Thomas Arthur "Touchdown Tommy" Vardell (born February 20, 1969) is a former professional

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 ...

fullback 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 ...

(NFL).

College career

Vardell was a star running back for the

Stanford Cardinal The Stanford Cardinal are the athletic teams that represent Stanford University. As of June, 2022, Stanford's program has won 131 NCAA team championships. Stanford has won at least one NCAA team championship each academic year for 46 consecutive ...

. In 1990, he was given the nickname "Touchdown Tommy" by then

Stanford Stanford University, officially Leland Stanford Junior University, is a private research university in Stanford, California. The campus occupies , among the largest in the United States, and enrolls over 17,000 students. Stanford is considere ...

head coach A head coach, senior coach or manager is a professional at training and developing athletes. They typically hold a more public profile and are paid more than other coaches. In some sports, the head coach is instead called the "manager", as in assoc ...

Denny Green Dennis Earl Green (February 17, 1949 – July 21, 2016) was an American football coach. During his National Football League (NFL) career, Green coached the Minnesota Vikings for 10 seasons. He coached the Vikings to eight playoff appearances in ...

after scoring four touchdowns (all from the one yard line) against Notre Dame. For the

Cardinal Cardinal or The Cardinal may refer to: Animals * Cardinal (bird) or Cardinalidae, a family of North and South American birds **''Cardinalis'', genus of cardinal in the family Cardinalidae **''Cardinalis cardinalis'', or northern cardinal, the ...

, Vardell rushed for 1,843 yards, scored 37 touchdowns, and never recorded a fumble in his college career. He ranks second in Stanford football history for most rushing touchdowns in a season and third for career rushing touchdowns. Vardell held the record for most rushing yards in a season by a Cardinal running back, with 1084 yards in 1991. His record was broken by

Toby Gerhart Tobin Bo Gunnar Gerhart (born March 28, 1987) is a former American football running back. He was selected by the Minnesota Vikings in the second round of the 2010 NFL Draft. He played college football for Stanford University, and was a unanimous ...

in 2009 and subsequently

Christian McCaffrey Christian Jackson McCaffrey (born June 7, 1996) is an American football running back for the San Francisco 49ers of the National Football League (NFL). He played college football at Stanford and was drafted by the Carolina Panthers eighth overa ...

in 2015. In 1990 as a junior, he carried the ball just 120 times for 441 yards but scored an impressive 14 TDs (1 TD every 9 carries). As a senior, he would carry the ball 226 times for 1,084 yards and score 22 TD in only 11 games.

NFL career

NFL Draft

Vardell's performance for Stanford in 1991 resulted in him being one of the top draft picks in 1992 NFL draft. He was selected by the

Cleveland Browns The Cleveland Browns are a professional American football team based in Cleveland. Named after original coach and co-founder Paul Brown, they compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the American Football Conference ( ...

under then head coach

Bill Belichick William Stephen Belichick (; born April 16, 1952) is an American professional football coach who is the head coach of the New England Patriots of the National Football League (NFL). Additionally, he exercises extensive authority over the Patri ...

in the first round (ninth overall) of the

1992 NFL Draft The 1992 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 April 26–27, 1992, at the Marriott Mar ...

NFL career

In his first two years with the Browns, Vardell rushed for 1,013 yards on 270 carries and scored 3 TD. He would only play 10 games combined due to injuries in the 1994 and 1995 seasons. He signed as a free agent with the

San Francisco 49ers The San Francisco 49ers (also written as the San Francisco Forty-Niners) are a professional American football team based in the San Francisco Bay Area. The 49ers compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the league's National ...

in 1996, moved on to the

Detroit Lions The Detroit Lions are a professional American football team based in Detroit. The Lions compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the National Football Conference (NFC) North Division. The team play their home games at Ford ...

in 1997 and 1998, and then finished his career back with the 49ers in 1999. In his pro career, Vardell played in eight NFL seasons as the fullback for the Browns, the

, and the

. He overcame a career threatening knee injury early in his career and retired in 1999 with 22 touchdowns. He was the starting fullback when

Barry Sanders Barry Sanders (born July 16, 1968) is an American former professional football player who was a running back in the National Football League (NFL), from 1989 to 1998 for the Detroit Lions. Sanders led the league in rushing yards four times and ...

rushed for 2,053 yards in the 1997–1998 NFL season.

NFL statistics

Rushing Stats Receiving Stats

Business career

In 2000, upon retiring from football, Vardell and former teammates,

Brent Jones Brent Michael Jones (born February 12, 1963) is an American former professional football player, business executive, businessman, coach, and sports analyst. As a player, he was a tight end for the San Francisco 49ers during his entire 11-year ca ...

, and Mark Harris co-founded

Northgate Capital Northgate Capital is a venture capital and private equity investment firm with approximately $4.9 billion of assets under management and offices in San Francisco, Danville, Mexico City and London. Northgate was founded in 2000 by Brent Jones an ...

, a

venture capital Venture capital (often abbreviated as VC) is a form of private equity financing that is provided by venture capital firms or funds to startups, early-stage, and emerging companies that have been deemed to have high growth potential or which ha ...

and

private equity In the field of finance, the term private equity (PE) refers to investment funds, usually limited partnerships (LP), which buy and restructure financially weak companies that produce goods and provide services. A private-equity fund is both a ty ...

investment firm with approximately $4.9 billion of assets under management and offices in

San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish language, Spanish for "Francis of Assisi, Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the List of Ca ...

, Danville,

Mexico City Mexico City ( es, link=no, Ciudad de México, ; abbr.: CDMX; Nahuatl: ''Altepetl Mexico'') is the capital and largest city of Mexico, and the most populous city in North America. One of the world's alpha cities, it is located in the Valley o ...

and

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

, and served as its managing director and founding partner. He sold a majority stake in Northgate to Indian financial services company

Religare Enterprises Religare Enterprises Limited (REL) is an Indian Investment company registered with the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), headquartered in New Delhi, India. REL is listed on National Stock Exchange of India and Bombay Stock Exchange. It is an holdin ...

in 2010 and continued to manage the firm as a partner. In 2016, after Religare and Northgate's management team sold 100% ownership of the firm to The Capital Partnership, an investment advisor with offices in London and Dubai, he became an advisor.

Personal life

Vardell is married to Andrea Marie Cummings, with whom he has two children, Colton and Grace. They reside in the

Bay Area The San Francisco Bay Area, often referred to as simply the Bay Area, is a populous region surrounding the San Francisco, San Pablo, and Suisun Bay estuaries in Northern California. The Bay Area is defined by the Association of Bay Area Gov ...

. Vardell was a member of the Sigma Nu fraternity at Stanford. In 1991 he was named Sigma Nu National Athlete of the Year.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Vardell, Tommy 1969 births Living people American football fullbacks Stanford Cardinal football players Cleveland Browns players Detroit Lions players San Francisco 49ers players Sportspeople from El Cajon, California Players of American football from San Diego County, California