October 9, 2025 • 24 mins
In this episode of The Deal, Alex Rodriguez and Jason Kelly talk with two-time Super Bowl champion Justin Tuck about how he transitioned to a career at Goldman Sachs. In this conversation, which was taped in front of an audience at the Bloomberg Power Players conference, Tuck tells the hosts about the pressures and opportunities of being a professional athlete in New York City, how private equity is poised to revolutionize both the NFL and college football and why he thinks fans shouldn’t give up on the New York Giants this season.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:02):
Bloomberg Audio Studios, Podcasts, radio News.
Speaker 2 (00:08):
Please welcome to the stage Alex Rodriguez and Bloomberg's Jason
Kelly for a live taping of The Deal.
Speaker 1 (00:14):
When we were thinking about who we wanted to be
here with us today, we're like, who who embodies all
of the things that our power players are the Deal?
You know, what are the brands that we might associate
giants Notre Dame and what's the name of that bank
that's that's.
Speaker 3 (00:34):
Downtowns Yeah, so Wharton Business School.
Speaker 4 (00:38):
Wharton Business School.
Speaker 1 (00:39):
I think there's literally only one person who fits that,
So please help us. Welcome for this very special taping
of The Deal. Justin Tuck, thanks for being here, Thanks
(01:00):
for having me. This is awesome, all right, take it away.
Speaker 4 (01:03):
Chance.
Speaker 3 (01:03):
So Justin, I've been such a big fan of yours,
and you know, Jason was talking a little bit about,
you know, some of the accomplishments you have, some of
your history, but you know, being a champions one thing.
Being a champion in New York is another. And I
know that I was very fortunate to be part of
one title in two thousand and nine with the Yankees,
and it's changed my life, has changed my family, the
(01:23):
trajectory of my business.
Speaker 4 (01:26):
You got two titles.
Speaker 3 (01:27):
How has that impacted your life?
Speaker 4 (01:29):
Listen? I think the first one was just surreal you
do it the first time? And again I was very
it was very early in my career. I think there
was year three in my career and you know, your friend,
our friend, Michael Strahan was the guy. So I was
just in awe like this whole you know process, and
didn't really really didn't hit me into the after the
super Bowl, So you didn't I didn't necessarily enjoy like
(01:51):
the lead up to the super Bowl because he was
you know, you just didn't know. But that second one,
when I was the captain and I had the opportunity
of seeing all the things in my life that had
changed after we won the first one, and I got
to enjoy the process of going through it, whether that
was the road trips, whether that was the media, whether
that was you know, I had a son at that
(02:12):
time and he got the opportunity to experience it. That
type of stuff is just life changing now, not only
obviously being in New York and doing it, but just
you know, solidifying that like we did it again. That
that was just amazing.
Speaker 3 (02:28):
So justin Notre Dame, then undergrad, then you go to
business school Warton, then you and two titles with the Giants,
and now you're at go Mi Socks. I mean it's
blue trip everywhere. Yeah, but take me back. I remember
when I was ten years old. It was the first
time that I had a vision for what I wanted
my life to be, and I called it the Two Bees.
I was sitting there in New York City watching Heights
with my father, watching the Yankees the Mets, and it
(02:50):
was at that point that I wanted the Two Bees.
Based on business. I was driven for those two things.
When did you first start thinking about business? And which
one's harder business or being a Yeah.
Speaker 4 (03:02):
I mean listen, I grew up on a pig farm
in Kelton, Alabama. There's probably more people in this room
that is in Kelson, Alabama.
Speaker 1 (03:10):
I was gonna say, if you were waiting for like
Kelton Alabama, No, no.
Speaker 4 (03:16):
They're not here. I'll take I'll take Alabama. So for me,
I think the only thing I thought about was from
a sports perspective, is how do I utilize football to
provide a phenomenal education that my parents can't afford? You know,
(03:37):
my mom and dad was not going to be able
to send me to Notre Dame. My mom and dad
was not going to be able to send me to Warden.
But I knew if I did what I need to
do on the football field, and I played basketball and baseball,
I knew that was going to afford me the opportunity
to go other places. And so like for me, I
never thought about anything other than, hey, play a great football,
(03:58):
get a great education. Time. And when I started to
think about all the other ancillary things that can come
off of this, I'm talking. I'm talking to my cousin
at the time, and this is my rookie year in
the league, and he said something to me that he
had probably heard for someone else. And this is somewhat
of a known phase now, but like he said, the
NFL stands for not for long. And I just started
(04:18):
thinking about, all right, if I'm blessed to play four years,
and I'm even if I'm blessed to play ten. I
came to the league when I was twenty one years old.
I'd be thirty one when I retired. What am I
gonna do then? And so I started thinking about that
and started really making relationships with people. I tell all
all of my friends that play in leagues. Now, I
was like, make these relationships now while you're hot. Don't
(04:39):
wait till you're like you're the the twelfth year in
and you're just hanging on and you're trying to go
into some some you know, private acuity owner or some
hedge fund founder. No, do that stuff now while you're hot,
while you're winning Super Bowls or you're playing in All
Star Games, and then you can they can be a
part of your journey. M right. I had so many
guys that were out of my journey of taking young
(05:02):
justin Tuk to think about going to Warden, think about
going to Golden Sacks, think about you know, investing in
x y Z. Whereas if I was left to my
own advices there, which is fine, I'll probably be back,
you know on a form soowre in Alabama, which I
love to do. But I probably wouldn't be doing this
if I didn't have those relationships prior to lead me
(05:23):
to what the opportunities could be.
Speaker 1 (05:25):
Well, and it's interesting too to think about what the
what your playbook was, because there are and as there
often are in this show, like echoes to you you know,
Alex has talked about how you know he would literally
like go in his cleats and into Jerry Reins, George's
office or you know, other other owners. You know, my
understanding is you were literally like working the suites at
(05:47):
at Giants Stadium.
