Once the Cheering Stops: The Life of a Retired Pro-Athlete

The ESPN 30 For 30 videos are extremely interesting to me, and I have watched nearly all of them because of the way in which they present unique perspectives about famous events, people, and phenomenons in sport culture. The video "Broke" details the fiscal rise and fall of many prominent athletes, exposing the disconnect between what they expect financially and what actually occurs. The NFL seems to be the worst organization in regards to its players going broke only several years after they retire. This issue stems from a variety of different issues, including the lack of financial education received by the players, agent salary, the high pressure to live up to sports culture normatives/dreams, the players' respective backgrounds and friends, injuries incurred while playing, and so on. These many factors all act together in a ferocious manner and cause the mysterious phenomenon of multi-millionaire professional athletes going bankrupt decades before most people even retire.

I have been aware of this issue for quite some time, and have had discussions with friends in the past about how every athlete should be required to either hire a financial manager, be provided with one, or set aside a certain percentage of their pay for the long haul. The NFL is an extremely dangerous game that can leave its players physically, mentally, or emotionally crippled. All of this is gro

wing apparent over time as more and more players speak out, not to mention the near billion dollar lawsuit that the NFL paid out to former players. In the case of injury I think it should be required that the league itself pays for its injured players healthcare for life.
The other ways in which professional athletes go broke are harder to fix, especially the mentality that they will be rich one day as a pro athlete and will be able to help out all of their family and friends. Many athletes are told this since childhood and use it as motivation to succeed, and then believe that they owe all of their friends something in return. It is hard to criticize this generosity, especially given that fact that I have no idea what it's like to grow up in poverty, but the NFL and other organizations must teach the players to look out for themselves first. In addition to this, the NFL must take care of its players by not only just educating them, but by protecting them against agents and providing special assistance to players from low-income areas. The NCAA should also absolutely allow any athlete who left college early(without a degree) for the pros the opportunity to come back and finish their degree, honoring their initial scholarship. This would provide these athletes with more opportunities after they finish their usually short playing careers.