Justin Tuck
Coosa County native Justin Tuck (1983- ) is a former star defensive end for the University of Notre Dame and the New York Giants, the National Football League team with whom he won Super Bowls XLII and XLVI. Following his retirement, he became a businessman, philanthropist, and children’s book author.
Justin Lee Tuck was born on March 29, 1983, in Kellyton, Coosa County. Tuck’s father, Jimmy Lee, worked for the Alabama Department of Transportation; his mother, Elaine, worked for 30 years in a Russell Athletic clothing factory. Tuck is the sixth of seven children. As a child, he enjoyed reading, and academic success was very important to him.
Tuck attended Central High School Coosa County in Rockford, where he played both basketball and football. The school won the state basketball championship twice while he was a member of the team. Although Tuck had previously preferred basketball, in ninth grade, Tuck became increasingly interested in football after he made the freshman team, initially playing quarterback before switching to tight end and defensive end. In his senior year of high school, Tuck was named the 2000 Alabama Class 4A Player of the Year.
Tuck graduated from high school in 2001 and earned a scholarship to the University of Notre Dame. Tuck reportedly received the scholarship after Notre Dame recruiter Greg Mattison, who visited Alabama intending to look at another athlete and went to the wrong “Central High School.” (Alabama has several Central High Schools, including ones in Tuscaloosa, Phenix City, and Coosa County.) He watched the game anyway and was impressed by Tuck’s performance. Tuck played for Notre Dame from 2001 to 2004, set several school records, and graduated in 2005 with a bachelor’s degree in management. While at Notre Dame, he met Lauran Williamson, whom he married on April 12, 2008; the couple later had two children.
The New York Giants selected Tuck in the third round of the 2005 NFL draft; he was the 74th selection overall. Tuck played defense alongside Osi Umenyiora, who attended Auburn High School and Troy University, for the New York Giants from 2005 to 2012. In 2008, Tuck’s best year, he scored his only touchdown after he intercepted a pass from St. Louis Rams’ quarterback Marc Bulger and ran 41 yards for a touchdown. He also had 12 quarterback sacks and was selected as a first-team All-Pro. Tuck was selected to two Pro Bowls, in 2008 and 2010. Tuck played in two Super Bowls, both against the New England Patriots. The Giants won both games, 17-14 in 2008 and 21-17 in 2012. Tuck sacked quarterback Tom Brady twice in each Super Bowl. He is the only player in NFL history to sack the same quarterback at least twice in more than one Super Bowl.
Unhappy with a contract offered by the Giants, Tuck signed with the Oakland Raiders (present-day Las Vegas Raiders) in 2014. His performance for the Raiders was not as productive as it had been with the Giants, however, primarily because of injuries. After 2015, Tuck retired from professional football after playing for 11 years. He finished his career with 66.5 sacks, 60.5 with the Giants and 6 with the Raiders. For his accomplishments, Tuck was inducted into the New York Giants Ring of Honor in 2016 and is number 30 on the list of the 100 Greatest Giants.
Throughout his career, Tuck has also devoted time and money to philanthropic causes. In 2008, Justin and Lauran Tuck established “R.U.S.H. for Literacy,” a nonprofit that donates books to children, primarily in Central Alabama, New York, New Jersey, and California’s Bay Area—the places where Tuck has lived and played football. An acronym for Read, Understand, Succeed, and Hope, the name also refers to Tuck’s career as a defensive end, where his job was to “rush” the quarterback. The Tucks worked with JPMorgan Chase to raise $275,000 to aid storm victims after the Super Outbreak series of tornadoes on April 27, 2011, caused great damage in central Alabama, particularly Tuscaloosa. In 2012, Tuck received the Preston Robert Tisch Humanitarian Award for his community work.
In 2011, Tuck published his children’s book Home-Field Advantage. Intended for children from ages four to eight, the book recounts a funny childhood incident when Tuck’s older sisters bossed him into letting them cut his hair.
After retiring from the NFL, Tuck returned to college and earned an MBA in 2018 from the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School of Business. Goldman Sachs then hired him the same year as Vice President of Private Wealth Management. Tuck lives with his wife and children in New Jersey.
