Why Professional Athletes Go Broke? Young athlete’s main goal to attain is to become a professional athlete. Plenty wants 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 players such as NBA and NFL players go broke due to career duration, overspending, family issues, and lack of financial knowledge. When trying to become a professional athlete, one must start playing sports as early as possible (Ferguson 34).Playing sports comes with many sacrifices. Athletes must commit time to practice and traveling. Moreover, they must spend money on equipment, clothing, and food (37). Once in high school, senior athletes have scouts that come out to see them play. Most of these scouts are from college teams, and others are from …show more content…
The NFL offers it’s player referrals to financial advisors, and they also require their draft picks to attend a seminar about said financial advisors (“5 Reasons Why”). In the article NFL Salaries: After NFL Draft, Rookies Get Rich, Try Not To Go Broke Jeff Carbone of Cornerstone Financial Partners states:
“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