Speaker 4 (05:48):
Right?
Speaker 1 (05:49):
Is that fair when I say working on networking?
Speaker 4 (05:52):
Yeah, for sure. I don't know if it's uh it's
even legal for me to get this information to Beyonce with.
But I had a face. I had a phenomenal relationship
with the Giants, their ownership and people at work, and
I was just like, man who owns that? Who is it?
And most of the time they know that guy he
runs x y Z financial Services, or this guy he
and his family owns, you know, this real estate group,
(06:15):
whatever it looks like. And like over time, I was
just like I just had a good game. It's Monday,
I'm not doing anything. I should be making relationships. So
I started talking to our staff about, Hey, is there
anybody I should be talking to? So I got names
of people who own the suites and started just reaching
(06:35):
out to him and just you know, doing a coffee
chat or dinner or lunch or whatever it looked like.
And I didn't want anything. I didn't go in and say, hey,
can you help me here? I just I was interested
in how they got to where they got to. What
are some things that you can tell me about your
story or your process or your journey that if I
decided to go this route, because I don't believe in
reinventing the wheel. I think people have come before all
(06:57):
of us that have done on things that we would
like to do. Just learn from them and try not
to make the same mistakes they made. So that was
the premise. And then again overtime they got to see
me for eight nine years in the journey of Justin
Tuck and now I'm at gold Miss Acts and believe
I'm calling those people and being like hey, So that
(07:18):
part of it was was phenomenal in my transition because
I tell people all the time transition. If you're thinking
about transitioning from something, make it a long transition. Don't
try to just transition, because if you think about I
look at me in football, think about how long I
played football to get to that point. So if I'm
transitioning to finance, why do I think I'm going to
go from being a you know, highly tied football player
(07:41):
or athlete and go right into the next transition as
that highly tithed person in finance or person in real estate,
or person and whatever it is you're doing. No, no, no, no,
you need to get back to being the Pop Warner
person over here and go through that process of learning
all the ancillary things that's going to make you that
Pro Bowl caliber or that All Star caliber business man
(08:02):
and not think that our ego is so great that
we got to go from here to here. That's that's
not realistic.
Speaker 3 (08:08):
Now you're building teams at gold and Sacks kind of
the same things you were doing with Giants. You mentioned
you was a captain of the team, right, What lessons
and how has that mindset translated to the world of business.
Speaker 4 (08:19):
Yeah, I think if I think about things that I
would do on a daily basis as a captain of
a football team and now as a as a as
a managing director of leading teams at Goldman, it's very simple.
To be honest with you, like investing your people around
you and football it looks different. It might be Hey,
I'm bringing this rookie and his family into our house
(08:40):
and cooking him a meal and making sure I learned
everything there is and know about him, his story, his wife,
his kids, et cetera, et cetera. And I used that
on the football fields too. I mean, fourth and one
and we need to make a stop. I know exactly
what triggers this person. I know exactly what his motivations is.
I know exactly what's gonna get him so hyped for
this moment right fourth quarter and and we need to
(09:01):
get a stop to win a super Bowl and we're tired,
and guys are I know exactly how to point those
you know the right things. I knew which guy liked
for me to curse amount of the football field. I
knew what God needed to pull to the side and
pat him on his back and say, man, it's okay,
you're doing this right right, keep doing what you're doing.
I knew exactly how to nagle that. And the same
thing in in in the business and our team's are goldman.
(09:22):
I know exactly how to position our team. And again,
as we bring on new people, you gotta learn that.
But like I know exactly how to position them, what
clients they needed to be paired with, and which ones
the synergies are right for this person to be paired
that that client, et cetera, et cetera. And that's I
think it's very It's it's simple. If you pay attention
(09:43):
to people, if you take a ownership in knowing what
your team looks like and what really moves the needed
for them, it allows you to make the right decisions
around a lot of different things and in the business.
Speaker 1 (10:00):
And so from a business perspective, as Alex alluded to,
you were blending this early. You know your interest in business,
but you you also had to think about your business
as a football player.
Speaker 4 (10:14):
How did you think about that?
Speaker 1 (10:15):
And you know, I know Alex has had this experience
or Alex had this experience of getting smarter about the
world of baseball and negotiations and all of that. How
did you do that and how did you think about
your deal making as a player.
Speaker 4 (10:28):
Yeah, I think I think back to your point about
when you win, you get more opportunities. You get opportunity
to sit in some of these rooms that you When
I was a rookie, the contract was a contract. It
was you know, you trusted your agent to do the
right things for you and get the best outcome for you.
As you got older and you you had more success,
you could dictate a little bit more right, and you
(10:50):
could you could tell your agent, hey, I want to
play for this team or I don't want to play
for that team. I like this, you know. And then
like with the relationships I had with the Maryor family
and the Titch family and the gen Ms, I could
talk about things around like, hey, here's where I think
I'm weak, we're weak. Here's where I think I can
get stronger, and et cetera, et cetera. Here's where I
think the team could get stronger. And he listened to it.
They didn't listen to me. To the point was like
(11:11):
we were going to just go out and like, hey,
justin give us a list of players. But they listened
to us from the perspective they knew, like at the
time after Stray left, it was me and Eli's team,
so they knew that we owned that locker ship, that
locker room. We like manning for those of you not
Eliza Man. Yeah, yeah, so we owned the locker room.
(11:32):
That locker room was our place, and we didn't allow
nonsense in it. But to that point, we knew the players,
We knew what because we were just an extension of
coach Coughlin, right, and we knew how to navigate that
locker room in a way that we could go back
and off season and say, hey, here's where we're strong.
