Despite making more than $40 million, former NFL RB Clinton Portis is broke

[Prime Time]

When people are young and have no experience handling their finances, they sometimes get themselves into situations like this. I like that the Rams have a financial seminar for their new players before they offer them a contract.
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http://profootballtalk.nbcsports.co...more-than-40-million-clinton-portis-is-broke/

Despite making more than $40 million, Clinton Portis is broke
Posted by Michael David Smith

Clinton Portis made enough money during his NFL career in Denver and Washington that he should be set for life: In nine NFL seasons, Portis made more than $40 million.

But Portis isn’t just not set for life, he’s broke. Portis filed for bankruptcy this week, saying he has debts of more than $5 million that he can’t afford to pay.

We noted in June that Portis had a debt to the MGM Grand Hotel in Las Vegas of $287,178.56, and that the IRS accused him of failing to pay $401,432.18 in federal income taxes in 2006, and $57,187.61 in federal income taxes in 2010. Portis also lists debts of $500,000 to his mother, $500,000 to Entertainment Tonightcorrespondent and former sideline reporter Nischelle Turner, $412,000 in “domestic support obligations” to four different women and $175,000 in car loans.

Portis’s failed business ventures have included sinking $8 million into a casino that went belly-up, and putting $2 million into a “wealth management” firm that was later described as a Ponzi scheme.

The 34-year-old Portis rushed for more than 1,200 yards in five of his nine NFL seasons.

http://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/nfl/2015/12/18/clinton-portis-bankruptcy/77574350/

Clinton Portis owes nearly $5 million, counts mother as creditor
A.J. Perez, USA TODAY Sports

Former Washington Redskins and Denver Broncosrunning back Clinton Portis made about $43 million during his nine-season NFL career.

But a federal bankruptcy filing this week showed Portis owes nearly $5 million to creditors --- including $500,000 to his own mother.

Portis' mother, Rhonnel Hearn, is tied for second as the biggest creditor in Portis' bankruptcy case, according to court records obtained by USA TODAY Sports.Entertainment Tonight correspondent and former sideline reporter Nischelle Turner is also owed $500,000.

A mortgage company ($1,023,020) is Portis' biggest creditor and the debt is listed as a "mortgage deficiency."

Portis, 34, also owes the IRS $390,000, an amount he is disputing. Rounding out the top-5 creditors is the MGM Grand Hotel and Casino, which has won judgment of $287,178 against Portis.

Portis also owes four different women for domestic support obligations totaling $412,000.

The filing – like many others filed by former elite athletes – reads as sad tale of extravagant living that couldn't be curtailed once the big game checks stopped. Portis' last NFL game was with the Redskins in November 2010.

There are three claims related to BMW, Audi and Dodge automobiles Portis purchased, which total about $175,000. He has a current monthly income of $7,500 and average monthly expenses of $12,800.

Portis lists only $150 in his checking account.

According to the filing, Portis lists $13.29 million in assets, but $10 million of that should have an asterisk. He lists claims against Pro Sports Financial ($8 million) — an outfit he sued in federal court over a failed casino venture – and a $2 million claim against Jade Private Wealth Management.

Jade Private Wealth Management, the now-defunct Virginia-based firm, was led by Jinesh "Hodge" Brahmbhatt. Brahmbhatt was banned by the NFLPA from serving as an approved financial advisor to players after Portis and pro athletes lost millions in what the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) called a "Ponzi Scheme."

A status hearing in Portis' bankruptcy case is scheduled for Feburary 4 at the U.S. Courthouse in Gainesville.

 

[HometownBoy]

Man, some of these guys are so bad with their money it's not even funny. I guess that's a part of being young and never knowing financial hardship, thus giving you no fear of it.

 

[RaminExile]

It's not funny it's just really sad to see this sort of thing happen. I know from a family member what can happen when someone who is not cut out to make big money somehow comes into it. It doesn't end well. You can give people all the advice in the world but ultimately they are responsible for thier finances.

 

[BeachRam78]

What these pro athletes need to realize is the big paychecks they have coming in during their career stops when they retire. Once you get used to living that lavishly and wasteful it normally ends bad. Especially these NFL players since we all know that the NFL stands for. I feel bad for him. But it's hard for me to imagine that no one told him to put a couple million in a savings account for later in life.

