Off-season professionals - pro athletes' second careers

Black Enterprise, Oct, 1992 by Eleanor D. Branch

In the world of competitive team sports, two-career athletes are rare. Most everyone knows Bo--Vincent Jackson--who successfully juggled the demands of a football and baseball career, until a hip injury left his future uncertain. Or perhaps "Neon" Deion Sanders, who does a neat balancing act by playing outfielder for the Atlanta Braves and defensive back for the Atlanta Falcons.

But Sean Jones may be the rarest two-career athlete of them all. Not only is Jones a defensive end for the Houston Oilers, but he is also a firmly established stockbroker with the Beverly Hills division of the Dean Witter Financial Services Group Inc. in Los Angeles. Even as Jones begins the 1992-1993 National Football League season, he is busily preparing for a profession beyond his sport.

Jones has definitely played it smart. In football, where 90% of the players play on contingency, there is a 25% turnover in players every year, and the average career lasts only about four years. "Life and business are not different," Jones says. "I have always been a go-to guy. I want to be on the field if the game is on the line. I want to challenge myself, I want to do more than play the game. I don't want to wait to be fired,"

Set For Life?

Any athlete will tell you that segueing into a second career is not easy. Sure there are success stories: the Mel Farrs, Drew Pearsons, Dave Bings and Gale Sayers who have gone on to build BE 100s companies, as well as the Quinn Buckners and O,J. Simpsons who have established solid broadcasting careers.

But much more common are those burned-out athletes who must adjust to the sometimes painful financial and social consequences--not to mention the stress--that come with any major life change. Additionally, these athletes have to wage a private war against the public's and the sports industry's perceptions about who they are and what their personal agendas and lifestyles are supposed to be. Because they are highly paid--salaries average $420,000 in football, $850,000 in baseball and $1.1 million in basketball in 1992--professional athletes are perceived to be "set for life" as soon as they sign that coveted pro contract. Players are not always encouraged by coaches, agents, team owners and managers to think about or prepare for the day when they will have to call its quits. And even when they are encouraged to think about post-sports career planning, too many athletes fail to act on the suggestion. Indeed, Jones charges that "the system does everything to discourage players from becoming self-sufficient. When people complain that not enough is being done to prepare the players for life after football, the response is often, `Well, he makes enough; he shouldn't have to worry about it.'"

But should players worry? In football, for example, the average player plays four years before sustaining a career-ending injury. He grosses between $1 million and $1.3 million during that period. His taxes are anywhere from 28% to 31% of his income, which brings his yearly income to less than $200,000 a year. "The issue then," according to M.J. Duberstein, director of research for the National Football Players Association, "is lifestyle, especially for a young player. How much of the discretionary income is available for investment or job creation?"

Craig Curry, a former NFL player and now a financial planner for Shearson Lehman Brothers in Houston, argues that the player who makes upwards of $1 million a year, especially early in his career, usually has an extremely high debt service. Curry estimates it to be 50% to 75% of the player's net income. He also estimates that a player making that kind of money usually spends $500,000 on housing, which means a down payment of about $100,000, and another $75,000 on transportation in the form of luxury car(s).

"After the player has paid Uncle Sam (usually about $400,000 a year)," says Curry, "and then takes out $250,000 a year for lifestyle choices, and another $120,000 for basic budget necessities--he ends up with $230,000 for investments and to plan for his retirement."

"The problem is players don't look that far out. They see all this cash today, and they want to spend it today. They don't see the knee injury right around the corner. And when it happens, they have a very small income, while their debt continues to rise."

Social Death

Planning for life after sports is imperative, especially for black athletes, who are not always offered the same sports-related job opportunities as their white counterparts. Moreover, too many black athletes are neither academically nor vocationally prepared to compete in the job market with their nonathlete peers, who have spent time acquiring the requisite skills and experience. Some researchers have begun to use the term "social death" to describe another major consequence of the transition out of sports. Keith Lee, director of the western regional office for the National Consortium for Academics and Sports at the University of Nevada-Reno and a former NFL defensive back who retired of his own volition, remembers the experience as "the closest thing to witnessing my own funeral."