Once the cheering stops: The life of a retired pro-athlete

The ESPN film about retired NFL players was interesting and very shocking. The fact that majority of NFL players go bankrupt after only a few years of starting their retirement is astonishing. The film talked about how these players become millionaires when they are in their early 20's. As a 20 year old, and not finishing college, it is no wonder they go through their money in the first couple of years of being a pro athlete. People that young, let alone young pro-athletes do not know how to spend wisely,and save money; or make investments for that matter. Realistically, going to the NFL at that young of age is a huge accomplishment, and who wouldn't want to spend their money how they wanted to, and purchasing everything they have ever wanted (which is exactly what they do). However, this is what really hurts them in the long run. Meanwhile, this is not the only thing that makes them go bankrupt later.

In the film, it also talked about how these pro-athlete's agents, and investment deals scam them just for agents to get more money out of them. Also, due to being famous, people know your salary, and  they know how much your endorsements are. This has caused people to break into player's homes; thinking they store all their money there( how ignorant). Not only do players, lose money from agents, investments, or people trying to steal it they also, spend it carelessly. One player in the film he dropped $500,000 on jewelry for his friends and family. Not only do they buy gifts for family and friends but the players all like to keep up with one another when it comes to money. Another, big spending problem was gambling. Another player in the film stated he lost $10 million dollars in gambling.

 These players have become introduced to this luxury life, but what they didn't understand was that the "more money they had, the more problems it created". The NFL players had huge taxes, they had periods on the off-season where they didn't get paid which caused them to live pay check to paycheck. Almost majority of the players financially supported multiple families and friends because they felt like they owed them for becoming so successful; a lot of them also had very high child supports to pay due to how many kids they had. In other words, they had a lot bills and expenses, and the careless spending only made them reach bankruptcy faster.

Numerous financial adviser, and coaches stated there that there was no way any of these athletes should have gone bankrupt. They all needed financial advisers. The athletes lived in the moment, and did not think of what could go wrong or what they had to pay for. Such expenses included divorces ( which were extremely) expensive, medical bills from all their injuries, and just life in general after not playing in the NFL anymore.

It was also, interesting to learn that the NFL is not considered a career because the players can get released at anytime. It is also shocking to find out this professional sport that has the lowest salaries, but has the most injuries. For how many injuries, and sacrifices the NFL players make you would think they would make more.

Hopefully, after seeing what these former NFL players have gone through, and seeing how after bankruptcy they had to start all over will help the current players make better decisions. Planning for retirement, saving for incidents that could occur, and sticking to a decent budget should help NFL players from have to claim bankruptcy.