OT: Clinton Portis declares bankruptcy.. owes more than $5M

DaBruinz said:

The NFL does a LOT more than just give them one class. Maybe you should look into it a bit more before being so judgemental and making ridiculous extrapolations..

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could you give us some examples or refer us to a source with some examples? This is a tough topic.

Tough topic. Maybe it comes from being a little older and having made plenty of mistakes of my own, but I have a degree of understanding for a lot of these guys. Yes I have more sympathy for people who are truly impoverished and have never known the kind of wealth someone like Portis enjoyed. But as others have observed, many athletes are unprepared to deal with sudden wealth and a lot of them are surrounded by family and "friends" who leech off of their good fortune and often guilt trip them into giving them money. And, yes, many of them make irresponsible choices. So I am very interested in how the NFL (and NBA) deal with this. It's a very difficult topic because the line between helping and condescending can be a thin one.

What I can't understand is this line:

Entertainment Tonight correspondent and former sideline reporter Nischelle Turner is also owed $500,000.

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Why would he owe money to a sideline reporter?

As for the rest, I feel like I can sort of relate. Although I never made millions like he did, but I think back to when I was 20 and I recall I was spending all my money on... extraneous stuff. I'd barely have enough left over to pay the rent. I was stupid I'll admit. But then... most are at that age.

Kjmass1 said:

Child support to four women? There you go.

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Remember the great Travis Henry?

GrogansArmy said:

What I can't understand is this line:



Why would he owe money to a sideline reporter?

As for the rest, I feel like I can sort of relate. Although I never made millions like he did, but I think back to when I was 20 and I recall I was spending all my money on... extraneous stuff. I'd barely have enough left over to pay the rent. I was stupid I'll admit. But then... most are at that age.

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Thanks for your honesty. As I said in my post above this is a tough topic for many reasons.

Regarding the sideline reporter, my initial thought was that maybe she felt sorry for him and lent him the money as a friend. Beyond that we could speculate on a range of possible explanations without any justification.

The leagues and the unions can do more for the players. When you declare for the draft a financial literacy test can be given and required actions taken. Teams could pay for reviews of portfolios. This is more on the unions than on the players, The unions are the ones that are supposed to have a responsibility to the player not the owners.