Reggie Torbor
Reggie Torbor isn't your typical construction executive. Before founding Pylon Building Group, a Birmingham-based commercial general contractor, he spent eight seasons in the NFL as a linebacker, culminating in a Super Bowl win with the New York Giants. In this episode, Reggie shares how the discipline, accountability, and resilience he built on the field became his greatest assets in business, and how he's using construction as a vehicle for community equity, minority opportunity, and people-first leadership.
From navigating the jarring identity shift that comes after a professional sports career, to building a company culture where personal growth and craft mastery go hand in hand, Reggie brings a perspective on leadership that is equal parts grounded and aspirational. He talks candidly about what it means to build the right team, choose the right partners, and stay rooted in a community even as you grow.
Episode Highlights
Reggie opens up about how disorienting the transition out of professional football really is, and how he came to realize that the intangibles of elite athletics (discipline, accountability, focus) were the very skills that would carry him into his next chapter.
Reggie draws a compelling parallel between military veterans and professional athletes, and why construction, with its emphasis on team, structure, and problem-solving under pressure, is a natural landing place for both.
Reggie explains the founding mission of Pylon: to open doors for minority contractors and create a company culture where team members are expected to work on themselves as much as their craft, and where that standard is non-negotiable.
Drawing on lessons from the field, Reggie shares his philosophy on vetting partners, not by how things look at the handshake, but by how they show up when something goes sideways on a project.
Referencing his time under legendary coach Tom Coughlin, Reggie unpacks one of his core leadership beliefs: no outside force can take down a team that's united internally, but internal fracture will sink any team, every time.
