Lou Palatella

Palatella was born on July 28, 1933, in Vandergrift, Pennsylvania. He attended Vandergrift High School, where he excelled in football.

Palatella attended the University of Pittsburgh, where he played college football for the Pittsburgh Panthers.[1][2]

Palatella played as a guard and a linebacker with the San Francisco 49ers[3] for four seasons.[1][4]

After retiring from football, Palatella became a liquor distributor in Southern California. He owns a tequila company[4] and a bourbon distillery in Bardstown, Kentucky, which his wife Marci and he opened in 2018.[5][6]

Lou Palatella is married to Marci Palatella who was charged in connection to 2019 college admissions bribery scandal and is facing mail fraud charges for allegedly paying $575,000 to a nonprofit that allegedly assisted in her son’s SAT test and conspiring to bribe a University of Southern California athletic director to designate her son as a football recruit.[7][8] Following her arrest, Marci pled not guilty and was released on a $1,000,000 unsecured bond.[9] She would appear in court.[9] On August 24, 2021, Marci reversed course and agreed to plead guilty.[10][11] The next day, she officially pled guilty to conspiracy to commit honest services mail fraud.[12] On December 16, 2021, Marci was sentenced to six weeks in prison, a $250,000 fine, two years of supervised release, with a condition of home confinement for the first six months of supervised release, and 500 hours of community service, as previously recommended by both the prosecution and defense.[13][10]