Football, Baseball, Water boarding
Team Aguilar‘s Free March Madness Basketball Pool is back! This is our 5th year and it sure seems to fly by! Feel free to sign up. You won’t have a chance to win a million or a billion dollars but you may win a few bucks. Top 3 players win $ 1st = $100 2nd = …
Info as well as Six Facts You Probably Didn’t Know About the San Diego Rock ‘n Roll Marathon San Diego’s annual Rock ‘n’ Roll Marathon kicks off this weekend on Sunday, June 2nd. Based on feedback from runners of previous marathons, organizers have decided to relocate the finish line to a new venue this year. The 2013 event …
Why Pro Athletes Suck at Money
What is it about professional athletes that make them so bad with money? It’s almost cliché to talk about the ex-MLB player who blew his fortune on ridiculous investments or the former NBA superstar who lost everything in a nasty divorce. While the rate of ex-player bankruptcies are higher than ever before thanks to the global financial crisis, reports from a variety of sources show that ex pro-athletes have always been bad at handling their money. According to a 2009 Sports Illustrated article 78% of ex-NFL players are bankrupt within two years of retirement. Figures from the NBA Players’ Association show that 60% of retired NBA players are broke.
While it’s easy to point and laugh at irresponsible millionaires throwing their money away, it ignores the underlying institutional problems faced by many athletes once they retire. To put it simply, many pro athletes are wildly out of their depth when it comes to handling finances. Most are signed up to lucrative seven figure contracts straight out of college or, in some cases, high school. Many come from modest to poor backgrounds and have had no experience in managing a check book, let alone investing millions of dollars.
The average career lifespan of a professional athlete is much shorter than that of other working professionals. A plumber or accountant will have anywhere from 30 to 50 productive working years in his or her life. The NFL’s own statistics show that the average player’s career lasts from 6 to 10 years, with most players having a peak earning period of 3.2 years. NBA players have a career lifespan of 5 years or less (source) while an average MLB career is 5.6 years (source).
When examining pro athlete bankruptcies, similar patterns start to emerge. Here are four recurring reasons why so many ex players go broke, along with some prominent examples.
It’s very easy to be negative and much harder to be positive. I always see the glass half full and I am going to share some of my thoughts on this season and why this was one of the best Padres season’s I can remember. It even surpassed my expectations and believe me I really felt like this team was much better than the experts had predicted.