Brandon Graham's teammates ask him for 100k loans
Apparently two of B. Graham's teammates have asked him for 100k to get through the upcoming NFL lockout. BG being the smart Michigan Man he is declined, IMO very smart move by BG. As he said in the article he doesn't want to have beef with his teammates because they owe him money. http://phillysportsdaily.com/eagles/2011/02/28/with-lockout-looming-are-nfl-players-prepared/
It's sad these guys make more money playing one game then many of us do a year still can't handle their money. Glad BG is not one of them, even Lamarr who was making 550k last year is smart enough to know to save his money. He could have very easily blown through that if he wanted to.
Mods feel free to delete.
Oh I don't really think it needs to be deleted. It's kind of a different tangent on the same article. I was only pointing out the other information.
Way to jack my thread. Queefmonger.
But its a very though-provoking topic. Average people often think what they would do for 1 million dollars and how theyd be set for life. It's actually, a) not that much money if you spread it out over a long period of time, and b) very easy to piss away if you're not careful.
Maybe the title of your thread shouldn't have been "Michigan Men Manage Money Magnificently" and I would have know this was alreadly posted. Turdburgler.
Ah, the old MMMM topics. Those topics are the best.
you wish your thread could have such an awesome title.
penis wrinkle.
ps. in case people were confused, i'm not actually angry about this being reposted. i figured the ludicrous and funny insult would convey that, but apparently not.
I gotcha, hence the turdburgler back to you, and your penis wrinkle back to me. It's all good.
Average household income in US is ~45K. 1 Million invested at 6% is 60K a year without touching principle...or 50K per year for 20 years with no interest.
Read somewhere that average retiree has less than 100K saved for retirement, but expects to maintain their lifestyle.
Help me out. What's a queefmonger? I looked it up on dictionary.com and got this:
queefmonger -- no dictionary results
Try urbandictionary.com. Definitely NSFW or H, though, and don't look up stuff there on a full stomach.
I saw a stat (I think on ESPN) that 78% of NFL players are at or close to bankruptcy within 5 years out of the league. If this is the case, then this is a sad commentary on the poor job that universities and coaches are doing at preparing these kids for what they might deal with (in terms of hangers on, scammers, "money managers" and the like) when and if they go pro.
Many of these kids come from backgrounds where money management means making your paycheck last long enough to have food on the table until the next paycheck arrives 2 weeks later. They have no concept of finances, and believe that $400,000 is in infinite amount of $$ that will never run out. Not to go all preachy, but to me, part of the job of the universities and the coaches is to prepare these kids for their careers, and if their careers are in the NFL, then they need to be schooled in money management.
I read somewhere that some teams have seminars and classes for rookies. I think that it should be part of the process of getting signed with a team. I think the NFl should make it a mandatory process when they sign with a team.
I actually didn't know that. Unfortunately, as with most mandatory seminars, how much of an impact does this have? I guess what I am advocating for is less of a formal process, but for the college coaches to really mentor these kids on what to expect and what to look out for. I would bet that guys like Lloyd regularly did this. Guys like Saban, probably not so much.
One of my finance professors gives manditory annual seminars to rookies on the Saints. He estimates that about 15% of the rookies actually pay attention to him, while the other 85% goof off, zone out, or take naps.
It's after two years.
Honestly, when you think about it, it makes sense. Obviously for Brandon Graham to go broke he would have to have been a complete idiot with his money (22,000,000 contract). But what about the undrafted free agents out of the leauge in two or three years? With this housing market I bet a lot of them made the same mistakes a lot of other people did.
Yes, 300,000 is a lot of money, and should last more than a couple years, but I don't think we're talking first and second round picks here.
I think you make a good point, but at the same time, I would bet (no real way to verify), that plenty of the guys who are more than 2-year back-ups fall into the category of having gotten into financial trouble. Any, while housing may be part of it, I think it goes a lot farther than that - I think that it has a lot to do with lifestyle and vulnerability. The celebrity world is rife with stories of "money managers" ripping off those with tons of $$. Equally, how many of these guys have huge posses of hangers on that they put up in hotels, take to expensive restaurants and buy lavish gifts for?
So while I think your points about the lower-paid players holds true, I think that the issue is more widespread.
Oh no, I definitely think their lifestyle is a big deal, and a lot of them waste huge percentages of their money (where Peyton or Graham can afford to go buy ridiculous things, someone like, say, Brandon Minor, cannot). I just think that the lower wage guys could have made pretty decent decisions and still been in trouble afterwards.
I have sympathy for those people, I just can't stand hearing about someone like Allan Iverson or an NFL equivalent and thinking they could be broke.
I totally agree. When you hear about a guy making MILLION, sometimes TENS OF MILLIONS going broke, it is hard to comprehend.
Look at Mike Tyson - dude made over $100 million (gross) and had to declare bankruptcy. Ditto for M.C. Hammer. Next on the block: Charlie Sheen.
The guy was a two time 1000 yard runner in NFL and his parents and my coworker's parents were best friends. After almost a decade in the NFL he came home. A year or two later his father died and apparently he was asking my coworker's dad for a loan since he couldn't go to his dad.
I saw a stat (I think on ESPN) that 78% of NFL players are at or close to bankruptcy within 5 years out of the league.
That's from the NFLPA. The NBA players' union claims a similar statistic. Keep in mind that both have an incentive to make these claims - they want more money for their members, to avoid the "inevitable" bankruptcy that will follow. They could, of course, try to educate their members financially so that this doesn't happen, but that seems to be a lesser priority.
