Three months ago, Justus Pickett was another running back vying for time in a deep Winston-Salem State backfield. Today, he’s standing out in a totally different way.
Pickett has transitioned from the football field to modeling after turning down several gigs while playing the game, he revealed in the interview.
“While playing football, I began falling in love with the fashion industry where I started to believe modeling and acting was my calling,” Pickett told Essence. After uploading a face selfie on Instagram, it immediately went viral and caught the attention of Marvin at the Bienaime Agency. He presented me with a great opportunity that I could not pass on. I knew about his quality work and list of high profile model clients so I thought it would be great opportunity for us to come together and produce some amazing photoshoot. A few days later, I came to Miami for the photoshoot session and the rest was history from there.”
Pickett began his collegiate career at Maryland before joining the University of Tennessee as a walk-on and eventually transferring to WSSU prior to the 2015 season. He rushed for 298 yards and three touchdowns in 2016, including a 42-yard score in the CIAA Championship Game which helped WSSU beat Bowie State 43-33.
Looks like Pickett has decided to go pro in another direction besides football. This one generally causes less head trauma than the gridiron so can’t fault him for that.