When he was in Dallas he lived in a really basic condo downtown. Couldn't have run him more than 2k a month. He worked out in a low-tier gym and never went out with the other players. If that is how he normally carried himself I don't see how it is possible he ran through all his cash.
The house he's living in in LA only cost him $499k. If he'd just used his "expense" strategy with his investment strategy he'd probably still be rolling in dough.I know we've discussed this in the FFA several times before. IIRC, most recently after Mark Brunell's bankruptcy. If these guys would just have gone to some reputable financial planner who'd spread the money around like we're all told to do most would be set for life and a lot would have generations of their families set.
But safety with a decent return just isn't what these guys want.
It is curious indeed why so many of these cases involve the kinds of investments that shoot for the moon. I wonder if there's some sort of "go for it" mentality at work here that isn't a standard part of working schmucks like me.
This isn't unique to football players and other pro athletes, this is very common with everyday people as well.I know plenty of people who graduated college (back in the late 90's) and got nice paying jobs (for regular people) who blew all of their money too, and to this day have no real savings. Unlike pro athletes, however, they can at least work in their field for another 30+years.
Also, I'm not ashamed to admit I was pretty financially irresponsible right after I graduated. I got a small inheritance (30K) a couple months after graduating. I've got great parents. They are savvy and conservative investors that don't do anything reckless, and they preached this to me throughout my life, so I don't have the same excuse the T.O.'s of the world have.
What did I do with the 30K? Let's see:
- Paid 6K down on a car I bought for 12.3K (this actually may have been my best investment as I paid off the rest of the car in 3 years and drove it for over 8 years after that).
- Paid 4K in credit card debt (the problem with this is over 3K of that credit card debt was after I got the inheritance).
- Invested 20K in the stock market in individual stocks (This was my worst decision. The year was 1998. I had studied Buffet's way of investing and was convinced that gold would be a great long term investment, as the bull market couldn't go on forever and gold was priced very low. So what did I do? I couldn't resist the potential big returns of individual stocks, as at that time the stock market was on a crazy bull market run. I invested in Sonus, Pfizer, Level 3, Xerox, and Brigham Explorer (the only oil stock in this bunch) and bought no gold. I might have forgotten another dog stock or 2 I invested in. I lost my ### on all of those, sans Pfizer which I still hold.
What am I left with today? Some pfizer stock which is worth 2-3K (haven't looked at my statements in a while) and a newer car which I bought with the money I got for selling my old one.
I don't even want to know what 20K of gold back in 1998 would be worth today. 
Then there's the fact that I had roommates in my house for about 3 years (about a decade ago), and I was making $600/month for their rent. So I saved that cash money right? Nope. I partied all of that money away! (At least it was fun though. Much better return than my Level 3 stock
)
There's a saying that youth is wasted on the young, and this definitely is applicable to investing. Most young people in general make poor to horrible financial decisions. By the time they learn from their mistakes (if they ever do) they've lost a lot of money and several years if not a decade or longer of positive growth from good investments.
Im pretty much a pushover so I tend to feel sorry for everyone.
But the Warrick Dunns of the world should definitely be celebrated.
