We have all heard countless tales of pro athletes going broke, despite earning millions and millions of dollars throughout their career. It’s usually the same scenario that causes the cash to dry up. It’s either overspending by the player himself on luxury items like cars, houses, boats, and so on or it’s usually family members helping bleed them dry because the player feels he needs to take care of people that he really doesn’t. Trent Richardson is currently not in the NFL after being released last week by the Ravens and his tale should be one of caution for younger athletes on how not to spend money.
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Richardson was the number three overall pick in 2012 and is already in danger of not playing in the NFL again, or at best having a very small role, which means much less money than he had from his rookie deal. It’s a reminder that pro sports don’t always go the way you think but it also makes it worse when people close to you are digging a massive hole that you have to climb out.
Richardson revealed to Shelley Smith on ESPN’s “E:60” that in just a nine month period in 2015, his family and friends secretly spent $1.6 million dollars of his money on the most idiotic of things. Richardson himself takes blame for not being on top of his own finances.
He said there was 11 Netflix accounts as well as 8 different Hulu accounts, none of which were his. There were countless unexplained purchases from Amazon.com, bottle service and vip packages at nightclubs and Richardson doesn’t even drink and all of this went on and on between January and September of 2015.
“I finally just looked at my bank statement, and I was just like, ‘Where did this come from? Where did that come from?’ And my guy was sitting there telling me, ‘Man, we were telling you.’ I know he was telling me, but that’s just like telling a kid to stop running in the hall. They’re going to still do it when you turn your back.”
He also notes that he only spent $300 on himself in two weeks, telling them “Y’all are trying to live a lifestyle that I’m not even living, that y’all think I should be living.” The outrageous spending led to him cutting off his brother Terrell from a $100,000 salaried “assistant” position.
This is not the first time Richardson got himself in trouble financially due to others. He admitted buying cars for people, taking them on trips, even paying for funerals of people he didn’t know and folks still complained to him. Hopefully for him he can land another job in the NFL because from the sounds of things he could use the cash but he will need discipline to not let it all go again.