Here is what week. That was the start of kind
(11:53):
of like my deal making or negotiations with when I
was thinking about contracts at a later point.
Speaker 1 (12:00):
You know, one of the things that we've obviously touched on,
but I want to sit for a minute with is
you know you do it talk about deals? You do
a deal one day, contracts so you can retire as
a as a giant.
Speaker 4 (12:11):
Great move.
Speaker 1 (12:13):
And then you decide to go to business school. That's
a big decision. Then you decide to go work for
Goldman Sachs. When you list the sort of places you've been,
I think you're one of one. And so why did
you make those decisions? Why did you decide to go
to school? And then why did you decide to go
(12:33):
to Goldman.
Speaker 4 (12:34):
There's a lot of decisions there, but like it was
probably because I wanted to learn how to be a
better steward of the gifts and the talents and the
resources God had given me. Again, growing on where I
grew up, not a lot of people get the opportunities
that I had, and I didn't want to one of
(12:54):
those opportunities, So me going back to business schools to
get smarter about, honestly, just managing my own opportunities. Now
that more often to a lot more. But that was
the r that was the the the infancy of the idea.
Speaker 1 (13:06):
You wanted to know more about the how to how
to run the business.
Speaker 4 (13:09):
Of justin absolutely absolutely, cause I was getting inbounds from
all different opportunities, right, whether that be on the real
estate side, whether that be you know, you know, going
into media. I dibbed in that for a little bit,
and then also you know, on the financial financial side.
So I wanted to learn more about that. Gold honestly
was because my grandfather used to say something to me
(13:31):
that stuck to this day. I use it often. He goes,
if you're not if you're not at the table, you're
on the menu. And what he meant by that was
there's so many, so many cases in history where decisions
have been made for us, and so like, when I
think about the relationships and the conversations I had in
(13:54):
those locker rooms, and the advice I had to give kids,
and I say kids, rookies and younger players is about
how to navigate in New York City, whether that was
from on the on the field off the fields situation.
When I was really really thinking about what I wanted
to do, I started to really think about, you know,
how do I represent us at the highest of my ability?
(14:15):
And I couldn't think about any other place that gave
me an opportunity to be in these rooms and and
be a part of these decisions making deals than in
a place like gold Mis Sacks. And like, you know,
I get the opportunity to talk to you know, a
lot of our partners of the firm, obviously David and
John who are donate absolutely phenomenal jobs.
Speaker 1 (14:36):
And John Waldron again is it this guy?
Speaker 4 (14:39):
I mean, I mean, you know I called I still
call them mister and and and mister and mister They
don't they don't like that. So I'm David and Jones.
But like, uh, I get the opportunity to see that.
And the thing that I always tell my team is
I don't really care about owing a bigger piece of
the pie. I care about making pot bigger. So yeah,
(15:02):
that's that's that's what wakes me up in the morning,
and I think that's what drives me to continue to
be successful. That's why Goldman Platform platform.
Speaker 3 (15:13):
So justin when you think about when you were a
rookie and in recent news you saw there was an
investor that came in for a Temperacon piece for the
Giants at ten billion dollars. When you were a rookie,
it was probably one, two or three. It's probably four
x five x seven x. A couple of questions there,
what do you think is the best investment in sports?
And what do you make of this whole thing? Where
(15:34):
does it stop? Where does it go? What are your thoughts?
Speaker 4 (15:37):
Listen, I think Roger Goodell and team are doing quick study.
I do you another tip about me? I listened loudly,
but I think Roger's doing a phenomenal job. And it
would be hard pressed to think that there's an investment
in sports better than the NFL. Obviously, I'm biased. There's
(15:59):
a lot of people who represent a lot of sports
leagues and sports franchises out there. They would argue that,
and I would take that argument. But you know, again,
where does it stop? I don't know if it does.
If you think about where media rights are going and
now privately acting money coming in the consolidation around, you know, media,
et cetera, et cetera. I'm not smart enough to know
(16:23):
where it stops. I'm not betting on it. I think
I think it is a popular game that's getting popular
more popular.
Speaker 3 (16:30):
I guess a better question is through if you were
the Championship Beer in your second third year, right, if
somebody told you the Giants to be worth ten billion
dollars in twenty twenty five, would you have said true
or false?
Speaker 4 (16:41):
I probably said false. So it'd be interesting to see
as we sit here today in twenty twenty five, in
twenty thirty five, what this goes. But I have no
reason to think that it has a might have a
slowing down power, but I don't think it has a
stopping power.
Speaker 1 (16:57):
You know, you alluded to something just and you mentioned
it private equity coming in. You know, I had a
conversation earlier today with Tom garf Finkland and Mike Garrigetty
about Areas investment in the Dolphins. You know, you are,
through your studies and now through your day to day work,
very familiar with the power of institutional capital. How does
that change the business of sports in your estimation? You know,
(17:20):
we went through this period where David Blitzer and Josh Harrison,
Mark Lasry, et cetera, et cetera. We're making personal investments.
Now it's fund investments. How does that How does that
alter the landscape, especially for people in this room who
are thinking about investing in sports.
Speaker 4 (17:36):
When you bring in that much capital in and being
able to do a lot of different things, they're going
to I think the movement in sports investing is going
to be very interesting. I don't think it's going to stop.
I think you're only going to see more others get
involved in it. And like, I don't just going back
to the Giants deal, right, you think about you know,
that valuation with no control, no path to ownership. What's
(18:02):
stopping the next team, next owners from doing that? Like,
there's a lot of different issues that I have to
deal with on a databasis for clients, whether that's a
you know, a state issues, you know, tax issues, et cetera,
et cetera. But like, I just feel like we're at
the cusp of this and it's going to start to
happen in not only the major league, the major sports leagues,
but also some of the smaller ones too, where you know,
(18:25):
graduation is a getting so high, what individual can afford
these teams? Right? And as families like the Marintis family
look for liquidity, I think that only the next option
is paradactic.
