Once the cheering stops: The life of a retired pro-athlete

We all like to think that after a pro athlete retires they live a glamorous and easy life. Not only do we LIKE to think this, but most of us really assume that somebody good enough to make it to the professional level will make the big bucks and live off their pro earnings the rest of their life. The reality is that most pro athletes are flat broke within 5 years of their retirement.
The life of most retired pro athletes isn't the prettiest. Many of them continue their high spending habits and risky financial investments. Many of them have trouble finding their niche and redefining themselves outside the context of football. And they have a greater chance of living in poverty than similarly aged, college-educated people.

Players face many challenges in their transition to the retired life. They are no longer bringing in big bucks so they have to think more long term about savings and about budgeting. Players think they are shoo-ins for TV and broadcasting jobs and don't realize the skill and training required to succeed in that job. Retired players don't always fully comprehend that they don't have access to their pensions until they're 45 and they can't touch their 401(k) until they're 59 and a half. They have a couple million in their bank following retirement and they don't see that the math doesn't work out when they're spending twenty or thirty or forty thousand dollars a month.

A big reason athletes struggle so much is that they are coddled and enabled by their peers and family all their life. They're told how great they are and they often don't have to deal with real world consequences because their privilege as a gifted athlete often precludes them from actual punishment or consequence. Because of this, and not really through the fault of the athlete, they attain a glorified and unrealistic image of themselves, and they view themselves as invincible. When they finally retire, all of that vanishes in an instant and they are suddenly smashed in the face with the realization that they were a commodity, used for their ability.

Various pro leagues have started to offer their current and former athletes programs and services aiming to improve their life after sport. The NFL has a player engagement division which tries to ease the transition for its players by holding boot camps and "mini-MBA" programs and advising them. The NBA assigns former players to each team as "ambassadors" to guide them in the pro and retired life. But either these programs are not utilized by enough players or they aren't of good enough quality because money is still a huge issue for players after retirement.

I remember hearing these types of stories many years ago because my father was a fan of the Intellectual Assassin, Ron Mix. Every kid player had dreams of becoming pro and most of us come to the realization eventually that we won't become pro and make millions; I distinctly remember feeling great comfort in the misfortunes of retired athletes: maybe it wouldn't have been worth it.

Sport, Politics and the Olympics

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In 1931, Berlin, Germany won the bid to host the 1936 Olympics. Although the Nazis hadn't yet come to power in '31 and they had no influence on the decision when it was made, they saw the '36 Olympics as a platform to show the rest of the world the power and efficiency of the Nazi Regime. They also used it to further subjugate jews and blacks, who, until the public outcry was too much, were not allowed to participate in the games.

After they decided it best not to exclude jews and blacks from participation, they shifted to appear to the other Olympic countries as a tolerant and peaceful Germany. There was a proposed boycott of the Games from several countries, but ultimately the US and other western countries did not boycott it. Many saw this as a mistake that may have allowed Germany's and Hitler's acceleration and culmination of persecution of minorities through WWII and the Holocaust.

One of the five political uses of sport which were evident in the "Nazi Olympics" was the use of sport as a vehicle for propaganda. Germany used the Games to instill in the German people a nationalistic sense of pride and solidarity with the Nazis and their ideals. It helped to define "Nazi" as both the self and as intrinsically good, while trying to show the the other was everybody not Aryan and "pure". They also carried out a huge festival trying to show the world that Nazi ideals were favorable and not to be feared. The fact that Germans won 23 more medals than Americans and 4 times as many as everybody else was proof, for the propagandists, that Germans were superior.

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We like to think that sport should be devoid of any political interference but that is simply not true. As the reading points out, policies have been passed to exempt athletes from antitrust laws, there are special tax laws for owners of pro teams, home game blackouts have been televised despite owners, Congress decides who selects and trains Olympians, and Congress also exempts college sports from taxes. Another way sports is politicized is how the President often has sports champions at the White House. Every year the Superbowl and Stanley Cup champs visit the white house because the President wants to be seen as a normal and average guy. These teams are used as a political gambit to boost approval. Obama alone has held 35 receptions for champions.

London Calling: The Globalization of the NFL

In the past few years since the NFL started shipping one of its games overseas to London, conversations considering the possibility of making London home to an NFL team have been steadily increasing. It’s understandable: there are many European fans of American Football whom the NFL sees as a potential customer base. More customers correlates to more money, and the NFL is driven by money. And London is a prime area for establishing a concentrated fanbase. It is a dense city that’s not too hard to get to from other countries. There’s an NFL-ready stadium and an infrastructure already in place.

From 1991 to 2007, NFL Europe was the main way American Football was exposed to European audiences. The NFL eventually decided instead to hold a small number of regular season games in Europe rather than run an entire league. Now called the International Series, a couple regular season NFL games are played in London per year.

The crowd at these international games doesn’t usually support one of the two teams playing, but rather consists of hardcore European NFL fans who came from outside the country to watch an NFL game. Fans of all the teams come to watch because it only happens a couple of times a year. Will all these fans show up for a London team week in and week out? Probably not because of the huge associated expense.

If a team does move to London full time, it’s imported to look at some issues that might not be immediately apparent. For instance, laws are very different in the UK. Would players be willing to play in London if their pay was taxed more than in the US? Also, every American player in London would need a work visa. Players with criminal convictions would likely be denied that visa. There are also labor laws in play. The EU has free movement and competition laws that may selectively apply, and they also have no age restriction on sports, whereas the NFL does.

If the NFL wants to expand to Europe there are going to be many hurdles on the path. As long as they can achieve it without alienating their American fanbase while establishing a consistent, core European fanbase, they will succeed.

Sources:

Barnwell, Bill. "London Calling."  Grantland Aug 2013

Dosh, Kristi. "NFL Team in London Raises Legal Issues." ESPN 25 Sep 2013