Bankrupt Athletes

Schottey, Michael. "ESPN's 'Broke' Barely Scratched the Surface of Athlete Bankruptcy Discussion." Bleacher Report. N.p., 03 Oct. 2012. Web. 11 Apr. 2013.

            Going back to the athletes that do go bankrupt, many make poor financial decisions regarding buying luxury things like cars, houses, and going clubbing. But there are others that go broke just because they are too generous. Some give their families and friends money that the athletes will never see again. That’s when some family and friends and ex-wives can take advantage of the very rich athletes. There are also those athletes that can go bankrupt because of injury. Their insurance companies will not pay for the athletes with pre-existing neck, brain, and other injuries. This article also criticizes the ESPN 30-or-30 documentary Broke. It states that the documentary was well done, but only scratches the surface of the problem of bankrupt athletes. There was an interesting statistic that 78% of former NFL players are either bankrupt or under financial stress due to joblessness or divorce. This shows that there really is a problem with these athletes. The NFL and other professional leagues have financial training for the incoming athletes and the programs have continued especially with the current situation with many former NFL players. The article also calls for the discussion of bankrupt athletes to continue if we are ever going to fix it.

            I really like this article. It was very well written is a great support piece for my project. I think that there are too many former professional athletes that go bankrupt. I do not like to see my favorite players go bankrupt after they retire. I agree that there needs to be more public awareness about this topic. ESPN did a nice job of getting the idea out there, now there needs to be more discussion about it. Have all players entering the draft take a money management course, and have each team assign them a financial manager they know will help the player out. I know that the professional teams can afford that, and they will only be helping out their ex players. There could also be different types of job services that could help out ex professional athletes. Athletes retire around the age of 40 and make more money than most people make in a lifetime, and yet many continue to go bankrupt. Another issue is that many athletes only spend one or so years in college and do not get a degree. Some of those athletes get a degree online or in the offseason of their sport, but many still do not have one. This will hurt them if they are looking for a job in their future. I agree with this article 100% and I think that more should be done to make this a public issue and more should be done to help current athletes so that they do not end up like the financially stressed athletes of today.