Speaker 3 (18:40):
Thinking about the future, the question that I would think
about is you know, what would investor pay for Notre
Dame football? Yeah, and I'm just thinking like what world
will win? And how fast is it moving?
Speaker 4 (18:51):
But you know as well as I know, right, sometimes
this is just a I mean a play of like,
forget the numbers. I just want to own this asset.
So a lot of times Jack can get outragers. I
mean when when when Balmer bought the Clippers at you know,
you know what was it? Two billions billion? And now
it was you were like you're say and now yeah,
I mean like so I just I mean, I think, yeah,
(19:16):
who knows, right.
Speaker 1 (19:17):
But when you think about the college game, I mean,
you know we watched, you know you watched. You watch
with much more vested interest. I watched, just as a
college football fan, Notre Dame play University of Miami the
other night. That was a phenomenal game, in part because
of everything that was on display, including the transfer portal,
nil money, all of those things. These are the things
(19:38):
that didn't exist when you went to one of the
premier you would probably say the premier college football programs
in the country when you look at that through the
Wharton Goldman Justin Tucklan's what do you make of college sports?
Speaker 4 (19:51):
These let's I just wish I was eighteen year old,
seventeen year old kid, in some cases sixty year old kids,
like they're going, it's even diving into college, I mean
in high schoolhig school. Yeah, So, like listen, I definitely
did think these athletes deserve to get paid because for
those who wasn't a cause athlete, there's not much else
(20:11):
for you to do. The program is so demanding on
your time for good reason, right, They're giving you a
phenomenal education most places, and you get the opportunity to
play the sport you love basically for free. But like,
outside of that, I didn't get the opportunity to really
really engage with the student body as much as I
would have if I had a few dollars in my pocket, right,
(20:31):
and who knew that these athletes are going to be
making millions in college. That's more than a few dollars.
More So, like, I definitely think they deserve to get paid.
I just hope that this thing gets structured around it
before it really really gets out of control.
Speaker 1 (20:52):
All right, So in our remaining couple of minutes, we're
going to do our rapid fire that we do on
every episode of The Deal.
Speaker 4 (20:58):
First thing that comes to your mind? Sure? All right?
Speaker 1 (21:00):
Do you seem enthusiastic? What's one word to describe your
deal making style?
Speaker 4 (21:08):
Okay? Truthful?
Speaker 3 (21:11):
What's more important to your data or gut?
Speaker 4 (21:16):
I would say gut that has been fed the right data.
Speaker 1 (21:23):
Who's your dream deal making partner?
Speaker 4 (21:26):
Oh? I don't really have a dream person, but I
mean just Alex ros all right, Jason loves out.
Speaker 3 (21:38):
What's what's the best piece of advice you ever received
on deal making or business?
Speaker 4 (21:44):
If you tell the truth is easy to remember. What's
the worst advice you've been given? You're special? What is
your hype song story behind that? By the way, what's
my hype song? Phil Collins in there tonight the drum?
So yeah, there you go. Uh.
Speaker 1 (22:02):
You started a literacy nonprofit called Rush with your wife Lauren.
Speaker 4 (22:05):
What's your favorite book? Wow, I'm gonna give a shot
to a friend of mine. I love reading the other
Wes More.
Speaker 3 (22:18):
Oh, if you're can only watch one sport for the
rest of your life, which one is it?
Speaker 4 (22:24):
You're all gonna be surprised by this one. And it's
not even about me. It's about my wife because if
I had to watch another sport, I want her right
beside me. So she loves tennis, so I watch. Oh,
there you go. She's going to see this. You're not
gonna make us cry. What team do you want to
(22:47):
see win a championship more than any notre dame fighting
Irish football program? Just to be very just in case
anyone doubted who we were talking about.
Speaker 3 (22:58):
All right, what's your advice for one who wants a
career just like yours?
Speaker 4 (23:03):
Do to work no shit cuts on this work all right? Well,
and on that note, go Irish, Irish? All right, thank you,
justin so much.
Speaker 2 (23:22):
The Deal is a production from Bloomberg Podcasts and Bloomberg Originals.
The Deal is hosted by Alex Rodriguez and Jason Kelly.
This show was produced by Anamazarakis, Stacey Wong, Lizzie Phillip,
and Eden Martinez. Original music and engineering by Blake Maples.
Our booker is Paige Keffer. David E. Ravella is our
(23:44):
managing Editor. Our executive producers are Jason Kelly, Amy Keene,
Jordan Opplinger, Trey Shallowhorn, Regina Delia, Kelly Laferrier, and Ashley Hoenig.
Sage Bauman is our Head of Podcasts. Special thanks to
Rachel Carnivale, Helena Los Angeles, Nick Silva, Adrian Tuscano, Mark Dawson,
(24:08):
Michael Katz, and Mike A. Rondo. Joshua Devou is our
director of photography. Rhubob Shakir is our creative director. Art
direction is from Jacqueline Kessler. Camera operation by Suma Hussein,
Stephen Craig, Christopher Dakunha, Michael Terrellas and black Dog. Taja
(24:29):
Smith is our video editor. You can listen to The
Deal on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts.
You can also tune into The Video Companion on Bloomberg
Originals and on Bloomberg TV. Thanks for listening.
Bloomberg Audio Studios, Podcasts, radio News.
Speaker 2 (00:08):
Please welcome to the stage Alex Rodriguez and Bloomberg's Jason
Kelly for a live taping of The Deal.
Speaker 1 (00:14):
When we were thinking about who we wanted to be
here with us today, we're like, who who embodies all
of the things that our power players are the Deal?
