Let’s Celebrate Those Who Buck The Trend

Picture this, you’re 21 years old, and a junior in college.  But you have a talent much more lucrative than the jobs your major might get you in the future, you’re a star athlete.  Not just a collegiate star, but you’re in the NFL draft.  Next thing you know, you’re signing your name on the line of a multi-million dollar contract.

Think about the reality of that.

When I was 21, I was a confused and troubled kid.  Sure, I held down a full time job the whole time I was in college and worked hard at both, but I was a functional alcoholic.  I was immature in most areas of life, but at least disciplined enough to work hard. 

Had I been given millions of dollars at that age I’m pretty confident I wouldn’t be here today.  I hate to think what I would have gotten into, but there’s a good chance it would have made the 6 o’clock news.

In addition to massive sums of money, the star athletes of the big sports in America like football, baseball, and basketball have their pictures plastered all over the internet and magazines.  They can’t go anywhere in public without being pointed out, stared at, and having people ask for their autograph. 

How difficult must it be to not develop a massive ego when everyone wants to take a picture of you and be seen with you?  You’re all over media, performing amazing athletic feats. You’re in the highlight reels. 

Frankly it sounds miserable to me as an introvert, like a prison of sorts.  But for those that have the kind of personality that might thrive on that kind of fame, it can be ruinous.  At least financially.  Mansions, cars, and toys galore.  That’s why history is littered with stories of big-time athletes who have gone bankrupt. 

It’s a bit dated, but Sports Illustrated did this big article in 2009 citing that 78% of NFL players are either bankrupt or are under financial stress within two years of retirement.  Additionally, an estimated 60% of NBA players go bankrupt within five years after leaving their sport. 

Granted, some of these careers are very short.  Football especially is a brutal game that doesn’t generally allow for long careers.  But even in 2009 the minimum NFL salary was $325,000, with a minimum of $400,000 after one year of service. 

Instead of focusing on the negative though, I’d like to highlight some pro athletes who are doing things a bit differently.  They may not be exercising all the tricks of the financial independence community, but for people who are making millions per year, they’re showing some noble restraint that should definitely be admired. 

 

Rich Restraint

NBA star Jeremy Lin was notorious for living modestly, even after he signed a three-year, $38 million fully guaranteed contract.  He even posted some pics of his modest apartment on his website and discussed trips to IKEA and Costco.  Friends said he’d have them over for pizza and only have paper plates.  Sounds like he was too busy honing his athletic skills to get caught up in wasting his money. 

Then there’s San Francisco 49ers running back Alfred Morris.  When hew was with the Washington Redskins earlier in his career, he clung to his 1991 Mazda clunker.  This is well after he signed a four-year contract worth $2.2 million.  Mazda was so impressed they reached out to him and offered to restore it to factory standard. 

CBS reported, “Morris said the folks at Mazda would fix his cracked dashboard, fine tune the engine and work on the transmission to make sure he doesn’t find himself on the side of the road. There’s a chance they could throw a few perks in there as well, but nothing extravagant.” 

In Morris’s own words – “I don’t play for fame, I don’t play for money, I play because I love [the game].” 

At the start of the 2017 NFL season quarterback Kirk Cousins, while still with the Washington Redskins, was making $23.9 million. 

For one year. 

And his vehicle?  A a dented GMC Savana passenger van with more than 100,000 miles on it that he bought from his grandmother in 2014 for $5,000.  This is my kinda guy!  Better yet, Cousins seemed to be very financially savvy about it.  “It’s better to buy appreciating assets than depreciating,” Cousins told The Wall Street Journal in 2016. “No yachts, no sports cars.” 

Cousins told CNBC: “you don’t know how long you’re going to play, you’ve got to save every dollar even though you are making a good salary. You never know what’s going to happen, so I try to put as much money away as I can.”  Damn he needs a FI blog…

As a matter of fact, as the team leader Cousins set the tone for the Redskins back then, and they were known as the most frugal team in the NFL.  In addition to his dented minivan, the player lot apparently had bikes and worn out old sedans. 

It must’ve been like a FI blogger meetup 🙂 

His then teammate pass rusher Ryan Kerrigan was sharing an apartment with a childhood friend while he was making over $11 million a year.

 

FIRE?

Let’s talk early retirement to pursue passions.  John Urschel retired from the NFL at 26 after earning $1.8 million in three seasons.  What did he retire to pursue? 

His PhD in math, at MIT no less! 

While he was still playing with the Ravens he had his first scientific paper published, titled “A Cascadic Multigrid Algorithm for Computing the Fiedler Vector of Graph Laplacians”.

I’m not even going to look those words up…. He also drove a used Nissan Versa hatchback and lived on less than $25,000 a year as he wrote on The Players’ Tribune in 2015. 

Here’s how he explained his choices – “It’s not because I’m frugal or trying to save for some big purchase, it’s because the things I love the most in this world (reading, math, doing research, playing chess) are very, very inexpensive.”

Do what brings joy and value to your life, and if that means striving for early retirement to do it, then strive away.  Who says football players aren’t smart? 

 

Pro Vanlife

Lastly, the grandaddy of them all.  Daniel Norris signed a $2 million contract with the Detroit Tigers when he was just 18 years old.  He was a phenom pitcher.

He lives #vanlife

 

Outside magazine also did a great video piece on him.  My favorite quote from Norris,

“I grew up with a simple lifestyle, and I knew going into professional baseball that would be tested.  In my mind there’s no need for luxury, or at least society’s sense of the word.”

Oh and he also missed an entire season to cancer, and beat it.  Total stud.

And to check out a lesser known athlete who just starred in an Oscar-winning documentary, see my post on Alex Honnold.

Kudos to these great athletes who clearly ignore what society expects them to do with their millions.