After three years in the NFL, his son is already more famous than he was in six years in Major League Baseball. But, Jerry Goff, a Houston Astros catcher in the mid-1990s, joined thousands of northern California Los Angeles Rams fans, Sunday, in cheering on hometown favorite Jared Goff in Super Bowl LIII.

Jared was actually born about four months before his dad signed as a free agent catcher with the Astros in February 1995. Jerry’s share of diaper changes would have to wait as he mustered just 30 plate appearances as a reserve receiver for the Astrodome residents.

Nearly half (13) of those PAs resulted in strikeouts, as consistent contact proved problematic for the 31-year-old Goff, charged with backing up Tony Eusebio, Scott Servais, and Pat Borders the year after the 1994 MLB strike. He hit .154 with two doubles and one home run.

A free agent again after the 1995 season, the Astros signed Goff again three days after Christmas.

He made it into only one game in 1996, but it was memorable, for a variety of reasons. On May 12, Goff allowed six passed balls: Two each in the first, third, and fourth innings. This tied an MLB single-game record.

Goff had two hits, though, in the game, including a home run. But, those passed balls led to five unearned runs for the Montreal Expos, who went on to win the game 8–7. The Astros sent Goff to their Triple-A Tucson Toros (Pacific Coast League) five days later, and he never appeared in another big league game.

Father and son both attended the University of California, Berkeley. While Jerry punted for the Golden Bears football team and pulled diamond duty, as well, no such two-sport leanings attracted Jared, who kept his focus on football, a love that started back in his Marin County Pop Warner days and never stopped.

Goff, the elder, was drafted twice as a baseball player out of the College of Marin in Kentfield: By the Oakland Athletics in 1983 and in 1984, by the New York Yankees. He chose, instead, to attend Cal. He’s ninth in career home runs for the university.

Following his college career, Jerry was drafted in the third round of the 1986 MLB draft, 63rd overall, by the Seattle Mariners.

Jerry’s six-year career was split evenly with two seasons each with the Expos (after a 1990 trade with the Mariners), the Pittsburgh Pirates, and the Astros, all as a backup catcher.