Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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WHERE HAVE YOU GONE? he takes on the business side while making frequent trips to Napa Valley from his home in San Diego. Mirer said his Notre Dame marketing degree has come in handy as he tries to build a brand name for his up-and-coming company by brokering deals with local res- taurants and jetting across the country to spread the word. "I'm not just writing checks. This is business on the fly," Mirer said. "Nothing hap- pens without my approval or knowledge. It's easy to get a sports bar or real estate or workout spots, but we're try- ing to kind of do it a little dif- ferently and have some fun and see where it goes. I chal- lenge anybody to compete with what I'm doing." During the NFL lockout this summer, Inc. Magazine featured Mirer as one of the league's six richest entrepre- neurs and estimated Mir- ror Wine was worth about $400,000. Mirer said he has no plans to take over the wine industry, but he and Lawson are always looking for ways to expand and create long-term growth. "It's a far cry from growing up in Goshen, Ind., and not knowing any- thing about wine, but you have to evolve," he said. Mirer's Indiana roots meant that Mirer started his own Napa Valley winery — the Mirror Wine Company — three and a half years ago. PHOTO COURTESY RICK MIRER him the "Golden Boy" that week and put him on the cover. "That's a hell of a way to get started," he said looking back on the game. "I was 19 or 20 years old, you just kind of play. Looking back at it, I should've been nervous, but you don't notice when you're in the middle of it." Mirer finished his Irish career with as a high school senior he spent most of his Saturday afternoons in Notre Dame Stadium — 30 miles east of his hometown. Mirer said playing for the Irish wasn't a lock in high school. He grew up as a Michigan fan, but a sideline view of the 1988 national championship season helped keep him within state borders. The hometown hero became a na- tional entity in a hurry. After a year of grooming behind starter Tony Rice, Mirer made his debut performance on a grand stage as a sophomore. His first start was under the lights in Notre Dame Stadium against his childhood favorite team, the Wolverines, in a matchup between national champion- ship contenders. Mirer threw a game- winning touchdown pass to Adrian Jarrell with less than two minutes on the clock to lead his team to a dra- matic victory. Sports Illustrated dubbed www.BLUEANDGOLD.com 5,997 passing yards and 41 touch- down throws, and also rushed for 17 scores. During his tenure as Notre Dame's starting quarterback, the Irish were 29-7-1 (.797 winning per- centage) and finished No. 6, No. 13 and No. 4, respectively, in the AP. Marquee games became common- place for Mirer and the Irish dur- ing the early 1990s. The week after beating Michigan, he and Jarrell con- nected on "The Immaculate Deflec- tion" to help beat Michigan State. Mirer has a long laundry list of mo- ments he remembers fondly from his career, perhaps none more than his final day in Notre Dame Stadium. The penchant for buzzer-beating heroism survived Penn State and a blizzard in Mirer's last stand at home. This time the senior quarter- back connected with Jerome Bettis for a fourth-down touchdown pass that pulled the Irish within one. With no hope of overtime (the NCAA didn't institute overtime until 1996), Notre Dame opted for a two-point conversion. Mirer dropped back to pass and hit a diving Reggie Brooks in the end zone with 20 seconds left to give the Irish a 17-16 win. The good times continued to roll for Mirer, who was taken second after Drew Bledsoe in the NFL Draft the next spring. Mirer started im- mediately and set rookie re- cords with 274 completions and 2,833 passing yards in Seattle, but a head coaching change after the following season sent Mirer's career in a downward spiral. Dennis Erickson, who took over for Tom Flores as the Se- ahawks' head coach, benched Mirer after a 1-4 start in 1996. He bounced around to five teams during the next seven years and never came close to duplicating his rookie year stats. By the time he arrived in Green Bay in 1998, Mirer was predominantly a veteran mentor for hire. "I learned a ton just by observing the preparation and just absorbing the feel for the sideline and all that goes on," Mirer said. "[When you're a starter] every day of the week you have a routine just to get your body feeling better. When you're not get- ting beat up there's a lot of extra time to learn those things." The silver lining, Mirer said, is that time on the sidelines gave him a new perspective that could be a huge asset if he ever decides to coach at a high level. He isn't seeking any coaching jobs at this point, but Mirer said he still gets that familiar tug from time to time and won't rule out the possibility. "There's something interesting about the idea of going back to South Bend and coaching. It's almost going full circle," he said. "It seems a long way off, but I think I could do it." For now, Mirer gets his fix by coaching his three sons and their Pop Warner teams, which is more than enough to keep the budding entrepreneur occupied when he's not sampling wine. ✦ JANUARY 2012 61