One of the most remarkable high school sports stories ever chronicled in the North Bay/Redwood Empire portion of the CIF North Coast Section, the Bay Area, or Northern California for that matter as a whole, continues for former Marin Catholic-Kentfield and Cal quarterback Jared Goff.
“With the first selection in the 2016 NFL Draft the Los Angeles Rams select Jared Goff, quarterback, California.”
With those words from NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell to open the Thursday night festivities from Chicago, the saga of the once spindly 6-3, 160 pound Goff entered a new chapter for the now 6-4, 215-pound member of the Rams.
In the 80-year history of the NFL Draft, there have been 12 players from California selected as the top pick but only four were from Northern California, all from the Bay Area, and none in the past 41 years. Of the four from NorCal, Goff is the only one from the North Coast Section.
The first was O.J. Simpson from Galileo-San Francisco. He went from City College of San Francisco to Southern California and in 1968 the NFL Hall of Fame member won the Heisman Trophy and then earned the draft’s top selection by the Buffalo Bills.
Next was Jim Plunkett. The 1970 Heisman trophy winner from Stanford via James Lick-San Jose was the 1971 number one selection of the New England Patriots.
Four years later another San Jose-area native snagged the top selection when Steve Bartkowski from the now closed Buchser-Santa Clara came out of Cal to be the choice of the Atlanta Falcons.
Those three players combined for 38 years in the NFL so if Goff can have that kind of longevity we’ll be watching him for some time to come.
It all began in 2010 before the season started in a scrimmage at Cardinal Newman-Santa Rosa and when Goff was a sophomore at Marin Catholic.
The heir apparent for the Wildcats starting quarterback job was junior Chris Tewhill. In the scrimmage the first-string quarterback gets the first set of reps and the backup gets the second set. To many of the analysts and reporters that observed the scrimmage, Goff may have been slight of build but his shotgun of an arm was already apparent, and it seemed he was destined to be the starter.
For the first three games, Goff was the backup but by game four, the Marin Catholic coaching staff was agreeing with the analysts. And despite a 3-0 start Goff went to signal-caller and Tewhill became a primary receiver.
With Goff under center, Marin Catholic went on to a 12-1 record in what would be a career for the Novato native that would see him throw for 7,917 yards and 93 touchdowns
“It’s hard to believe something like this was going to happen from that day back then,” said Goff’s high school coach and current Marin Catholic Coach Mazi Moayed, who was invited to the draft festivities by his former quarterback. “You don’t even think about things like this. With Jared the thought was this kid has got a shot for the next level so let’s prepare him for it.”
Goff got Marin Catholic to a CIF Bowl Game as a senior in 2012, but the Wildcats lost a 38-35 heartbreaker in the Division III game to Madison-San Diego.
Cal was the frontrunner on his list of college choices largely because his father Jerry Goff was a standout baseball player for the Bears before becoming a journeyman catcher in the Major Leagues.
Despite the fact Goff only stayed at Cal for three years, he broke every school passing record while piling up 12,200 yards passing with 96 touchdowns.
Buzz about the draft and numero uno
Since February the buzz from fans of college and professional football has been about whether Goff would be the top selection in the draft.
It wasn’t until the ESPN analysts really began dissecting what the NFL teams were looking for in the couple of days beforehand and in the pre-draft show that it became apparent Goff was going to be numero uno.
When he was interviewed immediately before and after the selection of number one was announced, Goff talked and acted just like the humble kid he was in high school
“Jared is such a unique and humble young man,” said Moayed. “He was close to home and always stayed in contact and wanted to know what was happening at Marin Catholic. For me it was obviously and incredible experience to be able to coach the top guys in the draft. I never could have imagined it. It’s just something that happened.”
Deserving of a party
The Goffs and Moayed weren’t the only ones that did a little partying into the wee hours of a Thursday night in Chicago, but no one had more to celebrate.
“It wasn’t just Jared and his family. Everybody here was celebrating,” Moayed said. “The NFL really takes over a town and they took over Chicago.”
The time has now come for Jared Goff to take over again himself, only this time it’s on the biggest football stage of all, and for a Rams team in its first year back in Los Angeles, and as the top pick of the 2016 National Football League Draft.
