Exactly. If they go bankrupt because (as FTW put it) they have extravagant lifestyles and friends/extended family - - i.e. entourages - - to support) then they SHOULD go bankrupt.
Or get paid more money. That's the part of the equation that you seem to be missing. People offer them more money, and they take it. if I had the earning power that a Richard Seymour has, and was given the chance to sign a contract that would set up my wife, kids, and elements of my extended family for a comfortable life, I'd do it. Not because I don't care about being on the 'best team', but because family and friends matter too.
Stupid is as stupid does. The league has no responsibility to play nursemaid for boneheaded choices that my 9 year old knows not to make.
Nobody said otherwise, but keep making points up to make your rant sound more ridiculous- that always works.
The league DOES have a comprehensive program teaching rookies and vets separately about financial management, etc.
Yes, which I believe was instituted relatively recently in response to these problems. The reason why this was instituted was because the professionals that athletes were hiring to manage their money ('reputable' people from 'reputable' firms, btw) were scamming them blind.
At the investment firm that I worked at (I quit right around the time that I realized that we were scamming cancer research funds...) , it was widely held that professional athletes were dream clients. They had a lot of money, they *knew* that they needed to make investments for life after sports, but let's face it, they were far less savvy than your standard multi-millionaire. And they knew that, which is exactly why they got people to manage their money for them. Smart move, right? You would hope, but the sad reality is that a lot of these guys got screwed over pretty epically because the guys that they were trusting to manage their money were completely ******* them over. It happens all the time, and there are stars in this league that it would absolutely floor you to know are on the verge of bankruptcy, and
will be bankrupt as soon as the checks stop rolling in.
I've been involved in a very indirect, roundabout way with investments that were made by prominent New England Patriots--board favorites, no less, ones that I'm sure you all think are doing things the right way--that honestly, I'll be very surprised if they don't lose their shirts. In a lot of cases, these guys are trying to be responsible and are just getting terrible advice from people that they should be able to trust. In cases like this, their only real mistake is being young, rich, and knowing more about football than money management. And that combination brings an especially contemptible type of person to their doorstep, looking to scam them out of everything he can get. (and we wonder why so many athletes don't trust anyone but close family and childhood friends).
And I haven't even gotten into medical bills. The average lineman's body undergoes stress equal to a 25 mph (IIRC) car crash many, many times per game. These guys get absolutely pounded, and racking up hundreds of thousands in medical bills is not at all unusual for former NFLers. That adds up quickly, when they tend to see maybe 40% tops, at the end of the day, of the contract figures that we see thrown around. Add on top of that that these guys are all acutely aware of the fact that they are one hit from their career being over and their earning potential being completely gone *tomorrow*, and of course they want to make all the money that they can while they can. They'd be dumb not to.
It's easy to take the smug superiority approach and say 'I'd never do that', but if you think the equation is that simple, then there are factors at work that you clearly don't even begin to understand.
