Yahoo Sports The Post Game: Jets Quarterback Mark Brunell's Catastrophic Financial Path

[seancarter]

http://www.thepostgame.com/blog/dish/201111/nfl-quarterback-will-have-work-9-5-after-18-year-career

Although he has a better playoff winning percentage than Peyton Manning, 18-year NFL quarterback Mark Brunell is facing a financial nightmare.

Action News Jacksonville reports the current Jets backup and former Jaguars hero has managed to run through $50 million as an active player and will have to start a 9-to-5 job as soon as his NFL career is over.

And that will be soon. Brunell plans to retire from the Jets after this season and, because of his financial misfortunes, will have to become a regular working stiff. Bankruptcy filings show Brunell has a job lined up to work as a medical sales representative after he's done holding a clipboard in New York.

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[gortiz]

sad man ... why do poeple still invenst in restaurants? god ... don't like 75% fold in the first 6 months or something.

i feel bad for the dude, but he should have got help, sounds like he made a lot of decisions on his own without help from a consultant.

[PokerPacker]

how can these multi-millionaires bankrupt themselves so easily? First thing they should spend their money on is a financial advisor to keep them from doing stupid ****.

[SlinginSammy HOF '63]

I'll never understand these guys investing in VERY risky things like individual businesses. Sure, the stock market is a little weak and volatile, but these guys would have been much better off buying mutual funds and creating various IRAs for themselves. Too bad, but at least he has a job lined up that will make money. He's just going to have to learn to live below what he has enjoyed for years.

[TradeTheBeal!]

Oh real estate bubble, you have taught many of us some very important lessons.

[pjfootballer]

how can these multi-millionaires bankrupt themselves so easily? First thing they should spend their money on is a financial advisor to keep them from doing stupid ****.

Agree. First thing is to find a good retirement portfolio and make sure to put at least half your salery into a retirement account that you can't touch until you are 65 or find a really big mattress to stuff. Seriously, a retirement account is the first step. Then if you have extra money, find some sound investments.

[Jumbo]

I know this seems mean, but there's something really stupid about being able to "run through" $50 mil.

[penasquito]

Well, its not like he blew it on renting yachts and partying. He went into business, he sucked at it, he's going to try an 8 to 5 gig.

An even better place to start than mutual funds is a pension that his various plaintiffs can't touch.

[Destino]

No comments about him buying too much bling, cars, and houses?

Most athletes that lose all their money do so to bad investments. I've been telling people for years that it's not a coincidence that all these hard to reach athletes always find themselves in front of people pitching the worst kinds of investments. There is a lot of money to be made separating financially illiterate people from their cash when they have a lot of it. I wouldn't be surprised at all if agents and other NFL connected people have gotten a "tip" from the people seeking to offer these "opportunities".

[Ghost of]

Oh real estate bubble, you have taught many of us some very important lessons.

Shoulda listened to Peter Schiff.

---------- Post added November-1st-2011 at 11:04 PM ----------

No comments about him buying too much bling, cars, and houses?

Only black players do that, Des. But I think part of it is the image some guys project. It very well COULD be that Mark bought a ton of houses (technically he bought real estate, I guess) and cars and the like but he had a different public persona. Even though I know his alter-ego Scott Brunell was wearing 5 lb platinum amulets and doing body shots off of coke-addled 19 year old undergrads.

[spjunkies]

I wonder if Scott is going to help him out.

[No_Pressure]

I don't know what is so hard about investing safely. If you have millions and millions of dollars coming to you every single year, why would you take risks with it? What is the point? You've got so much to lose and so little to gain. Jesus he would have been better off buying gold with it and making a gold coin swimming pool in his house like scrooge mcduck.

[Roger.Staubach]

I know this seems mean, but there's something really stupid about being able to "run through" $50 mil.

Bah. I don't think that your sentiment is mean at all. Most of us go through life and bust our butts to care for ourselves and our families. 50 Mil would go a long ways towards that care and to see someone piss it away sucks.

That being said, I always liked Brunell. I hope he finds a way out of this crisis.

[The Fax]

$60,000 a month after football? He couldn't get a gig at ESPN or something? I'd much rather watch him over Antonio Pierce or Keyshawn Johnson.

[Rpredskins]

I don't understand why these guys can't just save $2 million... thats 4% of his total earnings and enough to live off of. Blowing 96% of your money, while stupid, is at least plausible to me. How do you manage to blow all of it, especially when the total is that much?

[Riggo-toni]

Wait...I thought he was super-smart?

[Champskins]

They weren't getting paid for their brains... This is almost as funny as watching Antonio Cromartie try to name his kids. SMH

[Lombardi's_kid_brother]

I don't understand why these guys can't just save $2 million... thats 4% of his total earnings and enough to live off of. Blowing 96% of your money, while stupid, is at least plausible to me. How do you manage to blow all of it, especially when the total is that much?

You get into a business that touches your assets.

One thing people never consider is how super-competitive athletes are. It's not enough for most athletes to have a little checkered table-cloth restaurant. It has to sell massive steaks and have Crystal behind the bar. And those kinds of restaurants can run through millions of dollars in a few months.

One of the reasons Magic Johnson is so successful is because his investments are a) low key and not his baby. He is in bed with TGIFridays, which does not lose money on its restaurants. And he is mostly renting his name.

[Ghost of]

I don't understand why these guys can't just save $2 million... thats 4% of his total earnings and enough to live off of. Blowing 96% of your money, while stupid, is at least plausible to me. How do you manage to blow all of it, especially when the total is that much?

And even when you LOSE money, it's usually that you are losing on the principal. It doesn't usually mean that you actually go down to ZERO.

"we'll just put your savings in a money market account and....it's GONE!"

So, one would think that a retirement account (or, maybe he DOES have a retirement account and during bankruptcy they leave that alone, I don't know the law re: retirement accounts or pensions) plus a stash in stable, normal liquid investments like savings would have been enough.

But it's the competitive nature of these guys. People want to be MJ or John Elway post-retirement. But I don't think you do that by getting involved in risky real estate deals and restaurants.

[Chip80]

Maybe Joe G. will hire him as one of the jack guys on his pit crews.

Seriously, I don't have anything against him, but going through $50 million indicates he is a dope on some level.

[SkinsFTW]

Are they sure it's only 50Mil? His contract for the Redskins was 40Mil all by itself, even if it was restructured at some point it likely gave him bonuses to replace the base pay. Didn't he make quite a bit in Jax as well?

[pjfootballer]

I don't know what is so hard about investing safely. If you have millions and millions of dollars coming to you every single year, why would you take risks with it? What is the point? You've got so much to lose and so little to gain. Jesus he would have been better off buying gold with it and making a gold coin swimming pool in his house like scrooge mcduck.

Greed. You would think, "hey I already have millions, why would I risk that." But humans are greedy and when you have 40 million, you want 80. When you have 80, you want 160. That's part of the reason this country is in a depression. Corperate and human greed.

[SlinginSammy HOF '63]

Greed. You would think, "hey I already have millions, why would I risk that." But humans are greedy and when you have 40 million, you want 80. When you have 80, you want 160. That's part of the reason this country is in a depression. Corperate and human greed.

A wise king from ancient times once put it best:

Whoever loves money never has money enough; whoever loves wealth is never satisfied with his income.