 

[Dieter the Brock]

Sorry @Prime Time
But this idea that they are young and inexperienced is complete bullshite

These are GROWN men and those investments and expenditures have little to do with naivety but 100% to do with a stupid lifestyle and sycophantic friends and the entourage - a culture of consumerism and cheap stereotypes

Look - casino, Ponzi scheme, car debt, baby momma debt, not paying IRS

This dude is in his mid to late 30's - these are big boy choices with no excuse

Portis had the choice - he had the choice to not eat out but eat at home - he had the opportunity to buy a house or houses and not live at the MGM making it rain - he had the choice to treat his woman like great and support his family like a man --- but he did none of those things

The idea that this guy somehow didn't have a seminar and that would have changed his celeb kardashian-esquelifestyle is silly. And it also takes credit away from those professional players coming from having money to being millionaires who have invested wisely and have handled their finances well despite never having zero money before - let alone a seminar

Portis is the rare knucklehead who doesn't get it and will never get it. The vast majority of NFL players with a career and contracts like Portis most likely never find themselves in this situation.

 

[LesBaker]

I don't think it's sad at all, it's their own damn fault. Out of 40 MIL he would have pocketed about 22MIL.

So no tears from me, it's inexcusable to be that fucking negligent and stupid. Especially when you have 2 kids to think about.

 

[RamzFanz]

Most likely Ram to have this happen?

Jenkins?

 

[Dieter the Brock]

Most likely Ram to have this happen?

Jenkins?

Jake McQuaid

 

[Prime Time]

Sorry @Prime Time
But this idea that they are young and inexperienced is complete bullshite

These are GROWN men and those investments and expenditures have little to do with naivety but 100% to do with a stupid lifestyle and sycophantic friends and the entourage - a culture of consumerism and cheap stereotypes

I can empathize with this man because it happened to me. At age 30 I filed for bankruptcy due to 7 years of drinking, drugging, and two divorces. On top of that the IRS was after me. This was totally due to stupidity and immaturity on my part.

I got with a financial adviser who helped me reorganize my finances, pay back everyone I owed, and restore my credit rating. This took years to do but it can be done.
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http://www.rantsports.com/clubhouse...who-have-gone-broke-and-filed-for-bankruptcy/

20 Athletes Who Have Gone Broke and Filed for Bankruptcy
By Tyler on August 7, 2014

Getty Images

Professional athletes are known for their lavish lifestyles, which are aided by the fact that most of the men and women who are shown on television make millions of dollars every year. Making large sums of money doesn't mean that spending recklessly is a smart thing, as shown by these 20 current and former athletes who ended up going bankrupt.

20. Vince Young

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Young made $26 million in just seven seasons in the NFL, but the free agent quarterback filed for bankruptcy in January of 2014, heightening the need to latch on with a team this fall.

19. Mike Tyson

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Tyson is known by many for his outlandish ways during his professional boxing career, which included blowing through more than $300 million in earnings, and filing bankruptcy while $27 million in debt in 2003.

18. Michael Vick

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Vick was put $20 million into debt and forced into bankruptcy in July 2008 as a result of extensive lawyer fees and lost salary in accordance with his dog fighting charges and subsequent imprisonment.

17. Kenny Anderson

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Anderson made more than $60 million during his playing days, but was forced into bankruptcy in 2005 because of a plethora of bad business investments.

16. Bill Buckner

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Buckner is best known for helping the Boston Red Sox lose the 1986 World Series, but the former first baseman saw an economic low in 2008 when he declared bankruptcy after his car dealership failed.

15. Allen Iverson

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Iverson made over $200 million during his NBA career, but poor spending habits, bad investments and bad lifestyle choices helped him blow this total and declare bankruptcy.

14. Curt Schilling

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Schilling took a $75 million loan from the state of Rhode Island to start up a video game company that never really took off, and he ended up having to declare bankruptcy as a result.

13. Lawrence Taylor

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Taylor was once worth more than $10 million, but bad spending habits, a drug addiction and general poor lifestyle choices forced the Football Hall of Fame member into bankruptcy in 2009.

12. Diego Maradona

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Maradona is considered by many to be the best soccer player ever, but the Italian Tax Authority did not care about this when they came calling for $54 million in unpaid taxes, and eventually forced the 53-year-old into bankruptcy.