You know, what are the brands that we might associate
giants Notre Dame and what's the name of that bank
that's that's.
Speaker 3 (00:34):
Downtowns Yeah, so Wharton Business School.
Speaker 4 (00:38):
Wharton Business School.
Speaker 1 (00:39):
I think there's literally only one person who fits that,
So please help us. Welcome for this very special taping
of The Deal. Justin Tuck, thanks for being here, Thanks
(01:00):
for having me. This is awesome, all right, take it away.
Speaker 4 (01:03):
Chance.
Speaker 3 (01:03):
So Justin, I've been such a big fan of yours,
and you know, Jason was talking a little bit about,
you know, some of the accomplishments you have, some of
your history, but you know, being a champions one thing.
Being a champion in New York is another. And I
know that I was very fortunate to be part of
one title in two thousand and nine with the Yankees,
and it's changed my life, has changed my family, the
(01:23):
trajectory of my business.
Speaker 4 (01:26):
You got two titles.
Speaker 3 (01:27):
How has that impacted your life?
Speaker 4 (01:29):
Listen? I think the first one was just surreal you
do it the first time? And again I was very
it was very early in my career. I think there
was year three in my career and you know, your friend,
our friend, Michael Strahan was the guy. So I was
just in awe like this whole you know process, and
didn't really really didn't hit me into the after the
super Bowl, So you didn't I didn't necessarily enjoy like
(01:51):
the lead up to the super Bowl because he was
you know, you just didn't know. But that second one,
when I was the captain and I had the opportunity
of seeing all the things in my life that had
changed after we won the first one, and I got
to enjoy the process of going through it, whether that
was the road trips, whether that was the media, whether
that was you know, I had a son at that
(02:12):
time and he got the opportunity to experience it. That
type of stuff is just life changing now, not only
obviously being in New York and doing it, but just
you know, solidifying that like we did it again. That
that was just amazing.
Speaker 3 (02:28):
So justin Notre Dame, then undergrad, then you go to
business school Warton, then you and two titles with the Giants,
and now you're at go Mi Socks. I mean it's
blue trip everywhere. Yeah, but take me back. I remember
when I was ten years old. It was the first
time that I had a vision for what I wanted
my life to be, and I called it the Two Bees.
I was sitting there in New York City watching Heights
with my father, watching the Yankees the Mets, and it
(02:50):
was at that point that I wanted the Two Bees.
Based on business. I was driven for those two things.
When did you first start thinking about business? And which
one's harder business or being a Yeah.
Speaker 4 (03:02):
I mean listen, I grew up on a pig farm
in Kelton, Alabama. There's probably more people in this room
that is in Kelson, Alabama.
Speaker 1 (03:10):
I was gonna say, if you were waiting for like
Kelton Alabama, No, no.
Speaker 4 (03:16):
They're not here. I'll take I'll take Alabama. So for me,
I think the only thing I thought about was from
a sports perspective, is how do I utilize football to
provide a phenomenal education that my parents can't afford? You know,
(03:37):
my mom and dad was not going to be able
to send me to Notre Dame. My mom and dad
was not going to be able to send me to Warden.
But I knew if I did what I need to
do on the football field, and I played basketball and baseball,
I knew that was going to afford me the opportunity
to go other places. And so like for me, I
never thought about anything other than, hey, play a great football,
(03:58):
get a great education. Time. And when I started to
think about all the other ancillary things that can come
off of this, I'm talking. I'm talking to my cousin
at the time, and this is my rookie year in
the league, and he said something to me that he
had probably heard for someone else. And this is somewhat
of a known phase now, but like he said, the
NFL stands for not for long. And I just started
(04:18):
thinking about, all right, if I'm blessed to play four years,
and I'm even if I'm blessed to play ten. I
came to the league when I was twenty one years old.
I'd be thirty one when I retired. What am I
gonna do then? And so I started thinking about that
and started really making relationships with people. I tell all
all of my friends that play in leagues. Now, I
was like, make these relationships now while you're hot. Don't
(04:39):
wait till you're like you're the the twelfth year in
and you're just hanging on and you're trying to go
into some some you know, private acuity owner or some
hedge fund founder. No, do that stuff now while you're hot,
while you're winning Super Bowls or you're playing in All
Star Games, and then you can they can be a
part of your journey. M right. I had so many
guys that were out of my journey of taking young
(05:02):
justin Tuk to think about going to Warden, think about
going to Golden Sacks, think about you know, investing in
x y Z. Whereas if I was left to my
own advices there, which is fine, I'll probably be back,
you know on a form soowre in Alabama, which I
love to do. But I probably wouldn't be doing this
if I didn't have those relationships prior to lead me
(05:23):
to what the opportunities could be.
Speaker 1 (05:25):
Well, and it's interesting too to think about what the
what your playbook was, because there are and as there
often are in this show, like echoes to you you know,
Alex has talked about how you know he would literally
like go in his cleats and into Jerry Reins, George's
office or you know, other other owners. You know, my
understanding is you were literally like working the suites at
(05:47):
at Giants Stadium.
Speaker 4 (05:48):
Right?
Speaker 1 (05:49):
Is that fair when I say working on networking?
Speaker 4 (05:52):
Yeah, for sure. I don't know if it's uh it's
even legal for me to get this information to Beyonce with.
But I had a face. I had a phenomenal relationship
with the Giants, their ownership and people at work, and
I was just like, man who owns that? Who is it?
And most of the time they know that guy he
runs x y Z financial Services, or this guy he
and his family owns, you know, this real estate group,
(06:15):
whatever it looks like. And like over time, I was
just like I just had a good game. It's Monday,
I'm not doing anything. I should be making relationships. So
I started talking to our staff about, Hey, is there
anybody I should be talking to? So I got names
of people who own the suites and started just reaching
(06:35):
out to him and just you know, doing a coffee
chat or dinner or lunch or whatever it looked like.
