I watched an interesting documentary the other day
about how a vast majority of professional athletes go broke within 5 years of
retiring!... two years actually if you are from the NFL! The source of these
statistics is a Sports Illustrated article that says 80% of pro athletes end up nearly penniless; numbers, if you can believe it, that often also include players whose
career earnings are in the tens of millions and even in some cases over a
hundred million – think Allen Iverson, Antoine Walker and the dog abuser
Michael Vick for the latter. On the surface it seems ludicrous and
unbelievable, but the numbers bare it out. If you were to analyze the phenomena
a lion’s share of the fault certainly needs to be placed where it belongs at the
feet of the over sized egos of the players and their utter lack of any financial responsibility, but are there other culprits too? Perhaps there is
something to be said too about North American society and the way it perverts
people’s minds about what showing success actually means. Not to mention how “normal”
people start acting when they are around those who all of a sudden have a LOT
of money.
The Buying High
When you hear sometimes about people with shopping
addictions, as you do when you don’t have that specific addiction..., you
wonder what the hell? That said, shopping can be an addiction like any other.
When you buy something it releases dopamine in your brain and you feel good. An
issue is that like other drugs people try to chase that same high, of their first big purchase (perhaps a
new car ) and end up continuously buying more and more extravagant things.
The most telling story in the documentary was of an NFL line man who when
given news that he was being released from his pro team and was given $60 grand
severance he took the money and bought the new Hummer that had just come out. Old
habits die hard, and that was the last big ticket item he was ever able to
afford. The pro athletes also are pitted against one another in a perverse game of keeping up with the Jones. In the case of the 7th man on the Miami Heat, it's probably not wise to go dollar for dollar with Dwayne Wade and Lebron Jame's spending habits... but miraculously many do.
Can’t buy me love
Can’t buy me love
That once was a Beatles song, before they got a lot
more esoteric, and lyric that has some truth, but does it totally. The pro
athletes are faced with a slew of woman trying to get pregnant, and if they are
lucky married, to them. If a woman can get a successful paternity suit they have won the Super Bowl of groupies and will
be the epitome of the stay at home mom… stay at home that is with $20,000 grand
a month for living costs till the child is 18. The documentary even talked
about a web site called
www.balleralert.com where groupies can subscribe to web and phone
alerts when pro athletes are out at clubs so they can get done up and down there
themselves. Beyond the groupies, the pro athletes’ worst mistake, according to
an agent in the documentary, is getting married at all- especially without a
pre-nuptial agreement. With divorce rates for athletes running in 70 – 80% so
often the athletes see their earnings, especially after their playing days,
going to ex-wives and baby mommas. Shawn Kemp, an NBA star with the Seattle Supersonics in the 90's, sees much of his money go to his 9 children with 9 different woman. In many ways it seems a horrid trade off,
getting rich playing a sport may hold that person away from the riches paid out
from real love.
Bugs don’t just exist on plants
This summer I tried my hand at growing some herbs
and vegetables in my bay windows. With plenty of light and a reasonably
attentive human parent for them… what could go wrong, right? Well… I never
calculated for random bugs attacking the plants at their most sensitive areas –
the fruit trying to grow from them and their budding leaves. What I realized
watching it was that where there is an excess of energy different organisms
will try to feed off of that energy.
Hearing the stories of the pro athletes it would
appear insects being attracted to a source of sustenance is not held just to
the animal kingdom. Time and time again you hear about athletes being suckered
in by shady business men offering can’t miss investments, financial advisors
out right robbing them, and worse yet family and friends exercising guilt and
whatever else they can to get money. Being near money has a perverse effect on
a lot of people. Though money is a reified man made concept it exercises the
same force on reality that objects, like the leaves of a plant do to insects,
in nature.
Whether it is being attracted in swarms to
young seedlings or swarming to somebody with lots of money there are insects
everywhere. This is an issue the athlete has fending off the advances of those
desirous of them… as the Notorious B.I.G. once said: “Mo Money, Mo Problems.”