Athletes: Lacking Common "Cents"

Vince Young

Multimillion dollar contracts.  Signing bonuses.  Endorsement deals.  "Professional athlete" is of the most lucrative careers in the entire world.  So how do these one-time millionaires end up bankrupt?

Vince Young is arguably one of the greatest college quarterbacks of all time.  His 2005 season, capped by a Rose Bowl victory over USC, earned him several accolades and perhaps more importantly, the attention of many NFL teams.  In April 2006, he was drafted 3rd overall by the Tennessee Titans.  Young agreed to a five year contract worth nearly 58 million dollars, with over 25 million of that money guaranteed. 

Now, only six years since Young's rookie season, the quarterback finds himself not only without a spot on an NFL roster, but also consumed by debt.

The millions from Young's contract and various endorsement deals are nowhere to be found.  Young, like many athletes before him, was undoubtedly given the financial freedom that ultimately led to the destruction of his financial well-being.

Many athletes have the mentality that you are not truly a professional until you buy the fancy cars or expensive houses that are often associated with their image.  A popular attitude among celebrities these days, athletes included, is that social status is judged by how much one spends during one night at a nightclub or at an after-hours spot.  Everyone wants to be the big shot that spends thousands of dollars in one evening.

Also playing a role in an athlete's financial life are close friends from their pasts. Antoine Walker, an NBA player for over 12 seasons, has shed some insight into bankrupt athletes. In fact, he, himself, is an example.  In an interview (see below), Walker stated that he would go out with friends and feel obliged to cover all expenses, since he was the millionaire athlete and his friends were not.  Over time, these expenses surely add up.  Additionally, friends can often lead athletes into dangerous financial decisions.  Failed investments can erase millions of dollars from any athletes' bank account and leave them in a financial disaster.


Aside from occasional help by agents and financial advisors, athletes are often unregulated in how they spend their money.  After all, they have earned their pay from countless hours of hard work and deserve to spend it how they choose.  But when young athletes - who often come from backgrounds of little financial experience - receive checks worth millions of dollars, freedom to spend this money may turn out to be the worst thing for them.  As stated above, athletes are constantly "pressured" in various ways to spend this money.  And with little guidance and rarely a formidable force to restrict their decisions, athletes can blow through their money in a very short period of time.

For many athletes the next paycheck is merely a few games away.  But as Vince Young's story shows, the career of a professional athlete is very fragile.  A typical career in professional sports lasts for fewer than five years. So what happens when the athlete stops playing and the paychecks stop coming?  Their unregulated financial decisions often come back to haunt them.  In Young's case, the money has in fact dried up and left him in financial misery.  Young is currently a free agent with no steady source of income, and he is badly in need of money.

Many athletes have made millions and retained their earnings.  Yet there are a select few (for example, Lenny Dykstra, Mark Brunell, and now Vince Young, among others) who fail to keep their money.  But is this the result of a lack of guidance or the result of too much freedom?  Athletes who lack financial guidance may not realize their mistakes until it is too late.  But athletes have been known to splurge irresponsibly as well.  The freedom they have to spend their money is something that you cannot take away, but does that make the occasional cases of bankrupt athletes inevitable?