Former Notre Dame Linebacker Greer Martini Continues To Be Inspired By Football

Known for his excellent play against the triple option for Notre Dame during his four-year career, former Irish linebacker Greer Martini ended with 191 total tackles, 14.5 tackles for loss and five sacks for the program. After his career ended, Martini spent some time playing professional football. He had stints with the Green Bay Packers and Minnesota Vikings in the NFL, as well as spending time in the AAF and XFL.

After Martini hung it up in 2020, he was left with a transitional period to figure out his next phase in life. Those detours would, although not immediately, lead him back to the game of football.

“Covid was kind of the final straw,” Martini told Irish Breakdown. “That was the last step that this football thing probably wasn’t going to work out anymore. I had been fired five times in two years and had to do something more reliable.”

That unfortunate ending to his playing career, however, didn’t tarnish the game for Martini. He is forever grateful for what those various leagues provided him, especially the spring leagues.

“When I was in Green Bay or Minnesota, I was sitting next to a guy who was probably making 15 millions dollars and I’m making the league minimum, as opposed to those leagues where everyone is making the same,” he explained. “You’re in it for the love of the game. You just want to play some more football so I really enjoyed those leagues because I was around a lot of like minded guys who just loved to play football.”

Martini spent some time evaluating what his next step was after football. It took him, at first, back to his Notre Dame experience. The vaunted Notre Dame degree seemed like it was going to be the key to his next step.

“Obviously it was exciting to play professionally but I went to Notre Dame, got this finance degree and needed to figure out what I was going to do with the rest of my life,” Martini said. “That was the pressing question. With covid, everything was up in the air and I didn’t really know what I wanted to do so I started interviewing at some places.

“I ended up taking a job at Credit Suisse in New York City working in securitized products,” he continued. “I did that for a little bit but I’m not going to lie, I was pretty miserable. It wasn’t for me and I found out very quickly that I was not going to be meant for a behind the desk job, on the computer all day and crushing excel spreadsheets. It just wasn’t my M.O. so I had to figure out the next transition in my life.”

In a vacuum, that life would appeal to a lot of people. There are obvious pluses, most notably the means from a job like that. In the end, it just wasn’t for Martini.

“Everyone told me to go work on Wall Street and be super successful,” he said. “Well that just wasn’t me so I had to reevaluate.”

That took him back to the game of football. The first step for Martini came after receiving a phone call from a familiar face.

“Obviously Coach (Clark) Lea was my linebacker coach my senior season, and then was the defensive coordinator the next couple years at Notre Dame,” Martini stated. “He called me up and told me he had a quality control job available if you want to come down. I was down there in the next two days.

“I dumped my apartment in New York City and I was out so that kind of started my coaching career,” he added. “Starting at a place like Vanderbilt, under a guy like Clark Lea, I got to see his leadership skills more, his organization and what he is doing there at Vanderbilt is pretty special. I was excited to be there, loved coach and loved football. It was always a part of me.”

Taking that type of leap of faith is scary for some. Even with the uncertainty, Martini was once again around the game he loved.

“Did I know that coaching was my calling card? I did not at the time,” he explained. “I was taking a chance on it. There’s a grind to it. Coaching is not the easiest lifestyle. You’ll have to move a bunch of times. I went through a season there and Coach (Brian) Kelly called me up so I went down to LSU as a graduate assistant under Matt House, became his right hand man.

“I then earned an opportunity to interview at Charlotte and obviously I’m from Raleigh, North Carolina so I knew it was a big opportunity,” continued Martini. “I wanted to be back more towards this part of the country and ended up getting this job. I crushed the interview and Coach Poggi hired me. When you get your own room, this is where the true development is. You can’t get good at coaching unless you do it.”

Now in just year one as a full time position coach, the future looks extremely bright for Martini. He, however, understands that this is just the beginning.

“I’m excited about this career path,” he said. “Obviously I’m early in it and this is a production based business so I need to do a great job developing the linebackers here and make them productive.”

Some players like the game of football, others love it. Then there are others who live it. Martini is the latest example of a person who was inspired by the game and was always meant to come back to it.

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