Football was never the end goal for two-time Super Bowl champion Justin Tuck.
In an interview with Adam Glyn, who describes himself as a New York City-based comedian and street journalist, Tuck revealed that sports were always meant to be the path to a great education, then to a great career. In 2001, he earned a scholarship to the University of Notre Dame’s Mendoza College of Business. He became the team captain and graduated in 2005 as the program’s all-time leader in sacks, earning a management degree, according to his LinkedIn profile.
“Sports for me was a conduit or a gateway to get a great education for free. My mom and dad couldn’t afford to send me to the University of Notre Dame… It was always the plan to go and do something from a career standpoint, that was very different than athletics,” he said.
Tuck went on to the NFL, drafted in the third round as the No. 74 overall pick in 2005 by the New York Giants. He spent the majority of his 11-year career with the team, then signed a two-year $10 million contract with the Oakland Raiders (now Las Vegas Raiders) before retiring in 2015. He made $43.2 million in career earnings, according to Spotrac. The following year, he enrolled at The Wharton School and obtained a Master of Business Administration degree by 2018, according to his LinkedIn.
Tuck is currently working at Goldman Sachs. He has served as managing director for just over four years, although he has been with the company since 2018.
His advice to athletes is simple: “Follow your passion.”
“If you love what you’re doing, you’re never working. I know that’s cliche, but, I’ve had the great fortune and blessing to love what I do,” he said in the interview with Glyn. “So while it’s still complex and hard, and good and bad days, it’s what I like to do… That’s something I encourage all these players [to do] when they think about transitioning. Don’t follow the trends of what everybody else did. Go find out what it is that you wanna do and know that you have the skill set or can develop the skill set to do so.”
