OT: Ex NFLers going broke

[Belldozer1]

This isn't really new news but it is still quite alarming the amount of money some guys can go through. Sure VY lost some money but Warren Sapp squandering all of that dough is incomprehensible to me. A lot of these guys have college degrees yet somehow continue to make choices in life like they have no basic comprehension skills.






















One in six NFL players declare bankruptcy within 12 years of retirement no matter how much they made or how long they were in the league









High-profile bankruptcies include Warren Sapp, Vince Young and Michael Vick - all of whom earned tens of millions of dollars15.7percent of players go bankrupt within 12 years of leaving the league, researchers from Cal-Tech, Washington and George Washington foundAverage player earns $3.2million over the course of a careerBankruptcy rates are the same of the rest of Americans
By Michael Zennie For Daily Mail Online

Published: 11:12 EST, 15 April 2015 | Updated: 12:58 EST, 15 April 2015





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Nearly one out of six NFL players will declare bankruptcy within 12 years of retiring from the league, a shocking new study has revealed.

The rate of bankruptcy, 15.7percent - remained the same no matter how long the players were in the league or how well they were paid, according to researchers from the California Institute of Technology, George Washington University and the University of Washington.

Despite earning millions of dollars - sometimes tens of millions - former players go broke at about 1.1percent per year, the same rate as the rest of Americans.

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Bleak future: Despite NFL players earning millions - sometimes times of millions - over the course of their careers, nearly 16percent of players are bankrupt within 12 years

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Vince Young earned a reported $64million in salary and endorsement deals - but was bankrupt before he even finished his NFL career. Widely reported rumors say he spent $5,000 a week at Cheesecake factory

Though bleak, the 15.7percent figure found by the researchers, is dramatically lower than a widely quoted statistic that 78percent of retired players are bankrupt or under 'financial stress' within two years of leaving the league. The figure comes from a 2009 survey by Sports Illustrated.

Often, when athletes go broke, it's because of unimaginable extravagances, bad investments and massive child support payments. This, despite the fact that the average player makes $3.2million over the course of a career.

Defensive tackle Warren Sapp played 13 seasons in the NFL and made more than $82million. He retired in 2007 and filed for bankruptcy in 2012 - citing several failed business ventures.








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Bankruptcy remained at similar rates even among players who had long, profitable careers in the sport - though it was highest for those who stayed in the league for five years - and lower for those who were in it for more than a decade

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Michael Vick, who made more than $130million, is still playing has he attempts to pay off his $18million bankruptcy debt from 2008

When his estate was sold at auction, he had a lionskin rug and 240 pairs of sneakers. He also owed more than $75,000 a month in child support for his six children (with five different women,)

Quarterback Vince Young's played his last NFL game in December 2011. He filed for bankruptcy in January 2014 - despite earning $34million in salary and another $30million in endorsement deals.

Widely reported rumors that emerged after he first began having financial trouble in 2012 claim that he spent up to $5,000 a week at Cheesecake Factory and racked up a $6,000 tab at TGI Friday's.

Young also blamed investment advisers who he claimed took advantage of him.

Quarterback Michael Vick filed for bankruptcy in 2008 - in the middle of his high-profile career and legal troubles that sent him to prison. He was still paying off his $18million in debts in 2014 - despite making $130million from the NFL and millions more from endorsement deals.



'We've known that it can be very difficult for the average family to save,' Cal Tech finance professor Colin F. Camerer, one of the researchers, told the Washington Post.

'But this is one group that you might think ought to be able to avoid bankruptcy. They're in a position to buy some good advice if they need it. But even for them, with all these millions, it's a challenge.'

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3040095/One-six-NFL-players-declares-bankruptcy-12-years-retirement-no-matter-long-league.html#ixzz3XR8yrLQY
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[Jagged Horn]

Billy Sims was doing it before it became popular.

HOOKS, Texas - Barry Switzer, the former football coach at Oklahoma, heard news last December he hoped wasn't true. Billy Sims, the former Sooners star, was selling his 1978 Heisman Trophy.