I don't think it's fair to put the onus on universities. Most college players go on to have minimal pro careers, if any. The university's job is to provide some kind of education for these guys so that they can do something else with their lives besides destroy their bodies playing football. Responsibility for teaching these guys about money management should fall on the NFL and NFLPA.
I couldn't remember for the life of me where the stat came from, but I now recall that it was in the context of the NFL CBA negotiations.
While I am sure you are correct that the stat is manipulated - like all good statistics - the take away is that a problem exists. And I was not trying to single out the universities as being responsible. I totally agree that the NFL should do more than hold a few seminars, and that the NFLPA should do far more.
But, for many of these kids, they develop mentor-like relationships with their college coaches, and - while not a formal requirement - these coaches should take it upon themselves to look out for these kids and go the extra mile. I, personally, learned about money management and saving from my father, but unfortuntely, many of these athletes do not have that option. The coaches often are surrogate parents to these kids. That's my only point. And, I am sure that many coaches do that.
I always thought this tragity could become a great business model. Being a finance guy for mid to low football players. You could start off by getting in good with the big athletic agencies. They can start funneling players your way. Your selling point could be how player "X" was making $400,000 a year and was broke after he was cut because he broke his leg... If you sign on with me i can help get yourself financially sound for the long term even if something bad happens. You start small help them invest and build your name and eventually your name gets around the sporting world and you move up to guys making the big contracts.
Their rookie camp is "supposed" to have money classes but most could give a rat's ass since it's all about the benjamins son
"only making 550k"
Do you know how much it costs to feed Lamar Woodley?
Especially since his diet consists primarily of NFL starting quarterbacks - those things ain't cheap.
Yeah I edited that out, obviously 550k is a shit load of money, I guess I was comparing him to other highly paid NFL players who could make 550k in two games. I get your point though.
Thing is, when you're talking about Mike Tyson and say he made $150 million in his career or whatever the number was, he never actually touched most of that money. That's simply an estimate based on his earnings. Most of these guys don't have a clue where there money actually is and probably don't ever see a bank statement. They just think "I'm rich, as long as I continue to have money in my pocket and receive lavish things its all good". Meanwhile guys like Don King give them just enough money to keep them happy while pocketing the rest. Same thing happened to Marcus Dupree, albeit on a smaller scale. But he still made millions and had nothing left after.
Even the ones who are "smart" aren't really smart at all. They believe they are being smart by investing their money, which is good in principle, but they don't have a clue how to make sound investments. Most of the time they open a restaurant, car dealership, etc. Anyone who's taken economics 101 at their local community college knows these types of investments have the lowest success rate of anything out there.
Boxing is a bit different, as they don't have the regular paychecks from an employer. There are plenty of examples of athletes blowing a ton of money though. Allan Iverson, for one, has signed contracts worth over nine figures gross, and by all accounts has gambled/frivolously spent it all.
Not to mention that your average boxer is probably dealing with a non-trivial amount of brain damage.
Another problem: too many of these guys can't keep their pants on, and end up paying significant chunks of their salaries in child support
Yeah, but that's not really a problem any of us can criticize because we'd all probably do the same exact thing if we had a constant stream of women (or men) trying to sleep with us.
I mean, even if you wear a condom every single time, at some point you're playing the rate-of-failure odds and every once in a while somebody's getting pregnant. I'm sure lots of athletes rationalize occasional unwanted children as the cost of having frequent sex with multiple partners.
But yeah, it costs a lot.
Given that most of them, presumably, are either married or have a significant other, I think we can criticize them for it. Problem is, too many people around them have the kind of forgiving attitude you expressed. No one tells these guys to grow up, act like mature adults, don't cheat on their wives, and don't waste all their money.
I think with Iverson it probably had alot to do with the "entourage" effect. These guys feel that when they've made it that they have to take care of everyone they grew up with. So these contracts seem like alot of money, but when it becomes the source of luxury for 8,9,10,15 people, its not enough. It's sad because it is very understandable to want to take care of your friends and family when you make it out of poverty.
Why do his teammates need money from him. I assume they're making at minimum mid 6 figures. WTF
I think that a lot of this has to do with mindset. People who are poor tend to ask the question "how much are the payments" whereas people who are not poor tend to ask the question "how much does it cost". While it may not seem like it at first glance, that's a significant distinction that goes a long way to answer the question of why a significant number of highly paid individuals end up in this situation once the income stream stops. If you grow up poor, you are pretty likely to maintain the habits that you learned from your parents unless you do some serious work to change those habits.
I've read a little about how athletes end up blowing their money, and this article further explains a bit of the phenomenon. Brandon Graham is a really good guy and has done a good job of keeping his head on straight. Also of note, the article mentions a wealth management company for athletes called Compass that was founded by a UM grad.
Sad but cool article. Athletes' inability to plan ahead financially was what sunk the NBA union the last time, what while basically sink the bargaining for the NFLPA, and what will probably always be the key driver in any of these negotiations. I think about the fact that Antonio Cromartie has made millions of dollars as a player but also has so many kids that he'll be broke by mid-September if he doesn't get another big contract. And guys like Antoine Walker made over $100M in his career and just filed for bankruptcy. It is good to hear that Graham is thoughtfully managing his wealth for the future, but it is sad to see guys make more money in a couple of years than the average college-educated person will see in his or her lifetime barely be able to make ends meet 2-3 years after they retire.
We all have to do it. I'm not feeling sorry for these guys. A michigan man is a smart man!