According to Dictionary.com Bankruptcy is "the state of being or becoming bankrupt." The topic that I will be addressing in my blogs, will be how a majority of former professional athletes have filed for bankruptcy after their career is over. Most professional athletes have at most three years of college and as little as just a high school diploma. They also have probably never learned how to do their taxes. Jacqueline Palank from the Wall Street Journal says that most athletes "[are] expecting to score touchdowns, make slam dunks and hit home runs for a decade but really only playing the game for a few years. It’s facing huge health-care bills from the injuries you constantly sustain. And it’s not being able to say no to the family and friends that helped you rise up the ranks, even if you didn’t even know you had those family and friends." (Palank) I agree with the points she brings up. The points lead me to believe that college athletes that are expected to go pro should be required by their school to take finance and accounting classes, in order to set them up for a successful career and life.
In my future blogs, I will use some former athletes like Warren Sapp and Curt Schilling who have gone through bankruptcy as examples. I will also research the percentage of previous players who have filed for bankruptcy in each professional sport. I will try to seek journalists from ESPN and other sports media outlets for sources.
Are you certain that a "majority" of former pro athletes have filed for bankruptcy? Be careful in choice of language. I think a good approach to this topic might be a data-based analysis of the various reasons pros go broke, and then make sure you propose the right solutions. Don't jump to a solution (accounting classes) until you have fully analyzed the problem. I used to see people in business settings try to leap to a solution before understanding the problem -- not usually a successful approach!
ReplyDeleteFamily is truly important to me and is one of my foundations for my morals and day to day life. If they helped me rise to the top like most other athletes families, I would have a tough time not wanting to give back to them. If one of my family members came to me for help I would do whatever I could to help them. Which, I'm sure of course, is what those athletes are doing. So I could agree with what you are saying.
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