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Professional Athletes Go Broke
As the old saying goes, "A fool and his money are soon parted."
The latest issue of Sports Illustrated has a nine-page investigative spread, "Money in Sports - How (and Why) Athletes Go Broke," By Pablo S. Torre, who sat in on a private financial boot camp in Dallas attended by nine current and one-time pro athletes:
"[A]thletes from the nation's three biggest and most profitable leagues--the NBA, NFL and Major League Baseball--are suffering from a financial pandemic. Although salaries have risen steadily during the last three decades, reports from a host of sources (athletes, players' associations, agents and financial advisers) indicate that: By the time they have been retired for two years, 78% of former NFL players have gone bankrupt or are under financial stress because of joblessness or divorce. Within five years of retirement, an estimated 60% of former NBA players are broke. ... The closest analogue to a pro athlete isn't a white-collar executive. It's a lottery winner - often in his early twenties."How does this happen? The causes given are the recession, dumb investments, misplaced trust, divorce ("the most dangerous thing that could happen to an athlete financially"), pressure to consume conspicuously.
(Hat Tip: Politico's early rising Mike Allen)
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Comments (3)
Here's one reason that they didn't mention in the article(and never would mention in any secular article, for that matter): The athletes weren't honoring God with a tenth of their earnings, therfore, God wasn't honoring their success and simply allowed them to fail.
Posted by Irina H.F. | March 19, 2009 1:16 PM
Josh I've always wondered about this. I never would have guessed the numbers are so high though. I feel that the professional leagues are such unreached peoples, but then again a lot of good men and women are in the professional leagues witnessing so I don't know. Mike Tomlin for instance, a member of the Christian and Missionary Alliance. So many of these people come from harsh backgrounds and never really learn to grow up, they just enjoy the ride.
Posted by Joe Donaldson | March 20, 2009 11:01 AM
So does that mean that the ones that didn't go broke were tithing? Is there really a strong connection between tithing and not going broke?
Posted by nom nom | March 24, 2009 9:33 PM