nfl players and life skills

reading about bryant mckinnie got me thinking about how is it that dudes that have been adults for more than ten years still make life decisions/financial decisions like a not-too-bright nine year old boy. how can you go from age 18 to age 34 and not learn anything? i mean, the guy is not retarded; he can learn a nfl offense. and, i can see blowing lots of money for 2 or 3 years when you're just out of college and getting big pay, but being over 30 and racking up stripper debt and not having money to make basic payments for the staples of life? i guess some people are stone-cold knuckle heads, with no real hope to be able to think responsibly, and look out for their own good.
like some say, college and pro football does nothing to nurture the person, and if you're a knucklehead to start with, it will only snowball as time goes on. but, some of this stuff is just so absurd to me. guys completely unable to make just one good decision! wow...just, wow.

http://www.rotoworld.com/player/nfl/1210/bryant-mckinnie

Most of these NFL players have been stud athletes since they were kids. They've been getting $100 dollar hand-shakes since they were 12 and having their asses kissed and told they were going to be great. They think they're invincible. So while McKinnie might be a 35 year old man, he doesn't have any real life experience... football is all he knows,

Not making excuses... the guy is a f**king idiot... but he's not the only one.

Originally posted by DontSitOnTheHood:
Most of these NFL players have been stud athletes since they were kids. They've been getting $100 dollar hand-shakes since they were 12 and having their asses kissed and told they were going to be great. They think they're invincible. So while McKinnie might be a 35 year old man, he doesn't have any real life experience... football is all he knows,

Not making excuses... the guy is a f**king idiot... but he's not the only one.

This is entirely correct, these guys never learn that there are consequences to their actions because they are too valuable to their high school/college teams. Their transgressions are minimized or completely covered up until they get to the NFL, which still will try and cover up for any transgressions they can. It's called a life of entitlement.

Originally posted by xcfan:
reading about bryant mckinnie got me thinking about how is it that dudes that have been adults for more than ten years still make life decisions/financial decisions like a not-too-bright nine year old boy. how can you go from age 18 to age 34 and not learn anything? i mean, the guy is not retarded; he can learn a nfl offense. and, i can see blowing lots of money for 2 or 3 years when you're just out of college and getting big pay, but being over 30 and racking up stripper debt and not having money to make basic payments for the staples of life? i guess some people are stone-cold knuckle heads, with no real hope to be able to think responsibly, and look out for their own good.
like some say, college and pro football does nothing to nurture the person, and if you're a knucklehead to start with, it will only snowball as time goes on. but, some of this stuff is just so absurd to me. guys completely unable to make just one good decision! wow...just, wow.

http://www.rotoworld.com/player/nfl/1210/bryant-mckinnie

Because when you're an NFL Athlete, and you want to be a good one, your job is to eat, sleep, breathe football from age 10->you retire.

Meanwhile normal people use that time to actually pay attention in class, use the internet and friends to learn how to deal with normal issues like how to manage your money, balance your checkbook, look for jobs, write resumes, interview. Normal people learn very quickly what you can and can't afford as if you make a decent salary you probably can only get into a couple grand of credit card debt at worst, versus a Pro Athlete who makes huge pay checks and are allowed to make much larger amounts of credit card debt. However unlike them our salaries will most likely remain stable versus theres will dead stop when their career is over or at least drop dramatically if they didn't make the right investments.

Not saying it's right, but I understand why a lot of pro athletes are just stupid with their money and life skills. I'll admit, if I was making Millions right out of college, I'd be very very stupid with it. Hell I only made like 50k right out of college, and even with that I was pretty bad with the Vegas trips.

good question! I always wonder the same thing...it's not rocket science. Save your money, invest your money, control your spending. These kids should run for congress! It's like the lotto winners and how they go broke after winning millions...how STUPID can one be?

Meh, From what I;ve see, there are many many "poor"/"non-atheletic"/"gender non specific"/"race non-specific" adults with families who still have a 16 year old mentality. Those around them generally pay a heavy price for it. It's a very common problem out there. There is many catalyst to this behavior. Basically they stop advancing mentally at that age and thus maintain lifestyles as if they are still kids who just want to do what they want when they want and have people take care of the messes.

