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Home > Mark Bradley > Archives > 2008 > July > 10
Thursday, July 10, 2008
Hey Mike, where’s the money?
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
On Dec. 23, 2004, Michael Vick signed a 10-year contract extension that was to bring him $130 million. On July 7, 2008, Vick filed for bankruptcy, citing debts ranging from $10 million to $50 million.
I have a question: Where’d it go?
Let’s stipulate that Vick didn’t receive all of the $130 million - he played only two of the 10 years - but the deal also included a $37 million signing bonus, most of which he has been allowed to keep. Let’s also recall that Vick signed for $62 million over six seasons after being drafted in 2001. And let’s not forget endorsements.
So, to recap: Two record contracts in the span of 3 1/2 years, followed by bankruptcy in 2008.
Where’d it go?
I’d really like to know. How do you go through that much that fast? Bad investments? (Certainly we know about the property he bought on Moonlight Road in Smithfield, Va.) Too much travel? (Didn’t his deal with AirTran provide free flights?) Too many lavish purchases? (Obviously he ran up some hefty legal bils.) Too many unsavory friends? (Well, yes.) A sudden downturn in earning status? (Well, duh.)
But even with the worst spending habits and the grabbiest associates in the history of mankind, wouldn’t it be tough to blow through earnings that surely topped $100 million and to do it by the time you turn 28? How do you manage that? Where’d it go?
I understand that making money as an athlete is no assurance of having money. Evander Holyfield made nearly $250 million as a fighter, but last month he was moved to tell this newspaper: “I’m not broke. I’m just not liquid.” The baseball player Jack Clark once filed for bankruptcy while working under a contract that paid him $8.7 million, in part because he’d bought 18 cars.
I understand that athletes aren’t always the shrewdest investors. I understand that even successful people do silly things. What I can’t understand is how so much money just flies away. Where does it go?
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