11. Sheryl Swoopes

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Swoopes made over $50 million during her playing days, but the WNBA legend was forced into bankruptcy in 2004.

10. Mark Brunell

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Brunell had $25 million in liabilities when filing for bankruptcy in 2010, which is absolutely staggering when one considers he had only $5.5 million in assets at the time.

9. Scottie Pippen

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Pippen may have six career NBA titles to his name, but that did not stop the former Chicago Bulls star from blowing $120 million in career earnings and being forced into bankruptcy.

8. Darren McCarty

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McCarty entered bankruptcy in 2006, which was spurred on by a combination of bad investments, poor spending habits and $6.2 million in liabilities.

7. Evander Holyfield

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Holyfield is known by many as the man who had part of his ear bitten off by Mike Tyson, and the former star boxer blew through $250 million in career earnings before declaring bankruptcy.

6. George Best

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The late Best was one of the best players in Manchester United history, but alcoholism and excessive spending forced the winger into bankruptcy in retirement.

5. Brad Friedel

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Friedel was forced into bankruptcy in 2011 as a result of investing in a soccer academy that went underwater, but the Tottenham Hotspur backup goalkeeper has gotten back onto his feet in recent years.

4. Lenny Dykstra

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Dykstra was worth more than $58 million in 2008, but he entered bankruptcy in 2009, and he was sent to prison in 2012 for bankruptcy fraud.

3. Johnny Unitas

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Unitas was forced into bankruptcy in 1991 as a result of $4 million in unpaid loans, dampening the mood of a man who some consider to be the best quarterback in football history.

2. Marion Jones

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Jones saw her reputation dragged through the mud as a result of a performance enhancing drugs scandal, and the drop in income that resulted from this scandal ended up with the former track star claiming bankruptcy in 2013.

1. Tony Gwynn

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The late Gwynn is known as one of the best baseball players and generally one of the best human beings in baseball history, but he did some financial difficulties early in his career, which were highlighted by declaring bankruptcy in 1987.

 

[Athos]

If I ever made that much, I'd invest it into an account with growing interest that I wouldn't be able to today g for several years. I'm talking at least 50% of what I'd make.

Luxury cars and houses are nice and all but ultimately not worth it. I'd probably have a single toy or two and live my life in comfortable bliss not having to worry about $$$.

The most I'd be spending shit on would be to travel the world and hell, I wouldn't need too much to do that.

 

[-X-]

The filing – like many others filed by former elite athletes – reads as sad tale of extravagant living that couldn't be curtailed once the big game checks stopped.

Well don't be stupid then. Problem solved.
I think the league now offers financial counseling as part of the rookie symposium and ongoing mentorship in that regard.

 

[RedRam]

6. George Best

Getty Images

The late Best was one of the best players in Manchester United history, but alcoholism and excessive spending forced the winger into bankruptcy in retirement.

Georgie was indeed a drinker. During his time with the Earthquakes he frequented a pub on Saratoga Ave. that was about two blocks from where I was working. I too frequented said pub and hoisted more than a few pints with Mr. Best. I'll never forget one night at the Hot Pot throwing darts and drinking Black & Tans. George was so hammered one of his "throws" found my back about six feet away from the dart board. He was very apologetic... Once he got up off of the floor! The guy was a brilliant footballer despite his alcoholism. I can only imagine how good he could've been...

 

[snackdaddy]

Sometimes I'm thankful for growing up poor. Both my parents were deaf mutes. My mother never worked and my father pressed clothes at a dry cleaners for 40 years. He never made much over minimum wage. Our house was run down. You could see the ground underneath some spots of the floors. On rainy days it was like a symphony with pots and pans all over the house. But the house was bought and paid for so at least I had a roof over my head.

It made me appreciate what I have now. My wife calls me a tight ass, but I don't like spending money unless I have to. When I retire in a couple years with less income my lifestyle won't really change much. My needs are minimal. I just like to fish and golf now and then and work around the yard. I don't travel much.

 

[LACHAMP46]

But a federal bankruptcy filing this week showed Portis owes nearly $5 million to creditors --- including $500,000 to his own mother.

