A conversation with Joe Fields, part one

Growing up in inner city Houston, Joe Fields learned early that part of success in life comes as you understand the constant need to prove yourself. That’s how he approaches his work as the athletics director at New Mexico State University.

“I wake up and I know I’ve got to show up every day and prove that I deserve to be the athletics director here and I know how to get things done,” Fields said. “I probably put too much of that on myself, but that's my mentality.”

Sports have been a major part of Fields’ life. His brother played football at UNLV, his sister played basketball at Georgia Tech.

“As long as I can remember, there was always some type of game on TV, balls around the house. We were always throwing them around,” Fields said. “We were always competing, always sports-centered, going to games. It's just kind of been a part of who we are.”

With that as his background, Fields learned many life lessons from the game. His mom drove a school bus, his dad was a cab driver, and through sports, he realized he would find his avenue in life from the inner city to the things he wanted to do.

“I'm fortunate that I had enough skills that it actually paid off a little bit for me,” Fields said.

Football was his number one, but Fields played all the sports clear through high school—football, basketball, baseball, track and field. Ultimately, he was a mid-year enrollee at Syracuse University on a football scholarship. He graduated from high school in December and was in New York in January.

“I was actually the first mid-year enrollee from high school ever at Syracuse,” he said. “I graduated and made that long trek up to Syracuse, but I tell people it's the best decision I've made. It changed my life. I had an opportunity to interact with people from all different walks of life, from all across the country. It just really allowed me to see things differently and I learned lot of the things I still tap into now.”

Through his athletic career, Fields says there are three major things he’s most learned—the ability to fight through adversity, to prove yourself, and to be a leader.

“You're going to be faced with challenging situations, you're going to lose games, you're going to have injuries, you have to wake up early, you're going to compete,” Fields said. “All of those things are really important and you're going to face adversity. I think I learned that from life, but definitely through sports.”

The need to prove himself that has become part of who Fields is, grows at each stop along the journey.

“As an athlete you're always going into new environments, you always will be challenged,” he said. “Whether it's from middle school to high school, from high school to college, from college to the NFL, you have to prove yourself. If it's a one-on-one drill, a tackling drill, you're always competing, you're always proving yourself.

“I think that that's true today as I work in administration. You get put in different spaces, you take on different roles and jobs, you’ve got to show up and prove yourself. I think a lot of those transferable skills that I learned as a student-athlete I see playing out now.”

Position switch

Fields played quarterback all through high school and for his first two years at Syracuse. Then came the challenge and the opportunity to overcome adversity and prove himself through a position change. After his second year at Syracuse, while he was considering a transfer, Fields’ new head coach, Greg Robinson, convinced him not just to stay on campus, but to move to the defensive side of the ball.

“Once I got done throwing interceptions, they put me on the other side to catch a few,” Fields said. “I did leave with more interceptions caught than I threw, so I left as a plus player. I started off as a quarterback, started as a true freshman, went through a coaching transition and he (Robinson) convinced me to move over to the other side. He thought I had an opportunity to prolong my career and maybe even have an opportunity to play in the NFL if I jumped in and really gave him my all, and he was spot on.”

Playing the quarterback position also provided an ideal environment in which Fields could learn that third life lesson mentioned—leadership.

“I played the quarterback position from seven years old until I was a junior in college and when you're the quarterback the coach always looked at you as the leader,” Fields said. “Whether it's you touch the line first, are at the front of the line, need to really know the plays, and help your teammates. You learn all those things as a quarterback.”

Those life lessons are on full display as Fields takes on this new role overseeing the Aggie athletics department.

“You’ve got to know your coaches, you’ve got to know your staff, what they're motivated by, you’ve got to be able to put out fires, to answer questions, to set a vision,” he said. “You’ve got to let them get in the huddle, the staff meeting, and let them know which direction we're going. Here’s the goal, here's how we're going to execute it, and here's the vision. Throughout life a lot of those pieces are transferable.”

And he’s always focused on proving himself.

“When I show up and I'm dealing with our head football coach and our head basketball coach and the president of the university, and our fan base, I want them to know that this guy knows what he's doing,” Fields said. “So, I put that pressure on me. It’s no different than when I switched positions or when I was the quarterback trying to win a game. I was always trying to prove myself and I'm going to always try to prove myself.”

Fields played briefly in the NFL, for the Carolina Panthers.

“I spent a year, I'll say a year and two camps, so I had a cup of coffee,” he said. “I played long enough to get a helmet. It was a goal of mine since I was a little guy, seven or eight years old, when I started my journey of playing football

to play in the National Football League and I always tell student athletes that no matter if it's one day or a year, I accomplished my goal.”

After the NFL

Fields always wanted a career in sports, and he thought it would be as a coach. So many of his role models growing up were the coaches who were changing lives in the community.

“I wanted to be a positive impact on my community, so I wanted to coach. I wanted to go down that path,” Fields said. “I wasn't sure if it was going to be high school or college, but I knew I wanted to do that.”

Will Hicks, his strength and conditioning coach at Syracuse, always told Fields to give him a call when he was done playing. Hicks saw him as a natural-born coach and said he would help him get into the field.

Two years later, when his playing career ended, he placed the call. They didn’t have a coaching position for him but invited him to come on board as a mentor to the athletes. They put him on the academic side, in student-athlete development to tie him over until there was a coaching position.

“Maybe two months later, a coaching job opened up but I had already fallen in love with academics and administration, so I stayed down that path,” Fields said. “I’ve really just kind of been fortunate to have great mentors, great people that have invested in me, showed me the ropes and hopefully I've held up my end of the bargain trying to truly impact student-athletes and do good things when I was in those roles and those jobs. Initially I thought I was going to coach and I kind of stumbled into administration, and I'm glad I did.”

A few stops later, Fields was in Las Cruces with his wife, Sade, his two sons, Joseph and Jode, and one daughter, Jade. He was named the university's 24th director of athletics and began working in that role Oct. 8, 2025.

This is the first of a two-part series on NMSU’s athletic director Joe Fields and the state of college athletics. Part two will run in the Feb. 6 edition of the Bulletin.