When he's not crushing the competition as a defensive tackle with the Super Bowl Champion Tampa Bay Buccaneers, Ndamukong Suh is busy scoring with his portfolio of investments — with a little help from Warren Buffett.
Suh told Yahoo Finance Live that the Oracle of Omaha taught him to invest in companies “that have great intrinsic value” and to always be patient.
“That’s one of the best tools I've ever learned from him,” said Suh. “It's about being patient, understanding that this company you believe in has strong roots. It's going to have to weather the storm, but most likely if it's a very strong company, it'll come out better on the other side.”
Suh first met the investing titan in 2009 as an All-American at the University of Nebraska, where Buffett is an alumnus and donor. The friendship took off and the two huddle regularly, usually once a quarter.
Suh keeps Buffett up to speed on his wide-ranging portfolio, which includes investments in the restaurant and hospitality industry. The lineman recently tweeted his support of the industry during the pandemic, saying “it’s never been as bad as this.”
“Whether it's people working in the service industry or actually the cooks or the farmers... it's important for us to understand that we've got to continue to support our community,” he said.
The pandemic decimated the restaurant industry. The National Restaurant Association estimates that 90,000 restaurants in the U.S. shut down, and even now half of small restaurants struggle to pay their rent.
“I think the biggest thing people can do is first start in their community, and go out there and support the restaurants they've loved, and not be afraid to try new restaurants. Take it to go if you don't want to dine in or [if] there's not an option to dine in,” said Suh.
He also encouraged his nearly 650,000 Twitter followers to support the Independent Restaurant Coalition’s efforts to get Congress to replenish the Restaurant Revitalization Fund.
“I've been fortunate enough to be in the hospitality space since I first got out of college," said Suh. "Blue Sushi was a great restaurant I went to when I was a kid in college and I wanted to be a part of it, so I asked the owners and I've been able to create some great restaurants in and around Lincoln-University of Nebraska.”