Portis' mother, Rhonnel Hearn, is tied for second as the biggest creditor in Portis' bankruptcy case, according to court records obtained by USA TODAY Sports.

http://www.cbssports.com/nfl/eye-on...ortis-owes-his-mother-et-reporter-500000-each


Report: Clinton Portis owes his mother, ET reporter $500,000 each
By Ryan Wilson | CBSSports.com
December 18, 2015 1:37 pm ET

Clinton Portis earned roughly $43 million over his nine-year NFL career. According to bankruptcy filings obtained by Deadspin, the former Broncos and Redskins running back now owes various creditors $4,857,659.50.

A partial list of Portis' debt spans the gamut, from the mundane (back taxes) to the inexplicable (he owes his mother and an Entertainment Tonight reporter $500,000 each):

• $500,000 to Entertainment Tonight correspondent and CNN contributor Nischelle Turner
• $390,000 in back taxes
• $170,000 to the Borgata casino in Atlantic City
• $287,178.56 to the MGM Grand
• A combined $1,223,020 in mortgage deficiencies
• $500,000 to his mother
• $412,000 in unpaid domestic support to four different women
• $65,553 on a repossessed BMW
• $899.09 in unpaid telephone bills

According to the filing, Portis, who last played in the NFL in 2010, receives $3,500 a month from the league in disability payments, and another $1,000 a month for freelance work as a sideline reporter during NFL games.

In November, Alligator.org reported that Portis filed a Suggestion of Chapter 11 Bankruptcy. And in June, Portis told TMZ that a failed casino project he invested in back in 2008 was a big reason for his debt. He and several other NFL players later sued the financial advisor who talked them into investing in the project.

"This been ongoing since 2011, 2012 ... we just gotta go through the court process," Portis said over the summer. "There's nothing else I can do. My lawyers are currently dealing with this."

Other players to invest include Terrell Owens, Plaxico Burress, Roscoe Parrish, Gerard Warren, Kyle Orton, Greg Olsen and Santonio Holmes, but Portis was hit the hardest.

"At the time I was the biggest name and had the deepest pockets," Portis explained. "Now, they're trying to hold me solely responsible for what was a bad business deal involving a lot of different people."

But that doesn't explain the latest bankruptcy filing in which Portis owes a $1 million combined to his mother and Nichelle Turner.

Oddly, this isn't the first time a former University of Miami football player had his mom come after his money; Phillip Buchanon, who played cornerback in the NFL from 2002-11, wrote in his book, New Money: Staying Rich, that "Soon after the draft, [my mother] told me that I owed her a million dollars for raising me for the past 18 years."

Buchanon didn't give his mother the money, and he said he wrote the book to keep young players from making "the same mistakes" he did.

"When I got to the NFL, I was all dollars and no sense," Buchanon told Fox Sports in the spring. "I want to make sure the next generation of athletes doesn't make the same mistakes."

It couldn't hurt to send Portis a copy of the book, too.

Clinton Portis owes a lot of people money, according to bankruptcy filings. (USATSI)

 

[Prime Time]

http://nypost.com/2015/06/14/how-pro-athletes-lose-everything-buying-cars-jewels-and-pet-tigers/

How pro athletes lose everything
By Maureen Callahan
June 14, 2015

You are barely out of your teens, and have been signed to a multiyear, multimillion-dollar contract by a pro team. You can expect another $20 million to $30 million in endorsement deals, and are positioned to become a brand unto yourself: another LeBron, Brady, Kobe, Jeter.

What’s even more incredible? If you were to find yourself in this scenario, you would most likely wind up dead broke, if not bankrupt and homeless, by the time you turned 40.

“Lots of players are having financial trouble, but they won’t talk about it,” says ex-NBA player Adonal Foyle, author of the new book, “Winning the Money Game: Lessons Learned From the Financial Fouls of Pro Athletes”.

“There’s a lot of fear,” Foyle says. “Guys are vilified. They’re waiting to see who goes into the lottery of going broke.”

Of course, it’s not a lottery, a game of chance. Pro athletes go broke due to a constant series of bad decisions, and seemingly no amount of cautionary tales — from Tyson to Iverson to Holyfield to William “The Refrigerator” Perry — can stop them.

“Lots of guys are having trouble,” says Foyle, who also has a masters in sports psychology. “But they won’t talk about it. They think, ‘I don’t want to be one of those guys,’ and they’re hiding it.”

