Amazing stat I heard today

[suck for luck]

I've gotta think that the majority of this is down to people being incredibly stupid. So I don't have a whole lot of sympathy.

That said, if the NFL and NFLPA want to address this I really don't give a rip as it wouldn't effect me or the game in any way. I have my doubts as to the effectiveness of any program they would implement but if they use money/dues paid by the grown men players I say go for it.

[Dave Gray]

I don't think it's so simple as to call it stupidity.

You're taking people who have no money and then all of a sudden, they're rich.  But people don't understand the nature of the NFL.  ...that your salary dries up.  Even if you pay for a house in cash, you still have to staff it, maintain it, etc.

Then, you have the cases where people take care of their whole families.  I think that there is a large amount of pressure to live large for even those that aren't the highest level of pay.

[Spider-Dan]

There's no need to get into some sort of argument over semantics (which I've noticed you like to do) when the general idea is you live within your means. If you make $15 million a year and you know pretty good you'll only be making that for maybe another a year or two, you prepare for life without that paycheck.

What's so difficult? I live within my means and own a place as I'm sure other people do here.

The point that I'm getting at is threefold:

1) "Living within your means" when you have an eight-figure income does not equal "buying a $200k house and driving an Explorer"
2) Very few people are able to successfully adjust from millionaire income to no income (as evidenced by the history of lottery winners)
3) Holding someone in their early-mid 20s to the responsibility of planning for the rest of their life (or more commonly, effectively overseeing the people they have trusted to do so) is not quite reasonable

You might see this story as a case of idiot NFL players.  I see it as a case where very young athletes, many of whom were never exposed to significant wealth, need assistance in dealing with the transition both to and from million-dollar incomes.

[bsfins]

I don't know if this has been mentioned,it might have been in the article,I've not read it.I also just sort of skimmed the responses...

(This probably falls under what Spider said earlier)

I'd add this factor in they got payed to play a game they've more than likely played since they were little.While they went to college,their whole intent was playing in the NFL,less about what they were gonna do after they retired from the NFL.Your Job has been working out staying fit,getting better at your sport.I'd imagine the most of them have little to no job skills,and the guys that do make it in the NFL,can't exactly afford their costs of living working at Lowes...

What job skills do they have other than being very athletic?

I feel that the guy's who struggle to make the league,stay in the league,probably are better equipped/working on the side to transition into normal life after football..

The stat really doesn't surprise me....

Modified to add...Wondering a loud,how many of them also get done in by Baby mama's,child support,and divorces after they leave the game (the dream ends)

[suck for luck]

Modified to add...Wondering a loud,how many of them also get done in by Baby mama's,child support,and divorces after they leave the game (the dream ends)

You haven't been paying attention. These 'very young athletes' are not responsible for their own actions. You can't expect a poor pathetic child in his twenties to have any self-control or common sense. My God, he's never had pussy coming at him like this before. Stop hatin' on the children. LOL

[Spider-Dan]

suck for luck, do you consider having a comprehensive financial plan for the rest of your life fully completed and implemented by the age of 26 to be "common sense"?

Just wondering.

[suck for luck]

There are very few, if any, 26 yr olds that have a comprehensive blah blah blah. It's called 'life' and shit changes constantly and you adapt to the circumstances.

Life comes at you pretty fast. - Ferris

However, there are plenty of 26 yr olds that do have common sense, that aren't so god-awful stupid, selfish, incompetent and irresponsible as to piss away millions of dollars.

[Spider-Dan]

It's easy to be an expert at managing millions of dollars when you don't actually have them.

There's a reason why so many lottery winners wind up broke, and it's not because the lottery skews towards selecting incompetent winners.

[suck for luck]

Pro athlete, lottery winner, teen heart throb... do they ALL end up penniless? No they don't. Why do you suppose that is? Do you think it just might have something to do with their character?

[MikeO]

http://espn.go.com/espnradio/play?id=7942886

Michael Lombardi was talking about this (and other issues) with Bill Simmons as well I guess. He talks about the 90% and all with Simmons as well.

I didn't hear him on this show till today. I heard him yesterday on another radio show talking about it. But he uses the same stat with Simmons.

[Spider-Dan]

Pro athlete, lottery winner, teen heart throb... do they ALL end up penniless? No they don't. Why do you suppose that is? Do you think it just might have something to do with their character?

Even according to the original article, not ALL of the pro athletes ended up broke, so I'm not sure I get your point there.

It seems like you're saying that you have to be an idiot to screw up a windfall of millions of dollars.  Instead, I would say that based on the rate at which instant millionaires go bust, it's not "morons" who screw up instant millions... it's basically everyone but the extremely savvy few.

[Cathal]

I'd say you'd have to be pretty incompetent with money to screw up millions of dollars. 

[el diablo]

What's amazing is that people act like this would never happen to them. How many times do you watch Dateline, and see "average" people swindled out of their life savings? The biggest problem with a lot of the athletes isn't the "lavish" lifestyle. Its the people they trust. The lifestyle doesn't help. Butfriends, families, wives, etc are killers. I just read the SI article. And it already affirmed what I originally thought. Not because, I'm a genius. Because I watch shows like Behind The Music. Its easy to point at drug abuse or frivolous spending. But bad investments are the cancers you don't see. Only when they don't work out, are they bad ideas. Most of us have experience on our side. They don't. Its easy to keep from giving strangers money, but your family? Especially when you're 20-22 years old. They got you this far. Today it would be a lot easier to say, no. Back then, not so much. There's that Trust issue. I understand how it happens. Its amazing that it still happens on this large of a scale. I don't feel any more sorry for them, than any musician that I've seen on Behind The Music.  It just makes me a whole lot smarter, should I ever win the lottery. Because at 36, that NFL rookie contract isn't coming.

[masterfins]

Once you factor in that the agents/financial advisors are probably taking a 20% cut, and the government is taking at least 30% in taxes, all of a sudden 50% of the money is gone.  This added to the fact the players have all kinds of hanger ons to please, it goes quick if you are not disciplined.

[Pappy13]

It seems like you're saying that you have to be an idiot to screw up a windfall of millions of dollars.  Instead, I would say that based on the rate at which instant millionaires go bust, it's not "morons" who screw up instant millions... it's basically everyone but the extremely savvy few.

I'm not sure I agree with that analysis. Seems like you are using the 90% of athletes that screw up millions of dollars of instant income to be indicative of the entire group. I'm sure there are number of instant millionaires that aren't athletes that also go broke, but I don't think it's anywhere close to 90%. On top of that if you include the guys that just become extremely wealthy fairly quickly like the Steve Jobs, Bill Gates or Mark Zuckerburgs of the world, that number drops even lower.

I think there is something to the fact that these guys are not just getting rich, but that they are also quite young, immature and feel very entitled typically because they are athletes and have always been treated "special" because of their ability to play a game. I've seen a lot of high caliber athletes that didn't make it to the pros and didn't become millionaires that basically screwed up their lives once they quit playing sports because sports is all they knew. I don't think the money has anything to do with it, I think it's more the environment these people grow up in and the tools they develop to cope with NOT playing the game anymore.