"My reaction, being an old-timer, is that you never think about selling the Heisman," Switzer says. "It's like having a congressional Medal of Honor. You don't go and sell that. You won that for extraordinary heroism."

Awarded to the outstanding college football player in the country, the Heisman Trophy is regarded as the most prestigious individual award in sports.

So what leads a man to put such a treasured item, a seemingly priceless piece of his life, up for auction?

After his playing days with Oklahoma and the Detroit Lions ended, Sims, now 45, blew millions through numerous bad business deals and risky investments. He filed for bankruptcy in 1990. He also spent a month in jail in 1998 after failing to pay $32,900 in child support to a daughter born in Norman, Okla., during his playing days. The downward spiral continued with the desperate sale of the Heisman.

The news of the Heisman sale certainly interested assistant U.S. attorney Phil Pinnell, who hoped to claim the $14,025 Sims owed in back child support to the daughter. (In an unrelated case, Sims also owes $21,000 to another child born in Oklahoma City.)

When Pinnell learned of the auction, he sent federal marshals to seize the trophy. But they left empty-handed. Scott Goodman, president of Sports World, the memorabilia company conducting the telephone auction, told the marshals that he did not have the trophy at the time.

Switzer was stunned because he knew Sims had sold his college and NFL trophies to Bob White, Sims' surrogate father, in 1995 when Sims was financially strapped. How could someone other than White own the Heisman, Switzer wondered.

In April 1995, Sims signed an agreement that said he could reclaim the trophies from White by paying the original purchase price of $50,000 plus 8.5% interest. On occasion, Sims borrowed the Heisman for autograph signings or appearances. The last time he took the trophy from White's office, he didn't return it.

"Bob tried to prevent this," Switzer says. "He had Billy's best interest in mind. He wanted to protect all of Billy's trophies. He wanted to keep them for Billy's future. He wanted them to go to Billy's children. But when someone has financial straits, it's difficult to rationalize with him."

White and Switzer, who have been extremely close to Sims during the last 30 years, haven't spoken to Sims in months. When Switzer heard the news of the Dec. 7 auction, he immediately called White. "He's embarrassing himself and the University of Oklahoma," Switzer told White. "See what we can do."

To stop the sale, White filed suit against Sims and Goodman in Palm Beach County, Fla., where the telephone auction was to be held. Included in the court documents are a signed purchase agreement and copies of checks written to Sims.

However, the day before the auction, Goodman called off the sale. Federal agents and a lawsuit weren't what he expected when he put the trophy on the market. White now is suing Goodman to recover the Heisman, and a court in Texas has ordered Goodman to give the trophy to White by an upcoming deadline.

According to a transcript of a deposition taken for White's case against Goodman, Goodman said he bought the trophy from Sims in June for $88,000. When Goodman met Sims in Dallas, Sims had the trophy in the back of his truck. The deal was made and Goodman then flew back to his home, which was then in New York. Goodman said during the deposition that he kept the trophy under his bed.

Goodman moved to Florida in September and took the trophy with him. He sold the Heisman in November for an undisclosed price to a client he declined to name. The client still has not paid for the trophy in full, though the client did send Goodman a $50,000 check and gave him a 1966 GTO convertible, which Goodman estimates is worth $25,000.

Since the deal wasn't finalized, Goodman said during the deposition, he still has the trophy in Florida. He said the trophy was put in the December auction for marketing purposes. At the time, Oklahoma was headed for the national title game, which it won.

In recent years, at least three other winners have sold their trophies, according to New York's Downtown Athletic Club, which administers the Heisman. Purchase prices for the other Heismans sold were reportedly $328,110 for Larry Kelley's 1936 trophy, $230,000 for O.J. Simpson's 1968 award and $184,000 for Charles White's 1979 Heisman.

For the last three years, the Downtown Athletic Club has required winners to sign a contract in which they agree to never sell their trophy.

