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 ...
I know a guy, who knows Mike Tyson.
According to him, Mike Tyson isn’t broke, but just laying real low until the IRS loses interest in him.
According to my friend, Mike still has about $10 million.
This article failed to mention the latest casualty of poor use of money — multiple time NBA scoring champ — Alan Iverson. He blew away $154 Million in earnings and now can’t pay his bills.
SEE HERE:
http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-31751_162-57377966-10391697/after-$154m-allen-iverson-may-be-broke/
Truly, wealth is wasted on the undeserving....
If you always spend $3 for every $2 you make, it doesn’t matter how much money you make.
Add Alan Iverson to the list.
Yup. Its far too common.
Many of these athletes were coddled all through school and college (some never cracked a book).
Well, that would be...umm...fraud...filing false documents...perjury...and probably more.
Tyson filed for bankruptcy.
Give a thug millions of dollars and five years after retirement you will have a broke thug!!!No great surprise here.
If its already been taxed, he shouldn’t have to worry
Yeah, so?
Why do you think he’s laying low? :)
At least they wasted their OWN money. Our Basketball / Golf Commander in Chief beats them all. Blowing Trillions of other peoples money.
Besides lavish spending, tales of large entourages of hangers-on and very bad ‘investment’ advice from shady advisers show up in most of these stories.
Well, gee...uh, wow...uh...well, you know what?
I just don't give a rat's ass.
Just like that Houston person...suck it into your lungs, blow it up your nose, shoot it into your veins or just plain throw it down the do-do hole...if you can't manage your money, then you don't deserve it.
Too bad...so sad.
Considering who he was managed by, I wouldn’t be confident that whatever assets he has remaining has been taxed properly.
I do love seeing Latrell Sprewell on this list. At one time he was offered a 3 yr deal at 7 million per and said he could not feed his family on that amount. I’m not sure, by I do not recall seeing him in the NBA again after that.
Sad to see Evander Holyfield’s name on that list.
He always seemed to me like one of the good guys
Coddled? Perhaps.
I think that for many of these athletes, they did not come from families with money; they were not exposed to even reasonably sound financial management. They surrounded themselves with an entourage and handlers. Anyone with any financial skill, say an accountant, probably didn't have nearly as much influence as their closest circle. And those people may, or may not have had the athlete's best interest in mind.
They did not need a budget, they always had more money pouring in from the next contract or advertisement deal. The same is true for a "saving for the future" mindset--in their early 20's, they had all the money in the world, and fully expected to keep receiving it. There was no need to save, or plan for one day when you grew too old, or too injured for your sport.
Iverson is simply a thug, a la Michael Vick. Once a thug, always a thug. OBTW you couldn’t PAY me to watch an NBA game. Soccer and golf are more stimulating.
A fool and his money soon part.
Maybe Rodney King can produce a rap song about dat. . .
When you buy a 50,000 sq ft house, what are you going to do?
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.
Some athletes probably would wish that it was JUST their money/fortune that they lost... like Thurman Munson.
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.
Wish DC would figure this out.
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??
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.
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...
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.
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.
turn it into a vacation resort and rent out rooms
lol.
lol.
No kidding. It’s not like they are hard to find I bet.
Too many baby mammas to feed.
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.
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)
You can’t possibly believe that a convicted rapist would commit fraud or file false documents or commit perjury can you?
As somebody said on a Whitney Houston thread, “Cocaine - When wealth and fame just isn’t enough.”
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.
Alan Iverson is a good, glaring example. So is/was Michael Vick. Vick’s current $100M contract is mostly for repaying debt and recovering from financial apocalypse. He is actually receiving only a small percentage of that contract for himself.
There are also people like Leonard Tose who gambled away the Philadelphia Eagles.
Ok, you got a chuckle out of me.
Sure I know he would commit fraud...but his ‘plan’ seems so foolish to me.
Really, he’s going to ‘lay low’ until somebody forgets he owes them money? Why does he even bother?
I guess he may have plans to leave the country.
Sorry, all I did was post the article. :)
Probably because football players (with some obvious exceptions) don’t have as many high earners over time. A mediocre baseball or basketball player can easily earn $50 million in a career. Much more difficult in the NFL. So they have less to squander, leading to faster poverty, but less astonishing falls like the Dykstras, Iversons, etc.
U so funny. lol
My all time fave is the guy, year's ago, in NY, Curits something....who won like $50 mil and shows up the next day to claim his prize, in a limo, dressed in a tuxedo, with a bowler hat, his wife, AND his girlfriend...whe that story broke, the over/under on how long before he went broke was about 10 years..it was less.l.
In behest of our organization WTF(World Tiddlywinks Federation) I wish to inform all that we do not have any of our players on the Dole!
All our players past and present are financial secure having invested wisely in GM/GE/Obama stock.
The only thing that we have to complain about is our debilitating Tiddlywink Thumb, life threatening injuries.
WTF, Pres. Ben Tiddly
You Tiddlywink people get all the coverage. I can’t turn on ESPN without hearing some announcer saying, “Ohhh.....Ben just missed the cup with that one!” When I miss the cup, there’s liquor all over the floor. Unless it’s a urine sample, and, well, we won’t get into that.
As we grow older, all will bear that Cross. Use a wider cup! Although I have never spilled a dram of a spirit.
From our Organization to you, have WTF day.
World Tiddlywinks Federation.
I suggest his debts were discharged through bankruptcy, and that he would lay low, then stage a comeback fight in .. say..Cuba. Against some glass jawed wannabe.
He would launder the old money his creditors were entitled too in with the purse from the prize fight.
A plot so simple it doesn’t even require biting any ears off.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.