylvania Bethlehem is a city in Northampton and Lehigh Counties in the Lehigh Valley region of eastern Pennsylvania, United States. As of the 2020 census, Bethlehem had a total population of 75,781. Of this, 55,639 were in Northampton County and 19, ...

. As a

Boy Scout A Scout (in some countries a Boy Scout, Girl Scout, or Pathfinder) is a child, usually 10–18 years of age, participating in the worldwide Scouting movement. Because of the large age and development span, many Scouting associations have split ...

at Notre Dame Elementary School, he was awarded the

Eagle Scout Eagle Scout is the highest achievement or rank attainable in the Scouts BSA program of the Boy Scouts of America (BSA). Since its inception in 1911, only four percent of Scouts have earned this rank after a lengthy review process. The Eagle Sc ...

rank and was inducted into the Eagle Scout Hall of Fame.

High school career

He attended Bethlehem Catholic High School in

, where he played wide receiver and linebacker. Bethlehem Catholic went 11-0-0 in 1974 with Spagnola as one of the team captains. He was a grade school and high school classmate of

running back A running back (RB) is a member of the offensive backfield in gridiron football. The primary roles of a running back are to receive American football plays#Offensive terminology, handoffs from the quarterback to Rush (American football)#Offen ...

Mike Guman (Bethlehem Catholic, 1976), who later starred at

Penn State #Redirect Pennsylvania State University The Pennsylvania State University (Penn State or PSU) is a Public university, public Commonwealth System of Higher Education, state-related Land-grant university, land-grant research university with campu ...

and played 10 seasons in the

with the

Los Angeles Rams The Los Angeles Rams are a professional American football team based in the Los Angeles metropolitan area. The Rams compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the National Football Conference (NFC) West division. The Rams play ...

Collegiate career

After his 1975 graduation from Bethlehem Catholic, he attended

Yale University Yale University is a private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and among the most prestigious in the wo ...

, where he played wide receiver. He graduated in 1979 as the university's all-time leading wide receiver in receptions (88) and yards (1554). He was an honorable mention All-American tight end at Yale in 1979.

Career

NFL career

Spagnola was drafted in the ninth round of the

1979 NFL Draft The 1979 NFL Draft was the procedure by which National Football League teams selected amateur college football players. It is officially known as the NFL Annual Player Selection Meeting. The draft was held May 3–4, 1979, at the Waldorf Astoria ...

by the

New England Patriots The New England Patriots are a professional American football team based in the Greater Boston area. They compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's American Football Conference (AFC) AFC East, East divisio ...

. He played in eleven NFL seasons from

1979 Events January * January 1 ** United Nations Secretary-General Kurt Waldheim heralds the start of the ''International Year of the Child''. Many musicians donate to the ''Music for UNICEF Concert'' fund, among them ABBA, who write the song ...

1987 File:1987 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: The MS Herald of Free Enterprise capsizes after leaving the Port of Zeebrugge in Belgium, killing 193; Northwest Airlines Flight 255 crashes after takeoff from Detroit Metropolitan Airport, k ...

for the

, the

1988 File:1988 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The oil platform Piper Alpha explodes and collapses in the North Sea, killing 165 workers; The USS Vincennes (CG-49) mistakenly shoots down Iran Air Flight 655; Australia celebrates its Australian ...

for the

, and the

1989 File:1989 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The Cypress Street Viaduct, Cypress structure collapses as a result of the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake, killing motorists below; The proposal document for the World Wide Web is submitted; The Exxo ...

for the

. Spagnola was voted the Eagles' MVP (offensive) in 1984. His best year in the NFL came during the

1985 The year 1985 was designated as the International Youth Year by the United Nations. Events January * January 1 ** The Internet's Domain Name System is created. ** Greenland withdraws from the European Economic Community as a result of a ...

season for the

when he caught 65 receptions for 701 yards and five

touchdown A touchdown (abbreviated as TD) is a scoring play in gridiron football. Whether running, passing, returning a kickoff or punt, or recovering a turnover, a team scores a touchdown by advancing the ball into the opponent's end zone. In Ameri ...

s. In 1985, Spagnola and

Mike Quick Michael Anthony Quick (born May 14, 1959) is a color commentator and former American football wide receiver. He played professionally in the National Football League (NFL) with the Philadelphia Eagles for nine seasons, from 1982 to 1990. Quick ...

combined to set two club records; most receptions by two players (135) and most combined receiving yards (2,019), breaking a record previously shared by Hall of Famer Tommy McDonald and Timmy Brown. He was a pro-bowl alternative in 1985 and 1984. He caught more passes (129) than any other tight end in the

National Football Conference The National Football Conference (NFC) is one of the two conferences of the National Football League (NFL), the highest professional level of American football in the United States. The NFC and its counterpart, the American Football Conference ...

in 1985 and 1984. He appeared in

Super Bowl XV Super Bowl XV was an American football game between the American Football Conference (AFC) champion Oakland Raiders and the National Football Conference (NFC) champion Philadelphia Eagles to decide the National Football League (NFL) champion for ...

for the

versus the

Oakland Raiders The Oakland Raiders were a professional American football team that played in Oakland from its founding in 1960 to 1981 and again from 1995 to 2019 before relocating to the Las Vegas metropolitan area where they now play as the Las Vegas Raide ...

