Why Athletes Go Bankrupt

Burke, Monte. "Curt Schilling And Why Athletes Make Such Poor Financial Decisions."Forbes. Forbes Magazine, 25 May 2012. Web. 14 Apr. 2013.

            Have you ever wondered why so many athletes go bankrupt or are under financial stress? It has been a question on a lot of athletes and fans minds for the past few months, so many of our favorite athletes go bankrupt after they retire. There are many different hypotheses to why so many athletes are going broke and why. One reason is the fact that some athletes grew up poor so they don’t know how to manage money. The problem with that theory is that some of these bankrupt players grew up with money so that shades some doubt on that conclusion. Another is the fact that many athletes have “yes men” around them. These people will never tell the athletes not to buy something or tell them they need to save money for the fear that they will get kicked out of the athlete’s entourage. Others believe that it is because of the come down from leaving the bright lights. Once they are retired money is a great distraction from the abrupt career end. Then once they spend all this money they aren’t making as much as they used to which could lead to financial stress. There isn’t just one main reason why so many do eventually go bankrupt, but it is something we need to fix because 78% of NFL players and 60% of NBA players go broke or have some type of financial stress within five years of retiring from the league.

            This article came from a very good source, and was a very well written article that provided many different examples of bankrupt athletes. I agree with the reasons that the author gave for the athletes going bankrupt. Most family and friends of these players don’t want to be left out of their circle or go against what the athletes say even if it would help the athletes in the long run. Especially with the many financial decisions athletes will make. I hope that the different professional sports leagues step up and try to provide these athletes with more financial counseling and try to help them if they are in need. These players provided entertainment for the fans and brought in more revenue for the teams, so the least the teams could do would be to help out these athletes. I hope that this trend of bankrupt and financially stressed athletes starts to decline, and more young athletes will surround themselves with the right people and make the right investments after their career is over. Because I for one don’t like to see my favorite athletes who provided me with many years of entertainment go bankrupt.