Jack & Jill Politics

The Benjamins grow a pair and walk off from these guys.

…are soon parted.  I was reading this article at Real Clear Sports.com this morning, and the main thing I noticed is the number of African-American athletes who have made a boatload of money and lost it,  cited in the article.  Out of the ten athletes cited, SEVEN of them were African-American.

Here’s the list:

10. John Daly, golf pro

9.   Evander Holyfield, boxer

8.   Travis Henry, NFL player

7.   Jack Clark, former Major League Baseball Player

6.   Joe Louis, Champion Heavyweight Boxer

5.   Bjorn Borg, Pro Tennis Player

4.   O. J. Simpson, former NFL star, actor and would-be author

3.   Michael Vick, NFL star

2.   Latrell Spreewell, NBA player

1.   Mike Tyson, former champion boxer.

Read the article – it is not that someone swindled them from their money like Bernie Madoff did; although, to be fair, the article does cite that Vick had a woman who was banned from even working on the NYSE working for him and had two swindles totaling $300,000 on her record.

This lil’ tidbit should get you, as it did me:

We’re not what you’d call “car guys” here at RCS. So forgive us if we don’t see the allure in owning a luxury automobile, let alone multiple cars. But we get it — some people can’t get enough. And when those people have money, they begin to stockpile a long list of expensive toys. One such person is Jack Clark.

The four-time All-Star slugger had quite the fleet of automobiles (18 of them) when he filed for bankruptcy in 1992 while still a member of the Boston Red Sox.

One story says Clark was once on his way to the ballpark for a game when he passed a car lot. Clark saw something he liked and dropped in to buy two sports cars for $90,000 each before continuing on to the game. At the time he filed for bankruptcy, Clark still owed money on 17 of his 18 automobiles; he had debts of over $11.4 million and assets of nearly $4.8 million.

Or this one:

Earlier this month, Travis Henry agreed to a plea deal stemming from his arrest last year for drug trafficking multiple kilograms of cocaine. Sadly, the venture into crime might have been a necessity, despite signing a 5-year, $22.5 million contract with the Broncos in 2007.

One can point out the fact that Denver cut him just one-year into that deal (for which he received $6.7 million), but perhaps a bigger reason for his financial hardships was his family. Rather, his nine families (emphais mine). According to his lawyer, Henry “…doesn’t have any money…the guy has significant financial issues.”

The Prince of Procreation, who has nine kids with nine different mothers (all but one of the children were unplanned), is currently paying an estimated $170,000 in child support each year, and it’s left him broke.

Okay, so if you get paid millions of dollars to dribble a basketball and shoot it, box, play golf, swing at a baseball, or rumble into the end zone, I don’t expect you to live like a friggin pauper – you’re expected to live well, because you get paid well to do a job for a few days at a time, during a work period of five, six or eight months out of the year.  And if you don’t know about handling great amounts of money, you get a reputable, certified money manager and/or financial planner to do it for you, and ensure you have money when your playing days are over.

What gets me is the number of African-American athletes who have too much money and too much time on their hands.  Dog fighting? Beating up, or raping your women, if not killing them? Or choking your coach because you had a meltdown?  Having nine kids with nine different women because condoms weren’t part of the “plan”?

Get.The.Hell.Out.Of.Here.With.That.Shyt.

Now, I’m familiar with Sprewell, and remember quite clearly when he choked his coach, P. J. Carlesimo, out in Oakland back in 1997, because it dominated the local news for two weeks.  I don’t care how angry you get with your boss, you still do not put your hands on him. Not if you don’t want to catch a case.  At the time, the Warriors suspended him for 68 games and then traded his ass to New York – and Carlissimo could have pressed assault charges, but didn’t.   Not to mention that Carlesimo was one of the WORST coaches Golden State ever hired, so Spree got off lucky.  But, going to a new team and  getting offered $21 million dollars to play basketball that you turn down because you “got a family to feed” and now your ass is broke – well, a million goes a long damn way towards feeding your family, let alone, $7 MILLION.  Just how “smart” was it to turn down a $21 million dollar contract, because it wasn’t like Kevin Garnett’s long-term deal of $180 million?

I’m more concerned that there are more of US on this list than there are anyone else, and it’s an indication of one or two things; that our athletes get pimped out, brainwashed and then left for dead when their money runs out – or, they’re just being foolish when it comes to the decisions they make regarding their finances.

Can we talk about this, right quick? (Y’all know I had to get that snark in, because in taking back our communities, we need our pro-athletes to get involved and that’s something else he never mentions at the Annual Negro SuperBowls).