MKRob Sports

I just read a very interesting article on Hogs Haven about Joe Gibbs holding financial seminars to teach players how to manage their money. I was not shocked at how often players are in financial ruin so soon after being out of the league.

Joe Gibbs: We got in a relationship with Strayer because we were working with our other sponsors. Strayer University is an online school. Nine states in the Southeast…I’m looking at this and I’m thinking, ‘This would fit perfectly with the NFL.’ For this reason, I’ve been sitting in my office many times when players come to me at different times talking about contracts and eventually it would come out that they’ve made bad financial decisions. Of course, I’m a perfect example as I mention in my book not knowing my liabilities issues I got into a simple partnership.

I saw it a lot. It’s not good for the teams because the player is upset and concentrating on something else – not football.  I said, ‘Gosh, wouldn’t this be great if we could create a business seminar for young guys.’ We worked with Strayer that it’d be a pilot study and we’d do it for nothing. So, for the players, we said we’re not asking you anything. The Redskins are not any part of this other than letting us use a room. Mike [Shanahan] and Dan [Snyder] were great. They thought it was a great idea. So, it was a gift back to them. We probably had 18-20 guys and some of their wives. I thought it was something I could do to give back to the Redskins organization. We’ll probably take it to the League in some way. It was over nine days. It fit right into their schedule. Three 3-hour sessions. The professors were great. They took questions. There was a lot of interest in it.

Mike Wise chimed in with the staggering stat from his producer, Chris Johnson, that 78% of NFL players are bankrupt 3 years out of the league.

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