Radio Interview

Robwilsontv.”ESPN 30 for 30 interview – How to NOT Go Broke.” Youtube. 19 Oct. 2012

                This was a radio interview with Mia Jackson from the podcast Game Ready Moms, which is for current and potential athletes navigate the process. In the segment they discuss the ESPN 30 for 30 documentary ‘Broke’ and how athletes can avoid going broke. They discuss many of the important factors involved with why athletes can go broke or be under financial stress.  One main reason is that the athletes are not very good at managing their money and give out a lot of money to friends and family when they ask. The athletes also spend a lot of their money on things they do not need just to have it and look like they have more than another player. They then discussed the factors that will help athletes and gave their opinions on how to prevent athlete bankruptcy.

                I was glad to see that there are now people talking about this issue and looking for different ways to fix this issue. I think that personally colleges and universities should do more to prepare these student athletes for the real world and have them learn responsibilities and how to manage their money. The professional sports leagues should do more to help these athletes as well, there is currently some training for incoming rookies, however all leagues should have a required seminar where they show the players all the bankrupt athletes and bring some of those athletes in to warn and show the athletes what can happen when you don’t manage your money correctly. I hope that the leagues and universities begin to take this issue more seriously and begin to help out professional athletes when they need it.

The Sports Culture in India

 

Bhogle, Harsha (2010 March). Harsha Bhogle: The rise of Cricket, the Rise of India [Video File].

http://www.ted.com/talks/harsha_bhogle_the_rise_of_cricket_the_rise_of_india.html

 

                This TED talk featured Harsha Bhogle, a popular Cricket commentator describes the rise of Cricket in India. Cricket in India can be compared to the National Football League or the National Basketball League of the United States. Cricket used to take more than a day to complete just one game, and was only played by native Indians. After winning the world cup of a new form of cricket, more people began to pick up the game. The game changed again to 20-20 cricket and again India was successful against the rest of the world. Now instead of just playing as a national team city teams were beginning to form. These teams were then bought by celebrities and other wealthy people and a league was then formed. The city teams played against each other and the contracts of the players were in the millions of dollars for the first time. Also, teams were bringing in players from other countries to come and play for the city teams.

                The sports culture in India has begun to change. The Indian culture has adapted to the new and prominent western sports culture. The western sports culture is more about individual players and teams then about the nation as a whole. The athletes in India are beginning to make millions of dollars through their contracts and through their endorsements. The eastern world is beginning to make the change to the more individualistic western form of culture for the sports world at least.

John Wooden TED Talk

Wooden, John. (2009, March) John Wooden: the difference between winning and succeeding

[Video File] Retrieved from http://www.ted.com/talks/john_wooden_on_the_difference_between_winning_and_success.html

                This TED Talk was from legendary college basketball coach John Wooden. John Wooden won ten NCAA men’s basketball championships in twelve years and won seven titles in a row. He was a great coach and an even better mentor. In his TED Talk his main message is that you may win but not succeed, and you could lose and succeed. He described in detail his days of teaching English to students and then his career at UCLA coaching. He always wanted his students and players to succeed. His mentality was that succeeding is doing your best. Players and coaches shouldn’t be judged on how many wins or losses they had, but by their character. John Wooden is one of the greatest coaches that ever lived and provided many student athletes with motivation to get better and improve their character. He continues to inspire athletes around the country even with his passing in 2010.

                John Wooden is a great example of a role model.  He is someone that all athletes and coaches should aspire to be like. The TED Talk gave an example of how the sports culture in America is like. Even if the coach wins the game he may not be successful just because the public thought they would win by more. His philosophy is copied by the successful coaches of today, and his teachings on character and trying hard continue today to show student athletes there is more to life than sports. I hope that young athletes take his message to heart and try hard at the sport they love no matter what their skill level is.

