When an athlete makes it to the pros their life completely changes. In the video "Broke" the athletes that were interviewed talked about the new lifestyle they enter once they start making large sums of money. Getting so much money so quickly causes these athletes to become careless with their money and by retirement they are in serious debt. During the 90's America had a serious spending problem and this rolled over into the athletes. Instead of saving their newly earned millions athletes spent it on cars, houses, jewelry, clothes and unnecessary things. In the video "Broke" athletes said they could spend $10,000 a week. This lavish spending left no money when their career ended. In the NFL there is no guaranteed contracts so this sudden lack of income leaves athletes with mortgages they can't pay and debt piling up. The EPSN article said how athletes don't realize that they can't touch their pensions and 401K until they are in their late forties or fifties. This leaves many years where those who just retired need to figure out what is next. Some athletes try and get a job and others spiral downward into trouble.
The transition from playing professional sports to living in the day to day world can be tough on many players. Both the NY Times article and the ESPN article discussed how athletes receive so much money when they are signed but they never get any financial education on how to save their money to avoid debt and bankruptcy in the future. Once retried many need to find out what skills they have outside of playing sports that can get them a job so they can continue to have an income. In addition many athletes have experienced serious injuries, which can leave them with memory loss and other serious medical conditions. Having several years of making a lot of money creates terrible and careless spending habits that are hard to break once retired. Some continue to spend lavishly with money they don't have leaving them in financial messes and sometimes leading them to jail. The life after retirement is such a struggle for athletes because they go from living a way that most people never get to experience to them having to make serious adjustments and a new way to make money. In our culture we have such an obsession with spending and making money that we don't think about the consequences that can happen once the money is gone. Since success in sports in our culture is determined by the amount of money one makes, living largely is just another way athletes can show off their success. While it makes a lot of sense why these athletes get into such financial trouble after retirement it is something I have never thought of before. I think that in order to stop the problem we need to teach players how to handle their money and the uncertainties that go along with playing professional sports, including how long a career might be. In addition we as a society needs to stop defining success as who is making the most money and living the most elaborately.
I agree, we need to start defining success as something much more than just making money. Although money does put food on the table and a roof over our heads, success should be what makes you happy, and living in a world without any worries. Money isn't everything; one day you could have millions and the next day you could owe millions.
ReplyDelete-Conner Morris