, catching one reception for 22 yards. Spagnola ranks 14th on the Eagles' all-time reception list with 256 catches for 2,833 yards. His 12 catches in one game against the

New Orleans Saints The New Orleans Saints are a professional American football team based in New Orleans. The Saints compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the league's National Football Conference (NFC) South division. Since 1975, the te ...

in 1985 were just two short of the club record shared by

Brian Westbrook Brian Collins Westbrook (born September 2, 1979) is a former American football running back who played for nine seasons in the National Football League (NFL). He was drafted by the Philadelphia Eagles in the third round of the 2002 NFL Draft af ...

and

Don Looney John Don Looney (September 2, 1916 – April 5, 2015) was a professional American football end in the National Football League (NFL). He was born in Sulphur Springs, Texas. He was drafted in the eighth round of the 1940 NFL Draft. He played three ...

. Spagnola served as a player representative of the

National Football League Players Association The National Football League Players Association, or NFLPA, is a labor union representing National Football League (NFL) players. The NFLPA, which has headquarters in Washington, D.C., is led by president J. C. Tretter and executive director De ...

. During the labor strike in 1987, Spagnola's

were the only NFL team whose players did not cross the strike line. Spagnola was the first executive vice president of the

. In 2008-2009, Spagnola was sought by the

's executive search firm Reilly Partners in

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

to succeed Gene Upshaw as executive director. Spagnola remained in the running after the union pared its list of finalists to five.

Broadcasting career

Spagnola began broadcasting for ABC Sports television in 1991. He covered

college football College football (french: Football universitaire) refers to gridiron football played by teams of student athletes. It was through college football play that American football rules first gained popularity in the United States. Unlike most ...

for the network as a

color analyst A color commentator or expert commentator is a sports commentator who assists the main (play-by-play) commentator, typically by filling in when play is not in progress. The phrase "colour commentator" is primarily used in Canadian English and the ...

sideline reporter Sideline(s) may refer to: * Extended side, the geometric line that contains the side of a polygon * Sidelines, the lines that mark the outer boundaries of a sports field * Sideline (app), a smartphone app * ''Sidelines'' (newspaper), the studen ...

, and studio analyst through the 1998 season.

Business career

In 1984, Spagnola began his career in the financial services industry, working for

First Boston Corporation : ''For the company after its acquisition by Credit Suisse, see Credit Suisse First Boston (known as CSFB and CS First Boston)'' The First Boston Corporation was a New York-based bulge bracket investment bank, founded in 1932 and acquired by Cred ...

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

and

Philadelphia Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Sinc ...

. During this time, Spagnola worked in institutional sales and trading where he developed an in depth knowledge of capital markets,

proprietary trading Proprietary trading (also known as prop trading) occurs when a trader trades stocks, bonds, currencies, commodities, their derivatives, or other financial instruments with the firm's own money (instead of using depositors' money) in order to make ...

. and corporate underwriting. In 1992, with Michael Cosack, he co-founded Spagnola-Cosack, Inc., an independent investment consulting firm that serviced public, Taft-Hartley, corporate, hospital, endowment, and foundation Funds. Over a ten-year period, assets under advisement grew to over $3.5 billion. In 2003, Spagnola-Cosack, Inc. was acquired by Public Financial Management Group, a Philadelphia financial advisory firm. He brings over 23 years of investment experience to PFM Advisors. As managing director of PFM Advisors, Spagnola serves on the investment committee, oversees marketing and client service and consulting with public, hospital, endowment, and Taft-Hartley Fund clients of the firm.

Academia career

Spagnola has taught a course on managing public funds for the Fels Institute of Government at the

University of Pennsylvania The University of Pennsylvania (also known as Penn or UPenn) is a private research university in Philadelphia. It is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and is ranked among the highest-regarded universitie ...

References

Personal

Spagnola currently serves on the board of directors of

Magee Rehabilitation Hospital Magee Rehabilitation Hospital, part of Jefferson Health, founded in 1958, is a 96-bed specialty medical rehabilitation hospital providing physical and cognitive rehabilitation services. Magee's flagship facility is located in Center City Philade ...

, the Buckley Institute at

, and the Greater Philadelphia Chamber of Commerce. He also serves on the advisory committee of St. Rose of Lima Parish in West Philadelphia and on the investment committee of Jefferson Health System in

. He has three daughters, Nicole, Megan and Kelly.

External links

John Spagnola records
at Ivy League Sports {{DEFAULTSORT:Spagnola, John 1957 births Living people American football tight ends Bethlehem Catholic High School alumni College football announcers Ed Block Courage Award recipients Green Bay Packers players People from Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania Philadelphia Eagles players Players of American football from Pennsylvania Seattle Seahawks players Sportspeople from Bethlehem, Pennsylvania University of Pennsylvania staff Yale Bulldogs football players Yale University alumni