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San Diego Magazine /  September 2008 /  Off-Season Sanctuary

Off-Season Sanctuary

NFL player La’Roi Glover huddles with his family in Rancho Santa Fe

BY JILL ESTERBROOKS | PHOTOGRAPHS BY PAUL BODY

IT’S LESS THAN A WEEK before professional football player La’Roi Glover has to report to St. Louis for the start of his 13th season in the National Football League. Until then, Glover—a graduate of Point Loma High School and San Diego State University, where he was an athletic standout—remains huddled with his young family in their rambling Rancho Santa Fe residence.

On one of the waning days of his summer vacation, Glover positions himself on a barstool in a shady backyard patio with his 1-year-old daughter, Sophia, lovingly cradled in a classic one-arm football hold. His other hand wrestles with an overstuffed burrito, a rare indulgence reserved for his offseason, no-diet Fridays.

“Mexican food is my favorite, so this is a real treat,” says the 6-foot-2, 290-pound Glover, who picked up food on his way home from a two-hour workout with his personal trainer. “Tonight I’m going out somewhere for a big dinner, too,” he adds without guilt.

Recent nights, however, have been spent with his wife, Spring, and their three children in a newly remodeled kitchen and family room. Last year, they purchased an eight-year-old, Mediterranean-style house in a gated golf-course community. Thanks to Spring’s diligence and keen eye for design, today they are enjoying spaces better suited to their lifestyle and growing family.

La’Roi is an occasional golfer who likes to walk the nearby 18-hole course. He also enjoys the sunlight and fresh air his “new” home affords. On this summer morning, he throws open the floor-to-ceiling sliding windows and doors on the main level, welcoming in a mild breeze and allowing expansive views of the tiered patio and lushly landscaped backyard.

“You can bet I’ll be coming home as often as possible during the season—especially when I need to thaw out,” says the Rams’ defensive tackle and six-time Pro Bowler, who also maintains a small condominium in St. Louis. The Glovers used to live near the beach in La Jolla, but lack of a backyard for La’Roi Jr., 5, Naomi, 3, and baby Sophia sent them to rural North County in search of spacious quarters with grander outdoor living areas.

“When I first walked in, I fell in love with the solid structure and general layout of the home, but what really sold me was the huge backyard with swimming pool, spa and outdoor fireplace,” says Spring, who delights in watching the kids climb on the custom-built play structure and frolic on the trampoline adorning the well-manicured lawn. And then there’s the family-sized hammock designed by Henry Hall. “It’s perhaps my most favorite piece in the entire house,” she says, as she flops under its canopy with her giggling children in tow.

Since moving to Rancho Santa Fe in March, Spring’s been busy decorating the 6,500-square-foot home with an eclectic mix of newly acquired furnishings and vintage accessories. She has also included pieces she and La’Roi collected during travels around the world and from previous homes scattered across the country.

“In the past seven years, we’ve never lived in the same house for more than nine months,” says Spring, an SDSU alumnus and La Jolla High School grad who met La’Roi at a high school track meet. From New Orleans to Dallas to St. Louis and back to San Diego, she has followed her husband’s football moves, setting up house in each city—not only for her family but often for other NFL players. She has become the go-to resource for home design, since these players and their wives admire her keen eye for fashion and design—not to mention her knack for finding functional extra-extra-large furniture.

Spring and many of the players’ wives adore antiques. “Needless to say, however, professional football players and antique furniture don’t team up well,” she says. Instead, she often recommends custom pieces and collections from such well-known designers as Ralph Lauren, who makes “surprisingly sturdy furniture.” The mohair chairs in her home’s foyer are prime examples.

Though she holds a bachelor’s degree in information systems, Spring has been “understudying” design with Jennifer Clark, owner of Maudlin in La Jolla. This summer, she launched her own interior design practice, named Naomi and Sophia Designs (after her two young daughters).

The Glovers’ “soft contemporary” Rancho Santa Fe home is a stunning showcase for Spring’s design talents. It is also a gallery for the couple’s extensive collection of modern art and black memorabilia, a genre sometimes called black Americana. At the back of the five-bedroom house, the family room affords views of the pool and opens onto a wide paved patio that allows for plenty of family time inside and out.

“We have a large extended family that we often entertain, so it is great to just throw open the doors so the kids can run in and out and the guests can circulate,” says Spring. She designed the spacious and light-filled kitchen that features pull-out warming and cooling drawers, as well as a separate pantry with a double-wide Thermador refrigerator. Sleek, black wood cabinets give it a sophisticated look, while glass cabinet fronts, Baccarat crystal pendant lights and stainless-steel Philippe Starck stools “glam it up.”

The main living and dining areas speak of comfort and ease, achieved with a blend of custom, antique and off-the-shelf pieces. “I never want a house where people can’t touch things or sit down,” Spring says.

While gently teasing that “this has mainly been her baby,” La’Roi concedes to calling many of the decorating plays, from selecting the kitchen’s top-of-the-line Wolf Range to equipping his office with whimsical folk art and a collection of modern watches and classic timepieces. Noticeably absent from his “private retreat”—and the entire house—are sports trophies and football souvenirs.

“During an internship many years ago at NFL Hall of Famer Roger Staubach’s sports marketing firm, Roger told me he doesn’t put trophies in his house because it sends a signal of being only an athlete,” says La’Roi. In place of trophies, he proudly displays his SDSU diploma, which he received this past May. It’s an achievement he’s proud of, for it’s been more than a dozen years since he was drafted by the Raiders and left school just a few credits shy of earning a degree in public administration. He’s now thinking about a master’s degree and hopes to get into broadcasting after he retires from professional football.

“I’m still hoping to win a championship, but at the same time, there’s a need to start looking beyond football,” says La’Roi, who enjoys traveling and collecting art. He recently added several pieces to his collection, purchased during an African safari.

He is also overseeing the conversion of the attached garage into a multifunction media room with a state-of-the-art home theater. It should be complete in time for the Super Bowl. Of course, La’Roi hopes he won’t be home to catch that game, but on the field instead, trying to win that elusive championship title.