And I didn't want anything. I didn't go in and say, hey,
can you help me here? I just I was interested
in how they got to where they got to. What
are some things that you can tell me about your
story or your process or your journey that if I
decided to go this route, because I don't believe in
reinventing the wheel. I think people have come before all
(06:57):
of us that have done on things that we would
like to do. Just learn from them and try not
to make the same mistakes they made. So that was
the premise. And then again overtime they got to see
me for eight nine years in the journey of Justin
Tuck and now I'm at gold Miss Acts and believe
I'm calling those people and being like hey, So that
(07:18):
part of it was was phenomenal in my transition because
I tell people all the time transition. If you're thinking
about transitioning from something, make it a long transition. Don't
try to just transition, because if you think about I
look at me in football, think about how long I
played football to get to that point. So if I'm
transitioning to finance, why do I think I'm going to
go from being a you know, highly tied football player
(07:41):
or athlete and go right into the next transition as
that highly tithed person in finance or person in real estate,
or person and whatever it is you're doing. No, no, no, no,
you need to get back to being the Pop Warner
person over here and go through that process of learning
all the ancillary things that's going to make you that
Pro Bowl caliber or that All Star caliber business man
(08:02):
and not think that our ego is so great that
we got to go from here to here. That's that's
not realistic.
Speaker 3 (08:08):
Now you're building teams at gold and Sacks kind of
the same things you were doing with Giants. You mentioned
you was a captain of the team, right, What lessons
and how has that mindset translated to the world of business.
Speaker 4 (08:19):
Yeah, I think if I think about things that I
would do on a daily basis as a captain of
a football team and now as a as a as
a managing director of leading teams at Goldman, it's very simple.
To be honest with you, like investing your people around
you and football it looks different. It might be Hey,
I'm bringing this rookie and his family into our house
(08:40):
and cooking him a meal and making sure I learned
everything there is and know about him, his story, his wife,
his kids, et cetera, et cetera. And I used that
on the football fields too. I mean, fourth and one
and we need to make a stop. I know exactly
what triggers this person. I know exactly what his motivations is.
I know exactly what's gonna get him so hyped for
this moment right fourth quarter and and we need to
(09:01):
get a stop to win a super Bowl and we're tired,
and guys are I know exactly how to point those
you know the right things. I knew which guy liked
for me to curse amount of the football field. I
knew what God needed to pull to the side and
pat him on his back and say, man, it's okay,
you're doing this right right, keep doing what you're doing.
I knew exactly how to nagle that. And the same
thing in in in the business and our team's are goldman.
(09:22):
I know exactly how to position our team. And again,
as we bring on new people, you gotta learn that.
But like I know exactly how to position them, what
clients they needed to be paired with, and which ones
the synergies are right for this person to be paired
that that client, et cetera, et cetera. And that's I
think it's very It's it's simple. If you pay attention
(09:43):
to people, if you take a ownership in knowing what
your team looks like and what really moves the needed
for them, it allows you to make the right decisions
around a lot of different things and in the business.
Speaker 1 (10:00):
And so from a business perspective, as Alex alluded to,
you were blending this early. You know your interest in business,
but you you also had to think about your business
as a football player.
Speaker 4 (10:14):
How did you think about that?
Speaker 1 (10:15):
And you know, I know Alex has had this experience
or Alex had this experience of getting smarter about the
world of baseball and negotiations and all of that. How
did you do that and how did you think about
your deal making as a player.
Speaker 4 (10:28):
Yeah, I think I think back to your point about
when you win, you get more opportunities. You get opportunity
to sit in some of these rooms that you When
I was a rookie, the contract was a contract. It
was you know, you trusted your agent to do the
right things for you and get the best outcome for you.
As you got older and you you had more success,
you could dictate a little bit more right, and you
(10:50):
could you could tell your agent, hey, I want to
play for this team or I don't want to play
for that team. I like this, you know. And then
like with the relationships I had with the Maryor family
and the Titch family and the gen Ms, I could
talk about things around like, hey, here's where I think
I'm weak, we're weak. Here's where I think I can
get stronger, and et cetera, et cetera. Here's where I
think the team could get stronger. And he listened to it.
They didn't listen to me. To the point was like
(11:11):
we were going to just go out and like, hey,
justin give us a list of players. But they listened
to us from the perspective they knew, like at the
time after Stray left, it was me and Eli's team,
so they knew that we owned that locker ship, that
locker room. We like manning for those of you not
Eliza Man. Yeah, yeah, so we owned the locker room.
(11:32):
That locker room was our place, and we didn't allow
nonsense in it. But to that point, we knew the players,
We knew what because we were just an extension of
coach Coughlin, right, and we knew how to navigate that
locker room in a way that we could go back
and off season and say, hey, here's where we're strong.
Here is what week. That was the start of kind
(11:53):
of like my deal making or negotiations with when I
was thinking about contracts at a later point.
Speaker 1 (12:00):
You know, one of the things that we've obviously touched on,
but I want to sit for a minute with is
you know you do it talk about deals? You do
a deal one day, contracts so you can retire as
a as a giant.
Speaker 4 (12:11):
Great move.
Speaker 1 (12:13):
And then you decide to go to business school. That's
a big decision. Then you decide to go work for
Goldman Sachs. When you list the sort of places you've been,
I think you're one of one. And so why did
you make those decisions? Why did you decide to go
to school? And then why did you decide to go
(12:33):
to Goldman.
