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Over the years, we have seen professional athletes, especially football and basketball players, running amok of both the criminal and financial laws. These numbers of each is for both during and after their careers, in spite of earning millions of dollars. I have written about those high-paid athletes losing their millions within years of their retirement, but let’s include crimes as well.
I read about a brief program on the internet that asked to compare the NFL with the NBA in certain areas of misdeeds over the past few years. As you read of the number of violations in the various categories, keep score of each one and decide if the number is more from the NFL or the NBA.
1. There have been 36 reported cases of spousal abuse.
2. Seven cases of criminal fraud have been investigated by authorities.
3. Nineteen violations have been found for writing bad checks.
4. There have been 117 cases where the person has filed bankruptcy, or has forced a company in which he was involved to file for bankruptcy.
5. There have been three arrests for assaults.
6. There are 71 cases where their credit was so bad that the person could not get a credit card.
7. There have been 14 cases of arrest on drug charges.
8. Eight arrests were made for shoplifting.
9. Drunk driving arrests in the last year, 84.
10. In 21 cases, the person is currently a defendant in a law suit.
I know that there have been many cases lately involving spousal abuse in the NBA and bankruptcy cases in athletes all over. One of my law school classmates became a major sports agent for professional athletes. He represented many Bulls and Bears. As we sat near each other, I was introduced to several. One night he even had the commissioner of the NBA sitting with him.
Over the years, we talked of the amazing amounts of money these stars were paid. But he went on to tell me how so many ended up broke. He explained that most athletes do not necessarily come from middle or upper class families. Playing professional sports is not only glamorous, but often the best job they could ever hope of having.
But this does not mean that they have a good understanding of money. Shady investments, and people out there to defraud them are everywhere.
I always remember Joe Louis playing golf with my dad. While they had a $10 bet, Louis had a running side bet with his own partner who traveled with him most of the time. In my dad’s case the bet between Louis and his own partner was many times what Dad had wagered.
His partner claimed to be a zero handicap. After my dad watched Louis pay his partner $600 (in 1948!) that day, he explained to me that this man was much better than a zero handicap. Matter of fact, the man was none other than Charlie Sifford, one of the first Black golfers to play, and quite successfully, on the PGA tour. Zero handicap players do not make that grade.
Another example of the spending habits was an All-Star guard from the Philadelphia 76ers who traveled with and paid for an entourage of 52 people. He made it two years after retirement before he was dead broke.
One of comments made by my lawyer friend was, “I can get them more money than they can ever spend in a lifetime. But I can’t stop them from losing it.”
There are exceptions, of course, with good intentions. A teammate of my son-in-law when he played at Wisconsin was Michael Finley. Upon getting his signing bonus with the Dallas Mavericks, Finley bought his mom a new house. If only the others were so family directed.
Alright, you have tallied a score for the 380 misdeeds above. Which organization had the most offenders?
Spoiler alert. It’s neither the NBA nor the NFL. The 435 members of our own U.S. Congress led both sports divisions in the commission of these offenses or misdeeds. After watching the reports on the representative who lied about everything and still got elected, I am not all that surprised.
I cannot verify the total truth of the statements made, and didn’t think it was worth a lot of research, but I think I would rather watch a football game or basketball match than watch these 435 people in Congress. How about you?
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