A BIG ROLE
With mom as his guide, Cardinals’ Pugh gives back
When college students go home for break, there’s a lot to do. There’s family to see, friends to catch up with, naps to take. But for Justin Pugh, during breaks from Syracuse, there was one other item on the list: Hang out with some sixth graders.
“I didn’t make him. But I did make him,” Carolyn Gavaghan said, smiling.
Gavaghan, Pugh’s mom, was a school teacher for more than 30 years, and she always had Pugh come talk to her classes. He was always more than willing.
Gavaghan set Pugh on a track to give back early, and it’s evident in the way he engages with the community now.
On Tuesday, with Heart for the City AZ, a Phoenix-area nonprofit, the Cardinals offensive lineman hosted about 100 school children for a day of movies, snacks and gifts. Heart for the City AZ works generally in the West Valley and seeks to empower atrisk youth by providing programming in sports, education, mentoring and job training.
It was Pugh’s day off, but the timing was bigger than that.
“A lot of these kids, Christmas time is always a sad time,” Pugh said.
“There’s issues going on with the family or at home, so just to be able to come out here and work hard for the city and make this happen for the kids is going to be amazing.”
After an early screening of Spies in
Disguise, the kids were surprised with a visit from Santa himself. Each kid got two solid gifts, with some scooters, craft kits and remote-control cars all mixed in.
The kids were goofy and seemed to enjoy the day off their usual fourthgrade schedule at Michael Anderson School in Avondale. Pugh knew how much fun they were having, and he knows how important education is in general. Growing up in Bucks County, Pennsylvania, outside of Philadelphia, he got to see it first hand.
“I think my mom being a teacher ... I was always, always interested in giving back to the kids and community,” he said. “And it’s just when I came here, it was just finding something that I was passionate about that I could give back and be around.”
Pugh started early, volunteering in high school. He kept it up in college, and once he went pro, it ramped up.
“Once I got into New York and saw some of the kids my mom was teaching in elementary school, I definitely saw that not everyone had it as easy as I did,” he said. “And then obviously things got even easier (for me) being in the NFL.”
Pugh entered the league with the Giants in 2013, a first-round draft pick. Now spending most of his time at left guard, Pugh got to face his former team earlier this season. The Cardinals got the 27-21 win, headlined by Chase Edmonds, who had three rushing touchdowns, two of them to the left.
The away game also gave him a chance to check on old friends outside the Giants organization. In November of 2017, Uninterrupted featured Pugh’s relationship with his neighbor, Bill, an elderly man struggling to pay his rent.
“I went and saw him Saturday night,” Pugh said back in October. “I had 30 minutes to kill, so I was like, ‘Let me stop by and see if he’s home.’ . ... He’s doing well, and he’s got some good news.”
There was one small point of contention, Pugh joked. Bill was wearing a Giants hoodie, a holdover from Pugh’s time there. (He was planning on sending some Cardinals gear to alleviate that.)
“I made him take his sweatshirt off, though. You can see it in the background, but I was like, ‘You’re not taking that in the picture.’ He was like ‘I’m so sorry! I have nothing else,’ “Pugh recalled.
Pugh is in his second season with the Cardinals, having signed a five-year contract in March of 2018. In moving out to Arizona, he had to find some new foundations to work with. To Gavaghan, that makes his impact even bigger.
“Knowing that he was from the east coast and now he’s spreading it on the west coast — you know, there’s no end,” Gavaghan said, welling up a bit. “There really doesn’t have to be any end to how far he can reach. I think that’s amazing. I’m just so happy.”
Pugh held a similar event last year, with the movie of choice that time as Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse. Last year it was around 60 kids. This year, it ballooned to about 100. Pugh was on the injured reserve at the time, but that didn’t lessen his desire to be involved. For him, it’s not directly about the sport.
“This isn’t about football,” he said Tuesday. “I mean, it’s cool they get to meet an NFL player, but to bring some light into their lives and see a smile, it’s more -- I guess I get more out of it then the kids do.”
Still, sports are integral to Heart for the City AZ. Founder and executive director Joe Eriquez used coaching as a way to connect with kids for years.
Now, he knows what it means for kids to see professional athletes giving back, too.