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Seven costly pro athlete screw-ups (blew all their money)
sports.yahoo.com ^ | 2-2012 | Riddix

Posted on 02/21/2012 8:47:46 AM PST by doug from upland

Almost 80 percent of National Football League players are flirting with bankruptcy two years after they retire, according to Sports Illustrated. NBA players aren’t faring much better. 60 percent of former National Basketball Association players end up broke within five years of retirement. Athletes squander millions of dollars due to bad decisions, lavish spending and poor financial planning. Here is a list of athletes that have lost their fortunes through some of the biggest financial blunders of all time.

(Read about Scottie Pippen, Evander Holyfield, Lenny Dykstra, Latrell Sprewell, John Daly, Jack Clark, Mike Tyson)

(Excerpt) Read more at sports.yahoo.com ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Culture/Society; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: athletes; money
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To: Mr. K

When you buy a 50,000 sq ft house, what are you going to do?


21 posted on 02/21/2012 9:13:00 AM PST by Jonty30 (What Islam and secularism have in common is that they are both death cults.)
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To: LeonardFMason

Don’t forget former Ravens CB Chris Mcalister. He has already blown through a $55 million dollar contract he signed in 2004.

Jets QB Mark Brunell is also broke, having gone through close to $50 million during a 18-year career with numerous bad business decisions.


22 posted on 02/21/2012 9:14:48 AM PST by VA_Gentleman ("Poor Al Gore. Global warming completely debunked via the very internet you invented." -Jon Stewart)
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To: doug from upland

Some athletes probably would wish that it was JUST their money/fortune that they lost... like Thurman Munson.


23 posted on 02/21/2012 9:14:57 AM PST by C210N
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To: doug from upland

Not true for all sports. Those of us in the NHA, National Hopscotch Association, have been very successful at retaining our earnings. We “Hoppers”, as we’re called, don’t fritter our winnings away on fast women and expensive cars. Last year’s champion, Suzie Johnson, tucked her prize money away into a piggy bank. Contrary to popular belief, you don’t have to be from Scotland to play hopscotch. I’m presently serving a four tournament suspension for being drunk at a tournament. I thought the idea was to jump over a bottle of scotch and then take a drink. I guess they changed the rules or something. Probably hometown refs.


24 posted on 02/21/2012 9:15:21 AM PST by blueunicorn6 ("A crack shot and a good dancer")
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To: doug from upland
These cases are just spectacular examples of a mundane root cause. Everyone looks at the purchase price and never considers the ongoing monthly cash requirements. When you have to eat your financial seed corn to pay the monthly bills it aint gonna end well.

Wish DC would figure this out.

25 posted on 02/21/2012 9:16:27 AM PST by BoringGuy
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To: AnotherUnixGeek

I remember seeing a show about lottery winners and one guy in Florida had bought a nice house, vehicles, statues of the Blues Brothers and other “art”. Yep, he was living the life.

A while later I saw another show about the lottery winner horror stories.... guess who was on it after losing everything??


26 posted on 02/21/2012 9:17:34 AM PST by GeronL (The Right to Life came before the Right to Pursue Happiness)
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To: doug from upland
Almost 80 percent of National Football League players are flirting with bankruptcy two years after they retire

This is the first line of the entire story, and yet after that in all the examples not a single NFL football player is used.

27 posted on 02/21/2012 9:19:33 AM PST by commish (Freedom tastes sweetest to those who have fought to preserve it.)
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To: Jonty30

I think a lot of these losers keep a number of their assets...they are not poor by normal standards...just less rich....I have no pity for any of them...


28 posted on 02/21/2012 9:21:04 AM PST by cherry
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To: doug from upland

If these guys would have lived below their means, even for a while; in a manner of lavishness that the would not even notice as lacking: they would still be in luxury.

Apparently this message was either not delivered or adhered.


29 posted on 02/21/2012 9:21:20 AM PST by cicero2k
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To: Mr. K

When they were building that mansion, we all thought that it was a college or an apartment complex.The size is stunning.I wonder what will happen to it when he loses it.


30 posted on 02/21/2012 9:22:01 AM PST by georgia peach (georgia peach)
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To: Jonty30

turn it into a vacation resort and rent out rooms


31 posted on 02/21/2012 9:22:13 AM PST by Mr. K (Were the Soviet-Era propogandists as gleefully willing as our Lame-stream Media?)
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To: blueunicorn6; writer33

lol.


32 posted on 02/21/2012 9:25:52 AM PST by GeronL (The Right to Life came before the Right to Pursue Happiness)
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To: commish

lol.

No kidding. It’s not like they are hard to find I bet.


33 posted on 02/21/2012 9:26:37 AM PST by GeronL (The Right to Life came before the Right to Pursue Happiness)
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To: doug from upland

Too many baby mammas to feed.


34 posted on 02/21/2012 9:33:58 AM PST by McBuff
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To: GeronL

If you’re talking about the person I think you are, I am loosely related to that guy. (My mom is his second cousin, I think). He won over $42 million in 2001 and is, as we speak, bed-ridden, ruined from a life of heroin and meth use. (I can’t confirm, but I think he lost his legs - as in amputated - from the drug abuse). He’s literally penniless.

He lost his multimillion dollar, Florida home because he failed to pay the home association dues and they auctioned it, per the regulations.


35 posted on 02/21/2012 9:39:24 AM PST by GreenAccord (Bacon Akbar)
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To: SeekAndFind

Man, even if I bought everything I ever wanted I don’t think I could blow through 154 million bucks.

He must have some expensive hangers-on (aka posse)


36 posted on 02/21/2012 9:39:24 AM PST by hattend (Jesus wants me to make churches pay for abortions. - Barack Obama)
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To: lacrew

You can’t possibly believe that a convicted rapist would commit fraud or file false documents or commit perjury can you?


37 posted on 02/21/2012 9:46:26 AM PST by MrEdd (Heck? Geewhiz Cripes, thats the place where people who don't believe in Gosh think they aint going.)
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To: OldSmaj

As somebody said on a Whitney Houston thread, “Cocaine - When wealth and fame just isn’t enough.”


38 posted on 02/21/2012 9:49:08 AM PST by dfwgator (Don't wake up in a roadside ditch. Get rid of Romney.)
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To: McBuff
I have a friend that used to play pro B-Ball in Europe. Made a killing and saved all the money because all expenses were paid.
Came back to the US and started a real estate investment business with that money and made a lot more.
Same time he worked for well know sports agent as financial adviser for the NBA, NFL, MLB players. Oh the stories he would tell were sad, how people would not listen to any advice. Example would be player wants to by mom a nice home, he would advise them to buy the mom a business in the area that would allow her to buy her own nice home and more. players would not do it.
He owned a lot of the ATL area players homes as they went bankrupt, he bought them cheap as the players went broke, lived in Million dollar home he bought for 350,000 as example.
39 posted on 02/21/2012 9:50:14 AM PST by NoDRodee (U>S>M>C)
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To: doug from upland
I would think the biggest problem is in not understanding how brief their high earning window of opportunity is.

Beyond that, I know of many non-athletes who made it into upper middle class and higher via self employment or corporate ladder climbing only to find themselves 50 and unemployed with kids in college, mortgages to pay and a spouse filing for divorce.

40 posted on 02/21/2012 9:50:41 AM PST by fso301
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