The litany of superstars who’ve taken themselves down is endless, and Foyle discusses most of them in his book: Mike Tyson, who tore through $300 million on multiple homes, cars, jewels and pet tigers. In 2003, he filed for bankruptcy.

Baseball great Curt Schilling made $112 million over 20 years, but went so broke that in 2013 he begged the Baseball Hall of Fame to return his bloody sock from a famous pitching performance against the Yankees so that he could auction it off. (It brought in more than $92,000). Later that year, Schilling held an estate sale, hawking everything from a Hummer golf cart and a baby
grand piano to old power chargers, used crutches and unopened DVDs.

“I sold all that stuff to pay the banks back,” he told the Boston Globe. “Instead of filing for bankruptcy and keeping it all, I sold it all. It sucks.”

The house went, too, listed for $3 million. It sold for $2.5 million — half of what Schilling paid for it in 2004.

Evander Holyfield burned through his $230 million fortune on a 235-acre Utah estate, which has 109 rooms and included at least one monthly electric bill of $17,000. There was also a $550,000 loan he took out to pay for landscaping; $200,000 in back taxes, plus alimony and child support for three ex-wives and 11 children.

Divorce and child-support payments, Foyle writes, are two things most young athletes never anticipate. “Early in my career, I heard a league official say that once they retire, there is an 87 percent divorce rate among NBA players,” he writes. “Although I haven’t verified this number, based on what I’ve witnessed, it seems about right.”

And then there’s the phenomenon of pro athletes fathering multiple children with multiple women. Foyle cites “Where’s Daddy?”, the classic 1998 Sports Illustrated cover story that explored this phenomenon. Shawn Kemp, then a forward for the Cleveland Cavaliers, had an on-court meltdown that year that was attributed to his stress over child-support payments: At 28, he had seven children.

By age 20, former NBA firebrand Latrell Sprewell had fathered three children by three women. The article listed NBA stars from Patrick Ewing to Larry Bird to Scottie Pippen to Jason Kidd to Stephon Marbury to Isiah Thomas as those making child-support payments on out-of-wedlock kids.

“I’d say there might be more kids out of wedlock than there are players in the NBA,” one top agent told the magazine.

NBA star Jason Caffey (earnings: $35 million over eight years) filed for bankruptcy in 2007, after his arrest for nonpayment of child support, which carries mandatory jail time. He has 10 children by eight women.

“The only reason I filed for bankruptcy was to get these arrest warrants off me,” he told the Press-Register. Perhaps. But it was also reported that Caffey’s monthly income was just $7,000.

There are two financial obligations that can never be dismissed by bankruptcy: child-support payments and taxes.

“The average football, baseball or basketball player owes around $1 million in federal taxes each year,” Foyle writes. “The key word here is ‘owes,’ because not everyone chooses to pay. But eventually the IRS catches up.”

MLB All-Star José Canseco earned $45 million over the course of his career; he filed for bankruptcy in 2012. In an article he wrote for Vice magazine, Canseco failed to see the big deal.

“The issue is very simple: If you’ve got friends and family, the more money you make, the more you spend on them,” he wrote. “So let’s say you spend half your money on them and the rest on yourself and the cost of living. It may so happen that during all of that, you forget to pay your taxes.”

Additionally, pro athletes are also subjected to what’s known as “the Jock Tax.” All players with the NFL, NBA, MLB and NHL have to file taxes in every single state in which they play during each fiscal year. “What frustrated me was seeing the amount of difficulty players were having in my sport,” says Foyle, who spent 13 years in the NBA. “When I started talking to older NBA players and asking, ‘What is the landscape in retirement?’ the answers shocked me.”

Far too many of them, he found, had not only failed to plan for their future, but lacked a basic understanding of money management.

“Almost none of us come from wealthy families,” Foyle writes. “The vast majority of us do not even come from middle-class families. Instead, we sign multimillion-dollar contracts as 20-year-olds with little or no financial knowledge.”

In a 2009 Sports Illustrated report, ex-NFL player Raghib “Rocket” Ismail described what it was like to sit in a meeting about his financial future as a very young, naive athlete: “I once had a meeting with JPMorgan,” he said, “and it was literally like listening to Charlie Brown’s teacher.”