Sims probably didn't realize that the attention of the auction would renew interest in the back child support he owed. Pinnell has pursued Sims aggressively in the aftermath, and Sims has been ordered to appear in federal court in Tulsa on March 21.

Part of the $14,025 Sims owes was recently satisfied when federal agents withdrew $9,000 from a Sims account at Chase Manhattan Bank in New York. Pinnell also hopes to withdraw money from Sims' NFL pension fund and is discussing the matter with the league's attorneys.

"Nothing is being paid voluntarily," says Pinnell, who has not heard from Sims.

Sims could avoid the court date if the remainder of the $14,025 is recovered by then, Pinnell says. But if the debt is not satisfied and Sims misses the court date, an arrest warrant most likely would be issued.

Buried in problems


AP file
Early exit: Billy Sims played in the NFL for 4 1/2 years before a knee injury forced his retirement. An insurance policy paid out $1.9 million at that time, and he settled back in Texas with his family.

Though Sims has not returned messages left with his wife, Edna, and on his answering machine for this story, interviews and court documents present a picture of a man buried in financial and legal problems for the last decade.

In Hooks, tucked in the northeast corner of Texas, there are faded reminders of Sims' past glory. After Sims won the Heisman Trophy, a road was named in his honor, even though he was only a college junior. A rusting white-and-black sign, which reads Billy Sims Road, remains today.

In the public library, posters of the Heisman winner adorn two walls. When a visitor to the library asks about Sims, a longtime resident responds, "Is he in trouble again?"

Hooks (pop. 2,684) is full of abject poverty and pockets of middle-class homes. Near Billy Sims Road, there are mostly rickety shacks and shotgun houses. On one winter afternoon, stray dogs roam the streets and smoke from burning piles of leaves fill the air.

Sims went to live with his grandmother, Sadie, in Hooks in eighth grade after a hardscrabble life growing up in the projects of St. Louis. Miss Sadie died when Sims was at Oklahoma, and her house on Billy Sims Road is gone. Only weeds and a white-and-green trailer remain.

Sims had a wondrous career at OU, where he was a two-time All-American and just missed winning a second Heisman. Before his senior year, he said about the Heisman, "I remember when they told me I had won. It was like my heart just stopped for a minute."

Sims was the NFL's first overall draft pick in 1980 with the Detroit Lions and went on to become the league's Rookie of the Year and a three-time Pro Bowl selection. In 1995, he was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame.

But in 1984 a knee injury cut short Sims' 4 1/2-year pro career. He earned several million dollars during his career and left the game with $1.9 million from a Lloyds of London insurance policy. At his final news conference in Detroit, he said, "I'm not leaving the game broke as a lot of players have."

Before retiring, Sims and his first wife, Brenda, had settled in Hooks with their four children. They owned a beautiful brick ranch on a hilltop with 40 acres, a pond, four horses and a garage full of fancy cars. But following a series of failed businesses and risky investments, the Simses filed for bankruptcy in 1990.

Bankruptcy records show the Simses' debt totaled $2.263 million. They said $150 was left in their checking account, and they listed their home, van, pickup, tractor and four horses as their property. "He just got in the wrong company and trusted everyone but his friends," says White, a Texarkana, Texas, businessman. "People just took him to the cleaners."

String of business deals

It seemed as if Sims' business deals could fill the yellow pages. There was a dinette manufacturer, a mini-supermarket, a nightclub, a chain of eyeglass stores, a pipe-fitting company, an apartment complex, a brass company, a car parts manufacturer, a company that made adhesive sealer for car paint and a small chain of catfish restaurants. He invested in a radio station, a dry cleaner, a water purifying business and so on.

Sims' life began to unravel after he filed for bankruptcy. The Simses divorced, but Brenda, a junior high school teacher, remained in Hooks, where she raised their four children.

After the divorce, Sims moved to Norman, where he briefly worked for the Oklahoma athletic department. However, his stay was short-lived because of continual financial and legal problems.

