Released: September 10, 2011

Financial lessons from sports stars’ mistakes

Source: Ron Lieber, The New York Times

Michael Vick will take the field on Sunday wearing the uniform of the Philadelphia Eagles, who took him in after his imprisonment for helping to run a dogfighting ring. But thanks to his personal bankruptcy filing after he went to jail, he will also be playing for BMW Financial Services, Dodson Pest Control, Summertime Pool and the Monticello Woods Homeowners Association. They are not sponsors. Instead, they and many others have a claim on his future earnings. Sports stars may or may not mess up more often than the average person who earns a lot of money really fast, but their troubles seem outsize because of their fame and the pathetic schemes they fall for. The stakes are high for football players in particular, since their average professional career lasts just four seasons or so and may leave lingering injuries and the health costs or physical limitations that come with them.

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