Almost never discussed, Foyle says, is the psychology of the poor athlete suddenly made rich, and the financial demands that family and friends will almost always place on him. “When your parents come and ask you for money, or your entourage member, you know you can say ‘no’ — but what’s the cost? Parents will say, ‘We raised you; we took care of you.’ Friends will say, ‘I always had your back.’ These people are attached to the athlete psychologically.”

Far more often than not, the pro athlete, no matter how famous and seemingly invincible, has no money in a 401(k), no savings in case of a career-ending injury, no trusts held for access at a later date. “After you’ve beaten up your body, instead of retiring in some semblance of peace, you’re pinching pennies,” Foyle says.

In this regard, 11-time All-Star Allen Iverson is lucky. He blew through his $154.5 million NBA salary, spending a reported $360,000 a month on multiple mortgages, credit cards, jewelry, cars and his 50-person entourage. In 2012, one year after his retirement, his monthly income was just $62,500.

Iverson recently told Charlie Rose that reports of his financial state were untrue; that may be because Reebok, the one company where Iverson has a lifetime endorsement deal, socked away $30 million in a trust for him. He cannot touch that money until 2030 — but that was a decision made for him, not by him, and as the case of Darryl Strawberry illustrates, that $30 million may not be safe.

In 1985, when a then-19-year-old Strawberry signed with the Mets, he was given a $7.1 million contract, with 10 percent put into an annuity with an annual interest rate of 5.1 percent. Today, that annuity will pay out nearly $2 million over the next two decades — except Strawberry won’t be getting it, because the IRS auctioned it off to recover the more than $500,000 he owes in back taxes.

An anonymous bidder paid $1.3 million, securing himself $8,891.82 a month from the New York Mets until the year 2033.

Foyle, now 40 years old, has always been an outlier. Like many pro athletes, he comes from a very poor background, raised largely by his grandparents on a small island in the Caribbean. He was scouted as a teenager and brought to the States, where he lived with a foster family in upstate New York. He had never seen a car before or ridden on an elevator.

But his sudden wealth as a pro baller never destabilized him, and he credits his foster parents — his dad was an economist, his mother a professor of women’s studies and sociology — for his outlook on money.

“We had conversations about what’s important in life and how to be a moral person,” he says.

By his junior year in college, he was drafted by Golden State, and after making rookie scale for his first three years, he signed a four-year, $16 million deal. Yet Foyle says he never looked at money as reflective of his value as a player or a person; it was a tool to be deferred, to work for him.

“I always looked at each contract as my last,” he says. He talks about being the lone guy in the locker room not to buy a luxury vehicle. “I didn’t care what others thought of me when I drove a Toyota 4Runner my rookie year,” he writes. “It was what I could afford.”

He never had an entourage and didn’t buy things that would only depreciate in value: jewels, cars, designer clothes. He met with financial planners often and saved money in case he suffered a career-ending injury — which he did after 13 years in the league.

By then he knew what he wanted to do — help younger players plan for their future.

Foyle recalls one of his flights to an out-of-town game: He was reading an article on ex-NFL star Terrell Owens, who’d just gone broke.

“I was horrified,” he says. “I went up front and grabbed three rookies, the youngest guys on the plane, and said, ‘You, you and you: We’re gonna meet and talk about finances. You need to have a financial strategy.’ They looked at me like I was crazy. They had no idea what I was talking about.”

This is a discussion he hopes his book will help break open.

“We owe it to our brotherhood — and society, too — to have this conversation, in a really raw way,” Foyle says. “We all make bad decisions over the course of our career. The question is: Do we learn from it? Or do we keep doing it?”

Three infamous cases of athletes who lost it all:
Vince Young

NFL career: Drafted in the first round by the Tennessee Titans in 2006; named NFL Rookie of the Year.

Earnings: $34 million over his eight-year career, plus $30 million in endorsement deals.

Blew it on: $5,000 a week at The Cheesecake Factory, where Young regularly treated eight teammates (yearly cost: $260,000); also did the same at T.G.I. Friday’s, where he spent $6,000 in at least one sitting; buying out a Houston-to-Nashville Southwest Airlines flight in 2007, which sat 120 people, so that he could fly alone.