Speaker 4 (12:34):
There's a lot of decisions there, but like it was
probably because I wanted to learn how to be a
better steward of the gifts and the talents and the
resources God had given me. Again, growing on where I
grew up, not a lot of people get the opportunities
that I had, and I didn't want to one of
(12:54):
those opportunities, So me going back to business schools to
get smarter about, honestly, just managing my own opportunities. Now
that more often to a lot more. But that was
the r that was the the the infancy of the idea.
Speaker 1 (13:06):
You wanted to know more about the how to how
to run the business.
Speaker 4 (13:09):
Of justin absolutely absolutely, cause I was getting inbounds from
all different opportunities, right, whether that be on the real
estate side, whether that be you know, you know, going
into media. I dibbed in that for a little bit,
and then also you know, on the financial financial side.
So I wanted to learn more about that. Gold honestly
was because my grandfather used to say something to me
(13:31):
that stuck to this day. I use it often. He goes,
if you're not if you're not at the table, you're
on the menu. And what he meant by that was
there's so many, so many cases in history where decisions
have been made for us, and so like, when I
think about the relationships and the conversations I had in
(13:54):
those locker rooms, and the advice I had to give kids,
and I say kids, rookies and younger players is about
how to navigate in New York City, whether that was
from on the on the field off the fields situation.
When I was really really thinking about what I wanted
to do, I started to really think about, you know,
how do I represent us at the highest of my ability?
(14:15):
And I couldn't think about any other place that gave
me an opportunity to be in these rooms and and
be a part of these decisions making deals than in
a place like gold Mis Sacks. And like, you know,
I get the opportunity to talk to you know, a
lot of our partners of the firm, obviously David and
John who are donate absolutely phenomenal jobs.
Speaker 1 (14:36):
And John Waldron again is it this guy?
Speaker 4 (14:39):
I mean, I mean, you know I called I still
call them mister and and and mister and mister They
don't they don't like that. So I'm David and Jones.
But like, uh, I get the opportunity to see that.
And the thing that I always tell my team is
I don't really care about owing a bigger piece of
the pie. I care about making pot bigger. So yeah,
(15:02):
that's that's that's what wakes me up in the morning,
and I think that's what drives me to continue to
be successful. That's why Goldman Platform platform.
Speaker 3 (15:13):
So justin when you think about when you were a
rookie and in recent news you saw there was an
investor that came in for a Temperacon piece for the
Giants at ten billion dollars. When you were a rookie,
it was probably one, two or three. It's probably four
x five x seven x. A couple of questions there,
what do you think is the best investment in sports?
And what do you make of this whole thing? Where
(15:34):
does it stop? Where does it go? What are your thoughts?
Speaker 4 (15:37):
Listen, I think Roger Goodell and team are doing quick study.
I do you another tip about me? I listened loudly,
but I think Roger's doing a phenomenal job. And it
would be hard pressed to think that there's an investment
in sports better than the NFL. Obviously, I'm biased. There's
(15:59):
a lot of people who represent a lot of sports
leagues and sports franchises out there. They would argue that,
and I would take that argument. But you know, again,
where does it stop? I don't know if it does.
If you think about where media rights are going and
now privately acting money coming in the consolidation around, you know, media,
et cetera, et cetera. I'm not smart enough to know
(16:23):
where it stops. I'm not betting on it. I think
I think it is a popular game that's getting popular
more popular.
Speaker 3 (16:30):
I guess a better question is through if you were
the Championship Beer in your second third year, right, if
somebody told you the Giants to be worth ten billion
dollars in twenty twenty five, would you have said true
or false?
Speaker 4 (16:41):
I probably said false. So it'd be interesting to see
as we sit here today in twenty twenty five, in
twenty thirty five, what this goes. But I have no
reason to think that it has a might have a
slowing down power, but I don't think it has a
stopping power.
Speaker 1 (16:57):
You know, you alluded to something just and you mentioned
it private equity coming in. You know, I had a
conversation earlier today with Tom garf Finkland and Mike Garrigetty
about Areas investment in the Dolphins. You know, you are,
through your studies and now through your day to day work,
very familiar with the power of institutional capital. How does
that change the business of sports in your estimation? You know,
(17:20):
we went through this period where David Blitzer and Josh Harrison,
Mark Lasry, et cetera, et cetera. We're making personal investments.
Now it's fund investments. How does that How does that
alter the landscape, especially for people in this room who
are thinking about investing in sports.
Speaker 4 (17:36):
When you bring in that much capital in and being
able to do a lot of different things, they're going
to I think the movement in sports investing is going
to be very interesting. I don't think it's going to stop.
I think you're only going to see more others get
involved in it. And like, I don't just going back
to the Giants deal, right, you think about you know,
that valuation with no control, no path to ownership. What's
(18:02):
stopping the next team, next owners from doing that? Like,
there's a lot of different issues that I have to
deal with on a databasis for clients, whether that's a
you know, a state issues, you know, tax issues, et cetera,
et cetera. But like, I just feel like we're at
the cusp of this and it's going to start to
happen in not only the major league, the major sports leagues,
but also some of the smaller ones too, where you know,
(18:25):
graduation is a getting so high, what individual can afford
these teams? Right? And as families like the Marintis family
look for liquidity, I think that only the next option
is paradactic.
Speaker 3 (18:40):
Thinking about the future, the question that I would think
about is you know, what would investor pay for Notre
Dame football? Yeah, and I'm just thinking like what world
will win? And how fast is it moving?
Speaker 4 (18:51):
But you know as well as I know, right, sometimes
this is just a I mean a play of like,
forget the numbers. I just want to own this asset.
So a lot of times Jack can get outragers. I
mean when when when Balmer bought the Clippers at you know,
you know what was it? Two billions billion? And now
it was you were like you're say and now yeah,
I mean like so I just I mean, I think, yeah,
(19:16):
who knows, right.
