Pros And Cons Of Being A Professional Athlete

Young athlete’s main goal to attain is to become a professional athlete. Many want to become a professional athlete due to the money, others for the love of the particular sport that they are interested in. There is a downside in becoming a professional athlete, that many young players are not aware of. This downside is that professional athletes’ go broke faster than they are drafted into the leagues. Many professional athletes such as NBA and NFL players go broke due to career duration, overspending, family issues, and lack of financial knowledge.

After watching ESPN’s 30 for 30, Broke, my mind starting pondering this question of why and how so many professional athletes are blowing through the millions they make while playing their specific sport? It is amazing that someone can spend that much money so quickly. What are they buying and who are they buying things for? Where are they spending it? Where do they go wrong? When did this trend start and will it continue in the future? What are the league officials doing in order to prevent this tragedy from happening? These are some of the questions I will try to answer throughout this paper.

Athletes are overpaid by their couches and businesses just for playing in their team’s games and doing commercials. Even after they retire they still make more money than they work for. They are paid millions every year, Shaqeel Oneel made enough money that he could hire builders to make him a full sized basketball court in his basement. Furthermore, Peyton Manning makes about 700 thousand after he retired. Most athletes don’t know how to handle that much money a pro football player bought a Ferrari even though he didn’t know how to drive. Another pro NFL player spent 30 thousand dollars on earrings. Some pro athletes know how to spend money a few athletes invested their money in companies. Other athletes donated to charities and other organizations. Few athletes do

When they were in college they never had time to get a job, because they were spending their time doing either school work or practicing/playing the . Also if the athlete is good enough to make it into professionals they will have to manage more money. Tiffany Patterson stated, “One aspect I find lacking in this topic discussion is the ignoring of the very real fact that a lot of athletes are very financially irresponsible.”.

Professional sports have been a passing time in our generation and more importantly a business. Over the years sports have gained millions of viewers and fans. Sports arenas and stadiums seats have been sold as a result millions of dollars have been made through professional sports. Before social media and mass media shined light to life as a professional athlete, we were unaware of exactly what went on behind the curtains between the athletes and the organization that they played for. Despite the fact that athletes can earn a lot of money at the highest level, they also experience bad work conditions, dissatisfied with how they are treated, unreasonable pay and benefits, and the organization not being interested in their well being.

Most people would not complain about athletes making a lot of money. After all, we pay to watch them perform. We root for the ones that play for our teams, and root against the ones that play for the opponents of our favorite teams. The athletes earning the league minimum in a variety of sports are among the top 1% of wage earners in the United States. The problem is, a number of them don't know how to handle money. Among NBA players, 60% file for bankruptcy within five years or less of retiring, according to Wyattresearch.com, and the percentage of former NFL players filing for bankruptcy within the same time frame is even greater--78%. Could part of the reason be their extravagant, some might say dumb, purchases? Following are ten athletes who made some of the dumbest purchases ever.

There are a lot of athletes that have this problem. Unfortunately there are athletes that have this problems that fall deeper than others. Like NBA all-star legend Allen Iverson his salary was right under 21 million .But overtime he developed spending habit purchasing .Purchasing jewelry, clothes , and also use different luggage carriers to avoid carrying bags. This partially was the cause of him picking up debts and financial issues. He not the only one though. One of the most pound for pound boxers Michael Tyson .He is known for buying the most. But due to his spending habits, and Mike’s divorce issues, over time he started to lose a large quantity of money that he had earned from boxing. After the upcoming years he finally declared bankruptcy, most athletes have spending habits, purchasing unnecessary expensive

The money that is used for paying professional athletes is being wasted. Instead of using it to pay players every time that they get a goal or shot, that money could be used to keep someone alive. According to Country Economy in 2011 the debt in Japan was 13,579,637. One of the highest paid team in major league baseball, the New York Yankees, earns 203,197,405 a year (The Score)! The team could pay off all of Japan’s debt in less than a year! Fair to say, it is a whole team, but one single player could pay off all of United States debt as well. According to The Score “Hiroki Kuroda makes 16 million dollars in a single year.” A whole countries debt! And yet look at how this money is wasted. According to World Food Programme “842 million people in the world do not have enough to eat.” If athlete’s weren’t paid so much these 842 million people would have something to eat, and would not die from starvation. Why don’t these athletes donate if they have so much money? According to Daily Mail Floyd, Mayweather made a 5.9 million dollar bet, with his pocket money. They have so much money that they place million dollar bets like it’s hardly