In February 1998, he spent a month in jail for failure to pay overdue child support. In June 1998, he was charged with domestic abuse at his home in Norman, where he lived with Edna, his second wife. Edna told police that Sims pushed her to the floor after an argument about car keys.

In July 1999, Sims was convicted of assault for choking Edna with his arm at their current home in Coppell, Texas, according to court documents. He underwent family violence counseling, was sentenced to community service and was placed on probation for 18 months, which is still in effect.

Edna works in human resources. Sims doesn't have a steady job, though he earns income through autograph shows.

The Friday before the Super Bowl, Sims appeared in the Tough Bowl, which aired on FX. The show featured former NFL players in a boxing match, fighting each other in three 1-minute rounds. Sims was knocked out by former Cincinnati Bengals player Ickey Woods.

"I don't know why Billy can't come down to reality and decide it's time to make a living," White says.

White got to know Sims when Sims was in the ninth grade with his son. Sims and a few friends had burglarized a gas station as a prank. The parents of the other kids bailed their sons out, but Billy was still in jail. White went to the jail to do the same for Billy.

Thirty years later, White still is trying to bail Sims out. White is the president of Anson Products, a company that sells merchandise through infomercials. Sims' awards, such as the Walter Camp Trophy and Orange Bowl Hall of Fame Trophy, are on display throughout White's office. He has a closet full of others. All except the Heisman, of course.

"If Billy would get in an environment of business-minded people, he has market value," White says. "Coach and I have talked about that many times. Isn't there something we can do? Seems like some day we'll discover something. I don't know. I don't know."

Both White and Switzer often point out Sims is a "good guy" who just made bad decisions.

"I hope Billy isn't mad at me," White says several times. "When Billy finally lands, gets his feet on the ground, I think he'll be a well-respected person that can certainly make a comeback. I think he'll get through this, but at the same time, he's 45 years old. It's time to do it."

Says Switzer: "He's turned to me so many times, maybe he won't come back because he's embarrassed. I hate for the relationship to be strained because of this incident, because that's not the way I feel."

Asked if he has a message for Sims, Switzer doesn't hesitate: "Tell him I love him and to give me a call."

 

[Belldozer1]

Jagged no college team is immune to their fair share of poor decision makers, OU included. Some have just lost considerably more than others.

 

[barkingwater2000]

Sims appears to be doing much better now with his BBQ restaurants. He is definitely one of my favorite Sooners of all time. Its not BBQ...its Boomer Q

 

[Jagged Horn]

Originally posted by barkingwater2000:
Sims appears to be doing much better now with his BBQ restaurants. He is definitely one of my favorite Sooners of all time. Its not BBQ...its Boomer Q

You realize he doesn't own the restaurants right? He's paid to use his name. Never eaten there but I heard it's shoe leather. Of course I've never had good bbq in ok.

 

[Fizzwilly]

Jeff Jackson and Sims own BS/BBQ. Many if the stores are franchise owned also.

 

[Falko]

To be fair I don't think Vince gets much out of Vince Young Steakhouse.
Not on Sims, not only did he go broke but he also beat his wife.

 

[blh111]

Several rich people go broke, people just pay more attention to athletes, because of public knowledge. This is never a shock, but it is sad.

 

[clob94]

Vince, like Earl, gets a monthly fee for use of his name. I have no idea what Vince gets, but Earl gets a healthy fee from the sale of Earl Campbell sausage.

 

[Scholz]

Makes me ill to see these guys squander their money. Just put your first couple of million away and never touch it and live off the interest. It shouldn't be this difficult.

 

[soonerdave]

Originally posted by Scholz:

Makes me ill to see these guys squander their money. Just put your first couple of million away and never touch it and live off the interest. It shouldn't be this difficult.

Agreed.

 

[Bass Elder]

Cousin played (starter) in the NFL a little over ten years--receives nice annual check from NFL. His salary never scratched the surface of the hot shots listed above..thus, seems to me Sims etc. should be receiving tidy annual NFL checks to keep from being absolutely strapped.

