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

Based on the documentary Broke, ESPN's "Life After NFL," and the New York Times' "Help for Pro Athletes When the Cheers Stop," it seemed like professional athletes deal with a whole mess of problems when they retire. The documentary presented many statistics that I was not previously aware of. For example, I never knew that the average career of a professional football player was 3.5 years, or that 65% of them end their careers with serious injuries that sometimes consume their money (ESPN, 2012). 30 for 30 also featured many former NBA and NFL players who faced hardships during and after their career, like getting taken advantage of by financial advisors, being pressured to assist with family expenses, and facing bankruptcy during retirement. Athletes often struggle to find something else they are good at after their time in the professional sports world has been exhausted. One reason why athletes have such a hard time transitioning from an exciting career to retirement is that many athletes have the "I'll make it happen" mentality, especially when it comes to post-career investment options (Wallis, 2012). Athletes may also suffer from having egos that "make them great athletes, but also is a downfall in areas they don't know" (ESPN, 2012).

30 for 30 mentioned that one of the reasons why professional athletes struggle with budgeting is that they often receive their large sums of money at a young age. One athlete interviewed claimed they he was a "21 year old college freshman making 2 million dollars a year with no accountability" (ESPN, 2012). Many athletes in the documentary claimed to have the urge to purchase expensive jewelry and unnecessary cars. The irony is that even though the athletes want to be in charge of where and what they spend their money on, but they are not willing to personally take responsibility for their own finances and don't bother to educate themselves to be financially literate, at least to the point where you know you don't need two cars and 50 cell phones. Although they make the decisions with the money regarding what to purchase, many of the athletes left the budget managing to their financial advisors, who were sometimes corrupt.

These struggles that athletes deal with (post-career repair surgeries, bankruptcy, unemployment) are aspects of the issue that media rarely portrays. Newspapers and magazines like Sports Illustrated report top athlete salaries, but rarely do we see a story regarding the post-career social downfall of athletes. In the US, we don't like hearing about the financial struggles of people who were once powerhouses in sports. Also, America values the outward expression of wealth. It is considered cool to have the most expensive "bling" and to make yourself seem rich even if you are not. People are not praised for investing well or having good savings. People are given attention when they drive nice cars and make big purchases.

While the articles and documentary kind of presented the athletes in a way that made me feel sorry for them, I am still skeptical. While I agree that the financial advisors who scammed their clients should be punished and that physical injuries are very serious, I feel like professional athletes should be held to the same standard of expectations that most people their age are held to (especially if they have received a college education). While I do understand that it may be difficult to budget and it is tempting to make big purchases when you have so much money to use, I believe that it is not too high of an expectation to expect people to be financially literate. I can sympathize with the athletes that felt pressured to cover all of their families' expenses and that I can see how it can be difficult to spread the money you make in a few years to last you a life time. However, I believe that there is an overcommitment to the sports ethic here. Some of the professional athletes didn't invest any part of themselves into anything else besides the sport they were best at, and that has consequences after retirement because employment options are limited.






30 for 30: Broke. Dir. Billy Corben. Perf. Homer Bush & others. ESPN, 2012. Film.

Chadiha, Jeff. (2012). Life after the NFL is a struggle for many former players. ESPN. p. 1-7.

Wallis, D. (2012). Help for Pro Athletes When the Cheering Stops. The New York Times. p. 1-5.