Money to Blow: A Recent History of NFL Players Going Broke

Image via Complex Original

Estimated Career Earnings: $9,000,000
How They Lost It All: Nobody was sweating last years NFL lockout harder than Charlie Batch. Carrying over $8M in debt, less than $3M in assets, and with his development company defaulting on some 25 properties, the lifetime backup QB was counting on the $1.5M remaining on his Steelers contract to pay off his debtors. When the NFL and its players union reached an agreement on a new collective bargaining agreement, nobody was thanking BasedGod more than Batch.

Estimated Career Earnings: $18,000,000
How They Lost It All: “Rocket” ran into unparalleled bad luck, but he was also a horrendous investor. The Notre Dame legend poured hundreds of thousands of dollars into a “rock n' roll” themed restaurant and, to this day, claims he has no idea what became of it. Having conquered the hospitality industry, Ismail took on entertainment, sinking millions into faith-based inspirational movies and a record label that boasted the not-quite-ready-for-MySpace King J and The Dynamic Twins.

The Notre Dame legend went on to fund a cosmetic procedure that pumped oxygen into the skin because, you know, blasting air into your face will make you look younger? When that failed, he started phone card dispensing machine, only to have cellular networks render the concept obsolete. And with a couple nickels left, he opened up a souvenir store in New Orleans that was destroyed by Hurricane Katrina less than two months after its opening. Is it too late for a comeback? Rocket has an idea for glow in the dark picture frames. It's going to be huge!

Estimated Career Earnings: $19,000,000
How They Lost It All: If it's not through buying Cartier watches and fathering children, then athletes lose millions through greedy agents and divorce—Bernie Kosar lost everything through a ruthless combination of the latter. The former Browns quarterback lost half of his earnings in a nasty divorce and the rest in a combination of bad real estate deals and unpaid loans from, amongst others, the Cleveland Browns. As if playing in Cleveland wasn't agonizing enough, Kosar is now indebted to the franchise.

Estimated Career Earnings: $20,000,000
How They Lost It All: Muhsin Muhammad was a crafty receiver, always able to find a seam or soft spot in the zone, but he couldn't escape Wachovia when they came asking about the balance on a Visa Business Rewards credit card. Apparently unaware that music can be downloaded for free on the Internet, the Panthers receiver made the regrettable decision to start a record label. His partners did more spending than spitting and, coupled with a few other bad investments, the two-time Pro Bowler was buried in bills and forced to sell a home that boasted, “the largest private aquarium in the Southwest,” on eBay.

Estimated Career Earnings: $20,000,000
How They Lost It All: When you're an athlete, the easiest way to bleed cash is by fathering children and developing a drug habit. We don't care what Barrett Strong says, the best things in life are expensive and kids can be pretty pricey too.

Travis Henry fathered a rather impressive 11 children by, an even more impressive, 10 women. The one-man fertility clinic racked up an annual child support bill of almost $200K and was jailed for falling $16K behind on one of his seeds in Florida. With the pressures of bankrolling his obliviousness to condoms, Henry made the natural transition from NFL running back to drug kingpin. In 2009, he was convicted to three years in federal prison for funding a narcotics ring that ran cocaine between Colorado and Montana.

Estimated Career Earnings: $25,000,000
How They Lost It All: Either Dermontti Dawson is the worst investor ever, or creditors are way too quick to loan this guy cash. When the seven-time Pro Bowler filed for bankruptcy in 2010 he listed just over $1M in resources and close to $70M in debts. How the hell does that happen? In what had to be a bizarre, passive-aggressive joke to his creditors, Dawson listed his "fake Rolex" and his daughter's dog "valued at $10" as assets.

Estimated Career Earnings: $40,000,000
How They Lost It All: If you want to be a millionaire, all you have to do is wrist-snap a couple 70-yard bombs in the Sugar Bowl and the Oakland Raiders will undoubtedly ink you up on a ridiculous contract. The Silver and Black learned an important lesson about the eye test when they picked the LSU quarterback first overall in the '07 draft, and JaMarcus Russell learned how easy it is to spend and purple drank your way through a fortune.

Although he claims he's "far from" broke, Russell fell behind on the mortgage payments for his Oakland mansion and had to pay a lien to the state of California for over $200K in back taxes. How a dude who once made $17M in a season even has a $2M mortgage is lost on us, but professional athletes spend with the discipline and restraint of a tumescent Charlie Sheen on a bender. A comeback is going to be hard for the historic bust who showed up for a recent tryout with the Redskins weighing almost 300-pounds.

Estimated Career Earnings: $35,000,000
How They Lost It All: Remember when Tiki Barber left football to pursue a lucrative broadcasting career? How'd that work out? The Giants running back awkwardly smiled his way through tiresome cliches on Football Night in America before being banished to the Today Show, where he made Kathie Lee Gifford look like Edward R. Murrow. When he left his pregnant wife for a 23-year-old intern, he was fired by NBC for violating a morality clause in his contract. Kind of makes having your barn rattled by hole-filling linebackers look like an easy way to make a living.