At least in my experience many of the people who still exhibit these traits are individuals who have continually, regularly used drugs from that age. Which in turn literally stops them from emotionally and mentally developing.

Its probably not fair to say it's just because he's a pro athlete that has been given special treatment his whole life or just because somebody has used drugs, or just because somebody has had a family member that has continually bailed them out of their bad decisions. But it can most definitely be applied to some.

There's a number of factors for sure.

Environment plays a big role as does being coddled. I'm sure growing up we all experienced seeing others get a lot of breaks we didn't. That's life.

IMO, the biggest factor is family upbringing and values.

Strong family units develop their children to be quality people.

Look at Jerry Rice, his family wasn't well-off by any means. And he never was involved in criminal behavior or has blown his money. There are many people like him too.

Most 20 somethings these days are entitled and impatient. The generation of instant gratification.

All of the above and they also have a lot of people sucking money out of them, friends, relatives, gold diggers, etc. Not knowing squat about financial planning they think they make so much money it is impossible to spend it all.

Hookers and blow can get expensive.

Originally posted by zaghawk:

Originally posted by xcfan:
reading about bryant mckinnie got me thinking about how is it that dudes that have been adults for more than ten years still make life decisions/financial decisions like a not-too-bright nine year old boy. how can you go from age 18 to age 34 and not learn anything? i mean, the guy is not retarded; he can learn a nfl offense. and, i can see blowing lots of money for 2 or 3 years when you're just out of college and getting big pay, but being over 30 and racking up stripper debt and not having money to make basic payments for the staples of life? i guess some people are stone-cold knuckle heads, with no real hope to be able to think responsibly, and look out for their own good.
like some say, college and pro football does nothing to nurture the person, and if you're a knucklehead to start with, it will only snowball as time goes on. but, some of this stuff is just so absurd to me. guys completely unable to make just one good decision! wow...just, wow.

http://www.rotoworld.com/player/nfl/1210/bryant-mckinnie

Because when you're an NFL Athlete, and you want to be a good one, your job is to eat, sleep, breathe football from age 10->you retire.

Meanwhile normal people use that time to actually pay attention in class, use the internet and friends to learn how to deal with normal issues like how to manage your money, balance your checkbook, look for jobs, write resumes, interview. Normal people learn very quickly what you can and can't afford as if you make a decent salary you probably can only get into a couple grand of credit card debt at worst, versus a Pro Athlete who makes huge pay checks and are allowed to make much larger amounts of credit card debt. However unlike them our salaries will most likely remain stable versus theres will dead stop when their career is over or at least drop dramatically if they didn't make the right investments.

Not saying it's right, but I understand why a lot of pro athletes are just stupid with their money and life skills. I'll admit, if I was making Millions right out of college, I'd be very very stupid with it. Hell I only made like 50k right out of college, and even with that I was pretty bad with the Vegas trips.

It's funny because I was telling someone had I gone into a different profession than the one I chose, I would've made ridiculous money coming out of college but looking back at it (in my early 30s) it would not have been the best thing for me at the time seeing as that I got good life lessons that I probably wouldn't have learned because I would've had the money to cover for my mistakes. It's really unfortunate some never get it together, but life will push you around until you figure it out.

Originally posted by ChipDouglas510:

Hookers and blow can get expensive.

This

Power of the p***y

The more you get, the more you spend. The less you get, the more you spend trying to get it.

Alvin Mack couldn't even read.

Originally posted by SoCold:
Alvin Mack couldn't even read.

I went to a basketball college (Gonzaga), and there were a lot of them who had full-time tutors outside of class and heck even in class who went in their place to take all their notes and everything. I'm not surprised. Hell Ronny Turiaf was in one of my classes, and he went in every day, sat in the back, and passed out. He was going to the NBA though. While those who weren't going to make it, I did notice paid some attention in class.