Guess what occupation has people where over 60% end up bankrupt, divorced and homeless by the end of their career? Answer: An American football player and the average player can earn about 20 Million dollars. It is a problem that a lot of National Football players find when they are done playing.

It probably happens somewhere to someone of all professional athletes but it happens more in the NFL. Is there a way these guys could have their money managed for them? Probably not. Their contracts are not guaranteed, they have very much shorter careers because of all the injuries a football player endures especially concussion problems.

A defensive tackle for the Detroit ,Lyons Luther Elliss is a prime example of this problem. He earned over 20 Million dollars throughout his short career and is bankrupt. Now his bank accounts have been garnished, his credit cards are denied, he has nothing and he is struggling to simply put food on his family’s table. He struggles to put gas in his car. The NFL Players Association even warned him that over 60% of the players would end up in this kind of situation and he fell victim to the over the top lifestyle that put him there.

He admits that he said, not me, I’m too smart for that, and I’m going to make so much money that I won’t be able to spend it all. Perhaps this is testimony that these guys make too much money and that the whole sports industry is wasting too much money. There are still children hungry in America where a lot of the money spent on bling could be spent on their young unjaded lives.

No association will protect these guys because it is their own carelessness that get them into financial problems. Simple rules need to be applied to their lives like do not co-sign contracts, don’t invest in some loser’s bar, or don’t invest in some obnoxious fan’s restaurant. Many players are just giving money to “investments” that they know nothing about and don’t manage.

No one can tell you how NOT to spend your money. So, they go to strip clubs and “make their money rain” where a player will go to a club armed with thousands of dollars and throw the money around for fun. Or the usual expensive cars, jewelry, beautiful women and fancy homes that will consume all your funds very quickly. Thus, too many women and too many children to support. Many guys have multiple kids born in the same year from multiple women. Wow!

Enough of this irresponsibility! Should the Players Association leadership look at the statistic and say there is enough of a pattern here and take some action and withhold some of their salary? No, that would be illegal. I think they should impose a forced retirement savings plan and a forced retirement medical insurance plan which is perfectly legal and would be supported by the dismal statistic.

All the Players Association Agents do is get these players aside and warn them of the dismal statistic and at the Rookie Symposium, they say they guide the young players but obviously they have failed to guide these young men into doing anything right. Sometimes the players who get it right end up wrong anyway. Look at the life of Tiki Barber, a running back for the New York Giants who left football to become a talk show host. While playing for the Giants, he had it all, everyone liked him and he was playing well. He was all Professional.

He doesn’t simply become a commentator as many professional players do on network shows. He decides to produce his own show during going through a bitter divorce and flamboyantly living with another woman before he is divorced thus ruining his image and ruining his new “talking” career.

Now Tiki is trying to do what no running back has ever done. He is trying to come back to the NFL after 4 years away. He is 36 years old and wants to be successful again. He suddenly ended a great career in 2007. Some football players wind up broke and some football players try to make it back into the game.

Then there are the pompous wise guys like Plaxico Burris from the New York Giants who think their shit don’t stink and they can do whatever they want because they are a football player. He was a Superbowl hero! Guys like him and Michael Vic who played for the Atlanta , Falcons believe they can randomly break laws because they are famous. Plaxico bringing guns into bars, Michael having illegal dog fights. Plaxico shot himself in the foot in a bar and caused himself to be out of the game for 2 years . These guys are guilty of showing a lack of discipline on and off the field.

These guys like Lawrence Taylor also from the New York Giants who was convicted of having sex with young teenage girls when he was long retired in his 6o’s have got to stop their evil ways. They get product endorsements to be role models for our young children. They should be forced to maintain a good role model life for the kids of America devoid of any type of illegal or promiscuous behavior. I want my son to have a football with one of these guys name on it and be proud if the kid says, “I want to be just like him when I grow up Dad”