When it comes to athletes, "broke" can be a relative term. While Barber probably isn't missing any meals, he struggled to pay a costly divorce settlement and begged for a contract during last season's lame attempt at a comeback.  

Estimated Career Earnings: $50,000,000
How They Lost It All: The crafty left-handed quarterback is known for his confidence and quick feet, but his most impressive talent might be in his ability to make money disappear. During his tenure in Jacksonville, Brunell founded the ironically named Champion, LLC—a company that invested heavily in Michigan real estate and a fast food chain called “Whataburger.” Since “No, but it probably sucks” would work as an answer to either “Have your ever been to Michigan?” or “Ever tried a Whataburger?” Brunell predictably lost millions and is facing another $25M in lawsuits. The Jets back-up has played 19 seasons in the league and, at 41-years-old, will likely have to play another two decades to get back into the black. Watch your backs Sanch-ebow, No. 8 is gunning for that starter money.

Estimated Career Earnings: $50,000,000
How They Lost It All: During a hearing to have his child support payments lowered, the former Ravens cornerback claimed he was so broke that he was living with his parents who provided him with basic living expenses. That's right, a dude that once inked a $55M contract was back to negotiating an allowance and sharing a wall with his post-retirement, reinvigorated, bumping-uglies-every-night mom and dad. That shit's awkward, but not as outrageous as this truck he pulled up to Ravens training camp in.

Estimated Career Earnings: $50,000,000
How They Lost It All: LT lost a fortune with lavish spending, hard partying, and by sniffing—doing a lot of sniffing. Since leaving the league, Taylor's been arrested a handful of times for drug possession, was caught by the IRS filing a false tax return, and declared bankruptcy in the late 90s. Standard retired linebacker stuff.

After seemingly pulling his life together, the two-time Super Bowl champ was inducted into the Hall of Fame and made cameo appearances in a handful of movies. Happy ending? Not on this list. In a demonstration of priorities as twisted as Joe Theismann's leg, LT was sued for failing to pay child support while, at the same time, shelling out $300 to allegedly have sex with an underage prostitute. Not a good look.

Estimated Career Earnings: $60,000,000
How They Lost It All: In a bizarre role reversal, the "QB-Killa" has been murdered in the wallet and is now, apparently, dead broke. Sapp has accumulated $7M worth of debt and is suffering from the definitive athletic income hemorrhage: four baby mamas. Having "lost" his championship rings (one Superbowl, one National Championship), Sapp claims a lion skin rug, Muhammad Ali autograph, and some 240 pairs of Jordan brand sneakers as assets—not exactly dividend yielding investments.

Estimated Career Earnings: $70,000,000
How They Lost It All: Usually it takes a year or two for defunct athletes to go broke, but not Deuce McAllister. The former Saints running back was instantly crippled financially by a car dealership. McAllister was $7M in the red and his Louisiana home was auctioned off by the Sheriff's office less than 12 months after his retirement.

Estimated Career Earnings: $80,000,000
How They Lost It All: Terrell Owens taught us all valuable lessons about humility and burning bridges. The ancient, but totally serviceable receiver spent most of the last decade burying quarterbacks and burning teams to the ground; qualities GM's tend to overlook when you're scoring 15 TDs a season. But slower, older, and seemingly desperate for a contract, the league turned its collective back on the six-time pro bowler last fall, not good when you have bills to pay.

The fertile receiver has fathered four children by four different women and pays a prospectus-killing $50K a month in child support. He's made a series of bad investments including an entertainment complex that not only violated the NFL's policy on players investing in gambling, but was also illegal in the state of Alabama. Oops. And Owens got his ass-kicked (like many on this list) in real estate. He's turned property ownership into a cracked game of Monopoly, recently selling a New Jersey home that cost him nearly $4M for $1.7M.

Estimated Career Earnings: $130,000,000
How They Lost It All: Proving the inherent flaws in dog-fighting as a business model, Vick lost an estimated $130M in actual and potential earnings while spending two years in prison. But even without the legal and personal recoil from creating a pitbull slaughterhouse, the Eagles quarterback was a financial cluster fuck. He blew millions by supporting an entourage of over 30 people. He bought his brother a new luxury car every year for his birthday (because anyone that spends more than twelve months pushing a Jag is a sucker). And he dumped millions into  car-rental company, Canadian real estate, and in several business ventures with an animal dealer who basically used Vick's investment as a personal slush fund.

During his bankruptcy hearing, it was reported that Vick had spent almost $18M in twenty three months. To put that into perspective, that's like spending $25K a day, everyday for two straight years. The four-time Pro Bowler recently inked a six-year, $100M deal with Philadelphia and an undisclosed endorsement contract with Nike. Provided the Eagles quarterback doesn't go back to spending money like a Saudi oil prince, he'll likely be back in the black by 2015 as a sort-of happy ending to a not-so-feel-good story.