Speaker 1 (19:17):
But when you think about the college game, I mean,
you know we watched, you know you watched. You watch
with much more vested interest. I watched, just as a
college football fan, Notre Dame play University of Miami the
other night. That was a phenomenal game, in part because
of everything that was on display, including the transfer portal,
nil money, all of those things. These are the things
(19:38):
that didn't exist when you went to one of the
premier you would probably say the premier college football programs
in the country when you look at that through the
Wharton Goldman Justin Tucklan's what do you make of college sports?
Speaker 4 (19:51):
These let's I just wish I was eighteen year old,
seventeen year old kid, in some cases sixty year old kids,
like they're going, it's even diving into college, I mean
in high schoolhig school. Yeah, So, like listen, I definitely
did think these athletes deserve to get paid because for
those who wasn't a cause athlete, there's not much else
(20:11):
for you to do. The program is so demanding on
your time for good reason, right, They're giving you a
phenomenal education most places, and you get the opportunity to
play the sport you love basically for free. But like,
outside of that, I didn't get the opportunity to really
really engage with the student body as much as I
would have if I had a few dollars in my pocket, right,
(20:31):
and who knew that these athletes are going to be
making millions in college. That's more than a few dollars.
More So, like, I definitely think they deserve to get paid.
I just hope that this thing gets structured around it
before it really really gets out of control.
Speaker 1 (20:52):
All right, So in our remaining couple of minutes, we're
going to do our rapid fire that we do on
every episode of The Deal.
Speaker 4 (20:58):
First thing that comes to your mind? Sure? All right?
Speaker 1 (21:00):
Do you seem enthusiastic? What's one word to describe your
deal making style?
Speaker 4 (21:08):
Okay? Truthful?
Speaker 3 (21:11):
What's more important to your data or gut?
Speaker 4 (21:16):
I would say gut that has been fed the right data.
Speaker 1 (21:23):
Who's your dream deal making partner?
Speaker 4 (21:26):
Oh? I don't really have a dream person, but I
mean just Alex ros all right, Jason loves out.
Speaker 3 (21:38):
What's what's the best piece of advice you ever received
on deal making or business?
Speaker 4 (21:44):
If you tell the truth is easy to remember. What's
the worst advice you've been given? You're special? What is
your hype song story behind that? By the way, what's
my hype song? Phil Collins in there tonight the drum?
So yeah, there you go. Uh.
Speaker 1 (22:02):
You started a literacy nonprofit called Rush with your wife Lauren.
Speaker 4 (22:05):
What's your favorite book? Wow, I'm gonna give a shot
to a friend of mine. I love reading the other
Wes More.
Speaker 3 (22:18):
Oh, if you're can only watch one sport for the
rest of your life, which one is it?
Speaker 4 (22:24):
You're all gonna be surprised by this one. And it's
not even about me. It's about my wife because if
I had to watch another sport, I want her right
beside me. So she loves tennis, so I watch. Oh,
there you go. She's going to see this. You're not
gonna make us cry. What team do you want to
(22:47):
see win a championship more than any notre dame fighting
Irish football program? Just to be very just in case
anyone doubted who we were talking about.
Speaker 3 (22:58):
All right, what's your advice for one who wants a
career just like yours?
Speaker 4 (23:03):
Do to work no shit cuts on this work all right? Well,
and on that note, go Irish, Irish? All right, thank you,
justin so much.
Speaker 2 (23:22):
The Deal is a production from Bloomberg Podcasts and Bloomberg Originals.
The Deal is hosted by Alex Rodriguez and Jason Kelly.
This show was produced by Anamazarakis, Stacey Wong, Lizzie Phillip,
and Eden Martinez. Original music and engineering by Blake Maples.
Our booker is Paige Keffer. David E. Ravella is our
(23:44):
managing Editor. Our executive producers are Jason Kelly, Amy Keene,
Jordan Opplinger, Trey Shallowhorn, Regina Delia, Kelly Laferrier, and Ashley Hoenig.
Sage Bauman is our Head of Podcasts. Special thanks to
Rachel Carnivale, Helena Los Angeles, Nick Silva, Adrian Tuscano, Mark Dawson,
(24:08):
Michael Katz, and Mike A. Rondo. Joshua Devou is our
director of photography. Rhubob Shakir is our creative director. Art
direction is from Jacqueline Kessler. Camera operation by Suma Hussein,
Stephen Craig, Christopher Dakunha, Michael Terrellas and black Dog. Taja
(24:29):
Smith is our video editor. You can listen to The
Deal on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts.
You can also tune into The Video Companion on Bloomberg
Originals and on Bloomberg TV. Thanks for listening.
Popular Podcasts
My Favorite Murder with Karen Kilgariff and Georgia Hardstark
My Favorite Murder is a true crime comedy podcast hosted by Karen Kilgariff and Georgia Hardstark. Each week, Karen and Georgia share compelling true crimes and hometown stories from friends and listeners. Since MFM launched in January of 2016, Karen and Georgia have shared their lifelong interest in true crime and have covered stories of infamous serial killers like the Night Stalker, mysterious cold cases, captivating cults, incredible survivor stories and important events from history like the Tulsa race massacre of 1921. My Favorite Murder is part of the Exactly Right podcast network that provides a platform for bold, creative voices to bring to life provocative, entertaining and relatable stories for audiences everywhere. The Exactly Right roster of podcasts covers a variety of topics including historic true crime, comedic interviews and news, science, pop culture and more. Podcasts on the network include Buried Bones with Kate Winkler Dawson and Paul Holes, That's Messed Up: An SVU Podcast, This Podcast Will Kill You, Bananas and more.
24/7 News: The Latest
The latest news in 4 minutes updated every hour, every day.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com