 

[bubba2023]

Originally posted by Bass Elder:
Cousin played (starter) in the NFL a little over ten years--receives nice annual check from NFL. His salary never scratched the surface of the hot shots listed above..thus, seems to me Sims etc. should be receiving tidy annual NFL checks to keep from being absolutely strapped.

When do they start receiving their pension?

 

[Jagged Horn]

OP was trolling, because that's what he is. It's really not that big of a story because we've seen it 100x before. He posted it because VYs name appeared in it.

It's like saying sometimes cheetahs catch gazelles, I'm never surprised when it actually happens.

 

[Bass Elder]

I'll ask. He has been out for several years (well over ten). Think a player has to play in the NFL for five yrs to qualify. Didn't dawn on me how long after retiring from the NFL a player was eligible to receive pension.

 

[Yankees03]

I guess this is no different than Lottery winners who win millions and millions and its all gone within 10 years or so. Lack of self control and basically lack of common sense. If I had 40 million + id atleast buy everyone here on OB some Ramen noodles

 

[HornsUp128]

Originally posted by Yankees03:
I guess this is no different than Lottery winners who win millions and millions and its all gone within 10 years or so. Lack of self control and basically lack of common sense. If I had 40 million + id atleast buy everyone here on OB some Ramen noodles

Lol.

 

[bubba2023]

Originally posted by Yankees03:
I guess this is no different than Lottery winners who win millions and millions and its all gone within 10 years or so. Lack of self control and basically lack of common sense. If I had 40 million + id atleast buy everyone here on OB some Ramen noodles

If you give stupid people money there is a good chance they don't spend it wisely.

 

[barkingwater2000]

Jeff Jackson and Sims started Billy Sims BBQ and still have active roles in the company. You do realize this right Jag? If not, google it

 

[bubba2023]

Originally posted by Scholz:

Makes me ill to see these guys squander their money. Just put your first couple of million away and never touch it and live off the interest. It shouldn't be this difficult.

With the way these guys live that interest alone isn't going to cut it.

 

[Belldozer1]

Originally posted by Jagged Horn:
OP was trolling, because that's what he is. It's really not that big of a story because we've seen it 100x before. He posted it because VYs name appeared in it.

It's like saying sometimes cheetahs catch gazelles, I'm never surprised when it actually happens.

Jagged you are correct VY does appear in the article but in all seriousness the names could be redacted for all I care. The staggering amounts of money squandered by athletes not named VY is mind boggling. I make a pretty good living but some of these guys have squandered 10 times+ what I'll make in my lifetime, and I make a good living. Between $100,000 and $200,000.

 

[barkingwater2000]

Bubba there are actually a lot of very smart people that are just dumb with money. They can't spend it fast enough

 

[jsto60]

Asking belldoucher not to post like a jerk on this site.................is like taking Barry Switzer to a strip club inside a casino and expecting him not to act a fool.

 

[Belldozer1]

Originally posted by jsto60:
Asking belldoucher not to post like a jerk on this site.................is like taking Barry Switzer to a strip club inside a casino and expecting him not to act a fool.

Waaaah, somebody is rather sensitive.

 

[FlourBluffHorn]

Vy's not any diff than us spending money when ya got it, if rumors be true, then he likes Cheesecake, who gives a crap, its his money, you tell me how to spend my money, I don't think it would go very good for you advice on how to do it..VY done paid his dues in the Media, probably best to leave that topic alone here on the Texas board!



Hook'em

 

[Belldozer1]

Originally posted by FlourBluffHorn:
Vy's not any diff than us spending money when ya got it, if rumors be true, then he likes Cheesecake, who gives a crap, its his money, you tell me how to spend my money, I don't think it would go very good for you advice on how to do it..VY done paid his dues in the Media, probably best to leave that topic alone here on the Texas board!



Hook'em

Um FB I didn't write the article. Besides, as I mentioned above you could redact the names or use all OU players for all I care, it's not just VY.

 

[gardnsheels]

Schotz..................................couldn't agree more........
This post was edited on 4/18 6:54 PM by gardnsheels