Awareness is the first step that should be taken when a professional athlete is seeking to manage their money. Knowing the cause for it will tremendously help the athlete to jumpstart their financial education. Four articles that contribute to this perspective of the argument are “How (and Why) Athletes Go Broke” by Pablo S. Torre, “Why Ballers Go Bust” by Paul Wachter, “Worshipping grossly overpaid athletes who act

In the article about “Do athletes deserve millions?” the author sarah rodriguez discusses the reason people like and dislike the fact that athletes are paid millions of dollars.According to the article 6 out of 8 nba players end up going bankrupt by the end of their career. For example scottie pippen lost about 200 million of his winnings and ended up going bankrupt.People believe this money should not go to irresponsible athletes and it should rather be given to the many poor people around the world.People argue about this and say that their athletes deserve this because of the hard effort they put into getting to the professionals.The teams also pay the players to stay at the team they are on to keep the athletes idols coming to their games

Education is a key thing that many professional sports athletes lack. Not all, but a large number of professional athletes lack education. Think, they have multi-million dollar contacts being waved in front of their faces, why would these young adults stay in school when they can become instant millionaires? In Pablo Torres’ Sports Illustrated article, “How (and Why) Athletes Go Broke,” Raghib Ismail, a former number one NFL draft picked states that “[He] once had a meeting with J.P. Morgan and it was literally like listening to Charlie Brown's teacher” (90) This is reoccurring issue. Many of these athletes sign their contract and try to get help with managing their money, yet they do not understand how because they are still just young adults. Sometimes these athletes do not even know who they can trust. Before they know it they get caught up on their new lives as a professional athlete and do not even think about their money again. Ismail states, “I was so busy focusing on football that the first year was suddenly over. I'd started

As Americans, the public idolizes professional athletes for their non-human like strength, ability to succeed in their sport, and the hefty amount of money that they rake in each year. Americans place emphasis on sports all the way down to the college level. Sports are very important to the culture of America and play a large role in college acceptance, income, and the treatment of the athletes is taken into consideration by many. We praise these athletes for their talent through money and attendance. Though some athletes are able to maintain a strong head on their shoulders and keep their morals solid while balancing the stress of a busy schedule, some athletes crack under pressure, allowing the amount of money they make to get to their

Every year millions are handed out to players that don’t play on the field and you might not even know they play the sport, for them money is nothing they need to worry about while homeless and low income and getting weaker. Our economy has fallen very much in the past 20 years and we have not made a full recovery. We need to distribute the money that Sport Professionals get over paid with in many different helping the people ways. On average a NBA player makes well over five million dollars a year while on average a person with a minimum wage job will receive only 20 to 40 thousand a year making this only less than 1 percent pay compared to pros. On average a Pro Football Team uses about 30 players for a team yet have 50 on their roster every year. Good time and money are wasted while America the country with most paid athletes has the highest homeless rate than most countries around the world. Many athletes get paid well over a million dollars a year. Do these players really need that amount of money?

When thinking of professional athletes, sports cars, mansions, and money all come to mind. What about after the pros? Most people would say that professional athletes are set for the rest of their lives with everything luxurious. In most cases, athletes are accustomed to the luxurious lifestyle and living for the moment while playing in the pros that they do not think of retirement and no longer receiving salary or comparable salary if securing alternative employment. So if they do not have money put away, whatever they were paid as their last salary is what they have left. They continue spending their money on expensive restaurants, trips, cars, etc. until it is gone and bankruptcy is the only option. According to Sports Illustrated, “in

“It’s the excitement of being rich. The biggest thing we tell clients is that it’s not about being rich, it’s about creating wealth, and being wealthy and maintaining wealth for your family’s life. ‘Rich’ is a flash in the pan. ‘Wealth’ is created to last. So we talk about making sure they understand that concept. Accordingly, professional athletes need to be smart about their money. Former offensive lineman, Jeff Byers said it best when he stated, “You have to live significantly below your means. As a 22-year-old making $400,000, you have to act like you’re a 22-year-old making 60,000” ( “NFL