HBO has a new series that debuted Sunday titled Ballers. In it Dwayne Johnson stars as fictional former NFL player Spencer Strassmore, and Rob Corddry plays Joe, the so-far-unlikeable financial advisor who has hired him to monetize his football friendships. If the the pilot is any indication, this show will be an entertaining and insightful look at the realities of NFL players dealing with money issues both during and after their careers.
Sports Illustrated cited a study in 2009 that showed within two years of retirement 78% of former NFL players are bankrupt or suffering severe financial stress.
Ballers opens with a scene where a former NFL player named Rodney is racing his Bentley along the streets of Miami with his psycho mistress. She starts an argument and physical altercation causing him to crash the vehicle, killing them both. It is later revealed that he was essentially broke, leaving nothing for his wife and kids.
NFL Players make an average of $1.9 million per year according to Forbes, and have an average career length of 3.3 years according to the National Football League Players Association (the NFL itself contends this statistic is skewed and prefers to use a 6.0 year stat that only includes players that make the opening day roster their rookie season). Using the NFLPA numbers that amounts to career earnings of somewhere around $6.1 million for the average NFL player.
A separate story line in Ballers follows Charles Greane, a former NFL player trying to transition to a new career after football. He ends up selling cars at a Chevy dealership. Let’s be honest, only a few of these guys are going to successfully make the transition to sports broadcasting or Wrangler jeans commercials. Some might be able to use their degree if they stuck around to actually earn it and didn’t stack their schedules with “paper classes”, but most of these guys aren’t going to make any real money after football.
So take that $6.1 million the average player might make and give the government its cut. The money was earned over a very short period of time and as such will be subject to the highest tax bracket (currently 39.6% at the federal level, plus any state income taxes they may be subject to). Throw in agent fees (typically 3%), union dues to the NFLPA ($15,000 per year), disability insurance, and stadium taxes that visiting players are often subject to and the pile gets even smaller.
I’m sure there are other costs and the total bite varies, of course, but for the purposes of this illustration let’s say the average player only takes home $3 million throughout his career and that’s all he’s going to make. That money now has to be spread out over the span of what a normal person’s career lasts.
Let’s say we start working right after college at the age of 22 and retire at the standard 65, giving us a 43-year long career. Ignoring inflation and any potential investment return on savings, that $3 million spread over 43 years is only about $70,000 in take-home pay per year. It’s a respectable income, but not nearly enough to get you through the door of a Bugatti dealership, let alone pay for a new house for Ma, child support, rookie dinners, bling, mansions, and the entourage of losers from the old neighborhood.
Another story line in the show has Dwayne Johnson’s character giving a player named Vernon a $300,000 loan to help him cover expenses. Vernon is an active player who signed for $12 million out of college, but you see him in a mansion full of family members, friends, and people he doesn’t even know living off of him. It’s an all too common scenario for players, and the reason why so many are in dire financial straits after their typically short careers end.
But even players with long careers seem to quickly find themselves in trouble. Terrell Owens played for 15 years, and in addition to racking up numerous points for lucky owners in the fantasy arena, he also collected $80 million throughout his career. A year removed from football and he was already near broke. Despite his well-documented reputation for flash on the field and an over-the-top personality, he arguably wasn’t that big of a spender by NFL standards.
T.O.’s downfall was, among other things, a combination of trusting the wrong people and letting them put him into bad investments. This common problem in the NFL was also depicted in the show with another character named Ricky. Ricky is a well-paid player, but he has a childhood friend named “Fat Reggie from Crenshaw” managing his money because they played Pop Warner together.
Spencer Strassmore represents something different in the show. He’s a former player that is trying to be smarter about money and trying to make a career out of it. He legitimately seems to care about the well-being of the players he is trying to help, and the advice he has offered them so far is sound even if it mostly falls on deaf ears.
It should be noted that there is the occasional real life example in the NFL of a player who is smart about money. Rob Gronkowski, a modern-day renaissance man in the making, has a new book coming out in July titled It’s Good To Be Gronk. In it, the dominant tight end claims he has been quite conservative with his spending:
To this day, I still haven’t touched one dime of my signing bonus or NFL contract money. I live off my marketing money and haven’t blown it on any big-money expensive cars, expensive jewelry or tattoos and still wear my favorite pair of jeans from high school…
If this is true, Gronk should be a guy other players look to as an example for managing their spending. He’s showing them even without flashy cars and oversized watches you can still be happy and have fun. And nobody in the NFL has more fun than Rob Gronkowski. Who knows, he might end up being the real life Spencer Strassmore some day.