Radio Interview with Billy Corben, director for ESPN 30 for 30 documentary 'Broke'

SportsUnplugged. “Sports Unplugged: 30 for 30 Director Billy Corben talks about ‘Broke’.” YouTube. 2 Oct. 2012. Web. 22 Apr 2013 

 

                The next video I found was a radio show that interviewed the director of the ESPN 30 for 30 documentary ‘Broke’. Billy Corben the director discussed the reasons why many professional athletes end up going bankrupt or broke. First, he credited that when most people stop working at the age of 30 they would run out of money as well. The average career of an NFL player is 3.5 years. Most athletes don’t make a lot of money from playing in the NFL.  A former coach Herm Edwards was quoted in the documentary as saying that the NFL was not a career, but an opportunity. Also most athletes are very young when they are coming into the different leagues and are overnight millionaires. So most of these athletes think they will be set for life and always want to give back to their communities and families and neighborhoods. The problem is most athletes are very generous and give a lot of money to friends and family that won’t pay them back, and eventually they run out of money. In college the focus of these student athletes are on athletics and not academics. Most don’t have a college degree or even know how to manage their own money. Colleges should take more responsibility to help these athletes become financially smart and help these athletes get a degree for life after sports. Corben also said that the financial issues started during the financial boom of the 1990’s when the salaries of athletes rose by a lot. The advice he gave at the end of the interview was to say no to everyone, and obtain an un-related trust worthy financial advisor.

                 I think that this was a very well done interview. The source was good because of the guest on the radio show, an ESPN documentary director Billy Corben who directed the documentary ‘Broke’. This got a lot of attention because it was one of the first documentaries to show the problem many athletes have. I agree with many of the things he said, and I agree that Colleges should do more to help prepare these athletes for the future, and put more of a focus on academics. Athletes will spend more of their life out of professional sports than in them, and they should learn how to be financially smart and make good decisions. I’m not saying that athletes shouldn’t give to charities or help out their family, but be smart about it. Make sure that the athlete can both help out and have enough invested and saved to take care of themselves after their career in sports. I also think that the professional teams that sign the athlete to their contract should provide a financial advisor for them to help make the tough financial decisions and help keep them out of trouble. I hope that colleges will begin to help out their student athletes and begin to care about the actually athletes instead of the revenue that they bring in each year.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aJq2bEX7ILw

How Athletes go Broke with Jalen Rose

GrantlandNetwork, “How Athletes Go Broke.” YouTube. ESPN, 3 Oct. 2012. Web. 19 Apr 2013.

 

                This YouTube video included Jalen Rose a former NBA player and current analyst for ESPN talking about how athletes go bankrupt and why. He explains in the video that when rookies get their first contract you have family you never knew coming to ask you for money. That athlete also wants to help their mother and father buy a new house, help their siblings reach their dreams, and then help themselves out. He also says that every friend always has a brilliant business idea; they just need your money to fund that idea. The three business investment he says to avoid are record labels, clothing lines, and restaurants. Many athletes have tried their hand at these investments and failed.  He also mentioned in the video that if athletes are fortunate to get a second contract that they begin to mature and not loan out any more money after realizing they spent their whole first contract helping others and themselves. Another way that many athletes can get into trouble financially is having too many children and having a messy divorce. Both can cost a lot of money especially if that athlete is paying child support for all their different children.

                I thought this was a very informational video even though it was short. It was a YouTube clip on the Grantland Network which is a sports website sponsored by ESPN. Having a former professional athlete on the clip to share his experiences first hand was also very interesting. He explained all the different people that will come to you asking for money once you get your contract. Athletes all want to buy their immediate family something to help them achieve their dreams, while also dealing with added pressure from others competing for the athlete’s money as well. I was glad to see that bankruptcy is beginning to get more attention from the media and the large sports networks. ESPN also made a documentary on athletes called “Broke”. They discussed the documentary vaguely in the beginning of the clip and both the sports writer and Jalen Rose seemed to like the film. I hope that former athletes begin to speak up about the many financial dangers that will threaten the athlete throughout their career.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-362OfeM9OQ