When someone comes in on a Saturday afternooon with a portfolio full of papers it’s hard not to to think oh crap a sales person, and sure enough. These two guys come in, a white guy & a black guy, they come over to the counter and start talking environmentally friendly wine shippers. After a few minutes of babble the black guy gives me his business card, I look at it and start laughing, he says what’s so funny, I tell him I hadn’t seen a (former) football player shilling wine shippers before. It was Eric Wright from the SF 49ers and his card says alumni coordinator. The other guy is talking shippers and apparently they are trying to come up with ideas for shippers but not stryo. I told him I would not ship in the heat across country in that cardboard thing they showed me. After Eric calls me “Miss Carrie” a million times he says, we are going to be up here next week and trying to put some ideas together for shippers can we come by and meet with you and our money guy. I tell them “yea whatever, call and see if I have time”. Then Eric says, well what are you doing tonight, want to got to dinner? Sorry, Bud I’m going to an OL…
I’m certain and funny thing is Randy would say, let him to take you to dinner, get tickets but try not to be too brutal & rough him up too much but I’m going to an SQN OL and that sound like way more fun.
It amazes me how many former pro football players require jobs when they are no longer playing. With base salaries at 20X the national average, and most making around half a million a year for 5-10 years, you’d think they would be able to handle money for a while and be retired with a decent amount stashed away…
Lose half to taxes, then 10% to an agent before you’ve bought Mom a house or a roof of your own? Not to mention the average career of an NFL’er is pretty short. Seems reasonable to me.
The average career of most players is quite short, especially in the NFL. Injuries are a big part of that. Most players don’t make that much either. I don’t know what the minimum is but I seem to remember it being about $400K. Three years of that isn’t exactly a kingly sum in the USA.
Released NFL players (and other pro and Olympic athletes) face numerous career transition and emotional issues. Studies show that 72 percent of former pro players are divorced within three years, and 64 percent are bankrupt within six. The foundation provides former pros with research, teaching, counseling, career coaching, and player development resources which help players make informed choices about their future.
For more information about the Celebrity Golf Challenge, SPI, the SPF, and Junior Achievement, see sportsprofessionals.org" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;.
Randy - was just going to look for this article because I just read it a couple of weeks ago and it really surprised me the number was so high. I figured a high percentage would be broke, i.e., around 30% or so but 64% blew my mind.