William Charles Wolford (born May 18, 1964) 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 ...

offensive lineman In gridiron football, a lineman is a player who specializes in play at the line of scrimmage. The linemen of the team currently in possession of the ball are the offensive line, while linemen on the opposing team are the defensive line. A numbe ...

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) for the

Buffalo Bills The Buffalo Bills are a professional American football team based in the Buffalo metropolitan area. The Bills compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's American Football Conference (AFC) East division. ...

, the

Indianapolis Colts The Indianapolis Colts are a professional American football team based in Indianapolis. The Colts compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's American Football Conference (AFC) South division. Since the 2008 ...

, and the

Pittsburgh Steelers The Pittsburgh Steelers are a professional American football team based in Pittsburgh. The Steelers compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the American Football Conference (AFC) North division. Founded in , the Steel ...

Playing career

Wolford attended St. Xavier High School in

Louisville, Kentucky Louisville ( , , ) is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Kentucky and the 28th most-populous city in the United States. Louisville is the historical seat and, since 2003, the nominal seat of Jefferson County, on the Indiana border ...

and played

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 ...

Vanderbilt University Vanderbilt University (informally Vandy or VU) is a private research university in Nashville, Tennessee. Founded in 1873, it was named in honor of shipping and rail magnate Cornelius Vanderbilt, who provided the school its initial $1-million ...

. He was the Bills' first-round pick in the

1986 NFL Draft The 1986 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 29–30, 1986, at the Marriott Marq ...

, and played for them from 1986 to 1992, including

AFC championships The AFC Championship Game is the annual championship game of the American Football Conference (AFC) and one of the two semi-final National Football League playoffs, playoff games of the National Football League (NFL), the largest professional Amer ...

(and

Super Bowl The Super Bowl is the annual final playoff game of the National Football League (NFL) to determine the league champion. It has served as the final game of every NFL season since 1966, replacing the NFL Championship Game. Since 2022, the game ...

losses) in his last three years in Buffalo. Wolford signed as a

free agent In professional sports, a free agent is a player who is eligible to sign with other clubs or franchises; i.e., not under contract to any specific team. The term is also used in reference to a player who is under contract at present but who is a ...

with the Colts in 1993, and finally joined the Steelers from 1996 to 1998. He was named to the AFC

Pro Bowl The National Football League All-Star Game (1939–1942), Pro Bowl (1951–2022), or Pro Bowl Games (starting in 2023) is an annual event held by the National Football League (NFL) featuring the league's star players. The format has changed thro ...

roster in 1990, 1992, and 1995.

Post-playing career

In 2002, he became the majority owner/operator of the Arena Football 2

Louisville Fire The Louisville Fire was an arena football team that played its home games at the Brown-Forman Field in Freedom Hall in Louisville, Kentucky. They were a 2001 expansion team of the af2. Their owner/operator was former Pro Bowl lineman and Louisv ...

. Wolford took over color analyst duties for the Colts in the 2007 season, working alongside longtime Colts voice Bob Lamey. Wolford was also co-host of ''The Bob and Will Show'', working alongside

Bob Valvano Bob Valvano (born January 29, 1957) is a former college basketball coach and an American sportscaster based in Louisville, Kentucky. Television and coaching During the college-basketball season, he is the lead game analyst for ESPNRadio, and oc ...

on WQKC, an all-sports station in Louisville, until that station changed formats in November 2008. In 2013, Wolford became the head football coach at his alma mater of St. Xavier High, replacing the retiring Mike Glaser. On December 20, 2017, he announced his retirement.

Personal life

Wolford's wife, Mary Jude Wolford, is a career lawyer who was elected Nov. 8, 2022, to be the 15th Division District Court Judge in Kentucky. She had been a former assistant district attorney in Jefferson County. She and Wolford have been married since 1992. They have three adult daughters. Wolford's nephew,

John Wolford John Thomas Wolford (born October 16, 1995) is an American football quarterback for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers of the National Football League (NFL). He played college football at Wake Forest and signed with the New York Jets as an undrafted fr ...

, is a quarterback for 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 ...

and played for the

Arizona Hotshots The Arizona Hotshots were a professional American football franchise based in Tempe, Arizona, and one of the eight members of the Alliance of American Football (AAF), which played one season from February 2019 to April 2019. They played their h ...

in the

Alliance of American Football The Alliance of American Football (AAF) was a professional American football minor league. The AAF consisted of eight centrally owned and operated teams in the southern and western United States, seven of which were located in metropolitan are ...

References

External links

* 1964 births Living people American Conference Pro Bowl players American football executives American football offensive tackles Buffalo Bills players High school football coaches in Kentucky Indianapolis Colts players National Football League announcers Pittsburgh Steelers players Sportspeople from Louisville, Kentucky St. Xavier High School (Louisville) alumni Vanderbilt Commodores football players Players of American football from Louisville, Kentucky {{offensive-lineman-1960s-stub