NFL Players, Bad Business Ventures, and How it All Starts with Guys Like Terrelle Pryor
I’ve actually had dreams about being a professional football player. Not many, but they range from the bizarre (a 6’1″ 175lb me playing defensive lineman) to me just sitting at a desk with undisclosed owners signing the ‘big contract.’ But no matter the content or the outcome of the dream, I always wake up with the same feeling – holy crap would it be awesome to play professional football. And in that moment of basking in the glory of being a professional athlete and football player, I also think about those who in reality are such people and wonder ‘Who in their right mind would want anything more than that?’
Well it turns out that earning hundreds of thousands to millions of dollars in NFL contracts and endorsements are not enough for numerous players. There are players out there who decide that because they have the financial backing of their own earned money in the aforementioned contracts and endorsements they have an urge to make large business ventures – and many go sour.
Some examples
Charlie and the Bakery
Our closest Steelers example comes from backup QB Charlie Batch. As the Steelers were marching their way towards another Super Bowl appearance, Batch filed for bankruptcy. He was 8.29 million dollars in the hole, which included debts from his bakery, Kings Bakery LLC. He defaulted on 1.15 million dollars on 25 properties from his own real estate company, Batch Development Co. In listing all of his assets, Batch put down all of his memorabilia including his two Super Bowl rings. He could have lost those rings if bankruptcy court decided to make him pay all of his debts back – something that would have all of Steelers Nation singing, ‘Cheer up, Charlie.’ Batch has since been absolved from the majority of his debt.
Entrepreneurs for Dummies
Many other players, current and retired, have also filed for bankruptcy: Michael Vick, Deuce McAllister, Mark Brunell, Lawrence Taylor, and former Steeler Dermontti Dawson make up part of this list. Even Johnny Unitas went bankrupt after he retired. In fact, Yahoo! Sports last year reported that 78% of football retirees go bankrupt or have severe financial distress within the first two years of retiring – a staggering number. Now, it makes sense if you don’t make it in this league for a long time and jump on business venture early that you will have financial woes come the end of your short career. But, most of these guys mentioned above raked in over 10 million dollars over the course of their careers and tanked it once retiring (or before). Most of the pitfalls stem from bad investments and too much reliance on real estate. And there are some doozies out there – ventures like investing in luxury properties in Tennessee (Vick), investing in a Canadian based company called Institute for Financial Learning (unnamed 7 players), starting up a cosmetics procedure whereby oxygen was absorbed into the skin (‘Rocket’ Ismail), putting down $6 million in bank loans towards a car-rental franchise in Indiana (Vick again), investing in “biometric authentication” technology that would help replace credit cards with fingerprints – even as the company was wracked by lawsuits (Drew Bledsoe) and many many others. The judgement of some of these players are so bad that they could be poster children for Vandelay Industries…
Country Crossing: A Really Bad Gamble
If you are an athlete and hear the word ‘gamble,’ you should have an instinct to run in the opposite direction. Just about every sport out there has rules against being involved gambling operations – ask Pete Rose how that worked out for him. So why would it ever seem like a good idea to put money down on a casino project in Alabama? Is there a scientist or mathematician out there who could make a direct correlation between how many millions of dollars you make as an athlete and the amount of common sense you lose?
Well it turns out that this casino had some bad people in charge. People who like to dish out bribes to local and state legislatures in order to influence pro-gambling legislation. So, not only are these players possibly violating the NFL’s policy on gaming, but also could be linked to a business group that was corrupt enough to bribe the government. Congratulations to Terrell Owens, Santonio Holmes, Santana Moss, Gerard Warren, Adalius Thomas and others for investing some $20 million in Country Crossing casino. The investigation is still going on and there hasn’t been any news since its initial reporting.