Rock bottom: According to Young’s former financial adviser, he took out a high-interest loan of at least $1 million during the 2007 NFL lockout to throw himself a birthday party. Filed for bankruptcy in January 2014.

Warren Sapp

NFL career: Hall of Famer; played total of 13 seasons for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and Oakland Raiders, retiring in 2008.

Earnings: $82 million from the NFL. On-air talent at the NFL Network from 2008 until this February, when he was fired after his arrest on charges of soliciting prostitution and assault.

Blew it on: A $7 million estate in Florida; a De Grisogono watch (can cost $600,000); 240 pairs of sneakers; a lion-skin rug; a bad real-estate deal; $45,000 a month in alimony; and $15,000 a month in child support.

Rock bottom: In 2012, ex-wife Jamiko filed suit against Sapp, claiming he was $728,000 behind in payments. He filed for bankruptcy in April of that year. All his personal belongings went up for auction in 2012 — except his Super Bowl ring, which he claimed to have lost.

Robert Swift

NBA career: Drafted at age 18 in 2004 by the SuperSonics; 12th pick in first round

Earnings: Estimated $10 million to $20 million over four years in the NBA; tore his ACL in 2006 and was forced to retire in 2008

Blew it on: $1.4 million home in Sammamish, Wash.; housing for his parents; two new SUVs for his parents and a new truck for himself; parties, tattoos, booze.

Rock bottom: When forcibly evicted from his foreclosed home in 2013, Swift left behind guns, live ammo, trash, feces, broken-down cars in the driveway, and unopened scholarship offers. He is now believed to be living with his parents.

 

[RamsSince1969]

I have to share this with you. I'm oldest of 6 kids. I swear to goodness, I have a sister, that, if I were to somehow give her $40 million, it would be gone or missing in a week! She is so bad with money, it blows our minds. She still falls for the emails about winning the lottery, just send us $10,000 to get it! I can't explain it. Some people are really bad with money.

 

[fearsomefour]

Jake McQuaid

The continuing adventures of the violently insane Jake McQuaid.

 

[JUMAVA68]

I don't feel not even a little sorry for him he's a grown man that wanted the spotlight.I do feel sorry for his kids he could have paid for a good education for them.Because he was selfish and just plain stupid they may turn out different in the end.

 

[jrry32]

Sorry @Prime Time
But this idea that they are young and inexperienced is complete bullshite

These are GROWN men and those investments and expenditures have little to do with naivety but 100% to do with a stupid lifestyle and sycophantic friends and the entourage - a culture of consumerism and cheap stereotypes

Look - casino, Ponzi scheme, car debt, baby momma debt, not paying IRS

This dude is in his mid to late 30's - these are big boy choices with no excuse

Portis had the choice - he had the choice to not eat out but eat at home - he had the opportunity to buy a house or houses and not live at the MGM making it rain - he had the choice to treat his woman like great and support his family like a man --- but he did none of those things

The idea that this guy somehow didn't have a seminar and that would have changed his celeb kardashian-esquelifestyle is silly. And it also takes credit away from those professional players coming from having money to being millionaires who have invested wisely and have handled their finances well despite never having zero money before - let alone a seminar

Portis is the rare knucklehead who doesn't get it and will never get it. The vast majority of NFL players with a career and contracts like Portis most likely never find themselves in this situation.

No, it's not.

It's not hard to understand how people that grew up with nothing and suddenly hit the jackpot coming out of college could squander it all. They didn't grow up with people that knew how to manage money and could teach them how to protect and grow their wealth. When they get that wealth, they try to have the lifestyle they always wanted with it rather than saving and growing it. Even the guys that try to invest typically don't have a background where they understand how to invest and make bad decisions with investments or are taken advantage of by people around them. Not to mention all of their boys and family have their hands out as soon as they get that money.

It's a minefield for these guys. They absolutely have my sympathy.

Even some of the guys that think they're making good decisions by investing their money lose it. Whether it's because they were duped by more sophisticated businessmen or wrecked by bad luck with the market/business or made a poor decision on what to invest in.

Lottery winners have the same issue. It's because when you get an influx of cash without having money like that before, you don't know how to manage it like a person that worked their way up to it.

I know of a former NFL player that lost much of his fortune through bad business investments. Very nice guy. Very intelligent. Family man. Still lost a ton of money when his business ventures went bad. It happens.