Professional football players start wine company, may consider expansion

It’s not uncommon for entertainment celebrities – such as filmmakers Francis Ford Coppola and John Lasseter – and professional athletes – much like football players Charles Woodson and Drew Bledsoe – to venture into the territory of wine making. Most recently, three more professional football players created a wine label called Three Fat Guys.

Started by Daryn Colledge, Tony Moll and Jason Spitz, the company was the brainchild of “three fat guys” eating food and drinking wine over dinner. The three football players – former members of the Green Bay Packers and Woodson’s teammates – are all offensive lineman and reportedly weigh almost 1,000 pounds put together.

The vintners only produce around 126 cases a year at $28 a bottle, trying to keep the production small. “Right now, it’s manageable with three guys doing part-time work,” Spitz told the Green Bay Gazette. “The last thing we want is a second job.”

Although the three are fine with the way the winery is currently operating, the company’s winemaker Rick Ruiz believes that the winery could easily expand if the three wanted it to. In fact, there are ideas percolating about creating a “skinny” chardonnay in honor of their wives who enjoy a glass of white compared to their red. If considering expansion, the company could produce a dozen samples for a taste testing and use a color label printer to design custom wine labels for the test models.

Also, with publications like WineMaker Magazine hosting an annual label contest, crafting a great label could be an excellent way to gain more attention with wine enthusiasts rather than just football fans looking for a good merlot or chardonnay.

But, according to Colledge, the threat of the business becoming more than the three can handle is causing them to back away from expansion for now.