once the cheering stops: the life of a retired pro-athlete

many athletes have a very difficult time with money once they stop playing their sport. pro players are used to having a very large amount of money come in all the time. but once they stop playing they stop getting that money but their spending habits don't change. for some athletes the retired life is very difficult. most players don't save their money like they should but rather they continue to spend their money until they have no more. there are many examples of these types of players. Mike Tyson, Pete Rose, Barry Bonds, and Rulon Gardner to name a few. all of these players filed for bankruptcy. they were not taught how to save their money but rather they spent it all. they could not control themselves once they had a a taste of the good life and this ultimately led to their down fall. us culture tells us that we should spend money and buy things. the "cool" people buy all types of luxurious things. it is not "cool" to save your money but rather spent it. this is why athletes struggle so much when done with their sport. another reason is that many athletes grew up impoverished so once they finally got some money they wanted to spend it. they were never taught how to conserve money because as a kid they never had money to spend. my opinion is that the sports teams need to do a better job of educating the rookies about the financial life. every year we hear of some player falling asleep in the financial meetings. they need to change the meetings so that players will be interested and actually think about their money. athletes need to understand that they will not be playing their sport for very long. the average years played in the NFL is 3.5 years. the players need to use this money to jump start themselves into the business world where they have their real job. i was aware that pro athletes struggled with money. our football coach has told us many times that pro player's have money issues.

sources:

http://msn.foxsports.com/nfl/lists/Athletes-who-went-bankrupt#photo-title=Rulon+Gardner&photo=31327506

http://nflcommunications.com/2011/04/18/what-is-average-nfl-player%E2%80%99s-career-length-longer-than-you-might-think-commissioner-goodell-says/

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