It’s a bizarre concept, the idea that NFL players who routinely sign contracts that earn them anywhere between hundreds of thousands to hundreds of millions of dollars at a time could ever end up in a position of financial hardship. And yet it’s much more common than you might think.
According to statistics cited by Andrew Lisa of Yahoo! Finance, “nearly eight in 10 NFL players suffer from financial stress approximately two years after retirement.” There’s even evidence out there to suggest that one of every six former NFL players will file for bankruptcy at some point in their post-football life.