Why former Notre Dame, New York Giants DE Justin Tuck works as a VP at Goldman Sachs
The arch of professional athletes’ lives are often very similar — especially in the context of the highly successful and elite.
Amateur stardom at a renowned university precedes big-time playmaking on the grandest of stages. Awards. Accolades. Championships. Former Notre Dame and New York Giants defensive end Justin Tuck experienced all of that, complete with a degree from Notre Dame’s Mendoza College of Business and two Super Bowl titles.
He could have parlayed his incredible career into a role as a broadcaster, as many do. Or maybe he’d wiggle his way into coaching or some type of role with the Giants. He wouldn’t be the first former player to do so. Far from it.
Instead, Tuck decided on a much, much different post-playing path. He enrolled in The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania to earn a master’s in business administration. Now he’s a vice president in the private wealth management division at Goldman Sachs.
Tuck went from a hometown of 200 people in Alabama to Wall Street in New York City. He was determined to make such a leap to prove a point — to himself and everyone else.
“It had a lot to do with reputation of athletes,” Tuck said on the Inside The Garage podcast. “I’ll be very honest with you. There are not a lot of people who look like me and have the experiences I have who I work with on a day-to-day basis. I thought we needed more of that. We needed more people who have been there and are now in these board rooms and offices with typically white males who make decisions on Wall Street. We have representation now because I’m there.”
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Most importantly, he wanted to prove a point to his family.
“My legacy is through my kids,” Tuck said. “When I retired, my oldest son was 6. He wasn’t going to remember anything I did in a 91 jersey. So what was going to be my calling card to him when he’s 18 or 19 or the age when he has to figure out what he wants to do? What was going to be my legacy to him?
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“If I went down the road I looked like I was going to go — playing golf, drinking a couple Bud Lights every day, sitting on the couch watching SportsCenter with him — then when he became 18 or 19, he’d say, ‘Well dad does that, why can’t I?’ He wasn’t going to remember all the hard work I put in until I was 33.”
There aren’t many football fans who are going to remember Tuck as a business man. To them, he was a sack master and one of the most feared pass-rushers in the NFL. Or, before then, one of the most feared pass-rushers to ever don the blue and gold of Notre Dame. He still holds the program’s single-season sack record (13.5 in 2003).
But Tuck just turned 39. He’s got an entire career outside of football ahead of him. He played in the NFL for 11 years, a lengthy career for that sport’s standards. Really, any professional sport’s standards. Longevity is hard to come by. But wealth after the game has passed people by is even harder to come by for most retired athletes.
Tuck is doing just fine in that realm. And he wants others to as well.
“I don’t satisfaction from saying, ‘Oh, Justin Tuck’s platform, let me keep it here,'” he said. “I get satisfaction from saying, ‘Justin Tuck’s platform? How can I help the next possible Justin Tuck or the next whoever it is?’ That’s what legacy is about. Accumulation. Gifts. What can I do with the platform the NFL provides? The platform that Goldman Sachs provides? What can I do with that to bring someone else along?”
