Quote:
Originally Posted by kane
Sports Illustrated did a great story on this. Basically about 75% of all pro athletes are broke within 5 years of retiring/leaving their sport.
That number is a little bit misleading though. Take for example the NFL. The average NFL career lasts 3.5 seasons. So if you are a third string guy making 300K a year for say 4 years that means you made 1.2 million over your career. After paying agents, lawyers and taxes you probably have about 40-50% of that left. So say you have half of it left. That means you made about 150K a year for 4 years. Even if you save 75% of that you aren't going to be rich when you leave the sport.
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Agents take no more than 3% taxes on $300K would total less than 25%. Lawyers shouldn't take very much. So really one should have at least 65% left over. So at least $750K. The average American would earn about less than $175K BEFORE taxes in that time. Plus you forgot players get signing bonuses too.
So he made MUCH more than the average American in that time. And he got a free colllege education and NFL players do get pensions. So really no excuse. What rule says that just because you were some 5th round draft pick that manage to last 4 years in the NFL as 3rd string player that that means you're entitled to something and you no longer can get a real job? If your 22 when you get drafted and last 4 years you're 26. So what is stopping that guy from getting a job?