Finkley eyeing life after football
AUSTIN — Justice Finkley was obsessed.
“No one does it better. No one could do it better,” he’d think.
There was pride in donning the uniform, in using his broad shoulders, chiseled arms and sturdy legs to drive the weight over pockmarked asphalt. They still talk about the kid there, the interminably enthusiastic teen who once patrolled the parking lots surrounding that Target in Trussville, Ala.
Justice Finkley: Prolific Mover of Carts, attacked the menial tasks like they’d change the world, as if collecting and stacking strewn red trolleys amid a global pandemic would leave some sterling mark on the universe.
In a sense, it did. It proved what laid inside, a peek into the heart of a star high school athlete who wanted to play in the NFL just as badly as he wanted to perform life-saving neurosurgery. Finkley plans to do both, by the way.
“We were telling him, ‘Your job is literally just to go to school,’ ” Justice’s mother, Dr. April Finkley said. “He really wanted to work. And I tell you, he’d say he’s the best cart attendant at Target, and they still ask about him when we go. Justice was that kid who would play on Friday night, and he would be up at 7 a.m. on Saturday morning, getting ready to work and push those carts.”
Finkley is now nearing the end of his first semester at Texas. Things have gone well for the cart king so far.
Senior defensive lineman Moro Ojomo marveled over the 6foot-2, 256-pound freshman edge rusher’s raw strength: “He’s a young buck, but powerful. I mean really powerful.”
Coach Steve Sarkisian admired how spongelike and fearless the four-star recruit was throughout spring practice: “Justice really took a leap in my opinion about the last 10 days here of spring ball. I mean, he was a physical player. He had a pres
ence.”
In short, Texas is grateful to have Finkley.
The son of two driven educators who completed their doctorates about 16 years after his birth, Finkley boasts an Ivy League IQ, a Power Five physique and an insatiable drive. He’d spend hours absorbing forensic TV shows and surgeries on Youtube, studying up for a post-football career in the operating room.
Finkley could’ve attended pretty much any university, and plenty tried to win him over during a recruiting process that began back when he got promoted to Hewitt-trussville’s varsity squad as a precocious freshman defensive end.
Eventually, the list shrank to three: Texas, Alabama and Colorado. Finkley committed to Texas on Sept. 9, 2021, four days after the Sarkisian Era opened with a 38-18 win over No. 23 Louisianalafayette.
Exactly one month later, Texas’ season descended into hell.
The Longhorns crumpled in the Cotton Bowl on Oct. 9, blowing a 21-point lead to Oklahoma to kickstart a six-game losing streak rife with dysfunction.
But even as Texas drowned and Alabama raced toward another appearance in the national championship game, Finkley didn’t waver. Sarkisian and defensive
coordinator Pete Kwiatkowski remained engaged with the entire family, building up mutual trust with consistent candor.
“The relationship is the foundation,” Finkley’s mother said. “So in terms of the season and how it was going, the coaching staff was not shy about, there
were some things that that they wanted to improve. They were not ambiguous about the things that they wanted to change. So, we didn’t go in blindly thinking we’re going into a championship (program).”
Finkley hadn’t even started playing football when Texas won its most recent Big 12 title in 2009. He was in potty training when Vince Young and the Longhorns ripped out USC’S heart in the 2006 Rose Bowl.
So, no, Finkley isn’t delusional about the state of the program. He’s here to help repair it, to perform a craniotomy and alleviate years of compounding football anguish. Might just be able to pull it off, too.
At Hewitt-trussville, Finkley blossomed as a menacing edge rusher who’d push around offensive linemen like they were a bunch of empty Target carts. He accumulated 178 tackles, 20 tackles for loss, eight sacks and three forced fumbles over his final two seasons, earning an a top-10 national ranking among edge rushers from 247Sports and an invite to the 2022 Under Armour Allamerica Game.
Texas believes Finkley can have the same effect at this level. It needs elite pass rushers, and he fits the mold. And when Finkley isn’t studying playbooks, he’ll probably be hanging around Dell Seton Medical Center, following a path like the one forged by former Florida State standout corner-turned-rhodes Scholar neurosurgeon Myron Rolle.
“So we went to Dell, great tour, got a chance to talk to the faculty there,” Dr. Finkley said. “And that really played into his decision, along with Texas having a public health major. So it was a perfect fit for him. He fell in love, he was just in love once he got here.”
She added: “I was like, ‘Listen, you can do this. The blueprint is there, someone is doing it. And I just say, even if there wasn’t a Dr. Myron Rolle, there can be a Dr. Justice Finkley.”
World’s best cart attendant. Division I football player and NFL prospect. Future neurosurgeon. Justice Finkley wants it all. And he just might get it.