#34 What he said: A conversation with my guy friend



Today's Guy: Austin Atkinson
Claim to fame: Grad of The Citadel, Former Wall Street Guy, Law and Finances Guy and Certified Sports Agent
How I know him: He followed YBBG on Twitter


ESPN 30 for 30 Broke is something every athlete should watch.
View it below
I have known and been around athletes my entire life. I grew up with guys who have played professional sports. I went to college with and remained cool with Super Bowl champions,  WNBA players, and guys who hoop in the NBA. Yet I've rarely looked at these folks as much different than any other people. (Well..they are usually more fun. Hey we connect on our love for competition.) The only big difference is some may have access to major resources for playing a game that they've loved since childhood. 

Sports is a culture that many see from the outside looking in and can never quite grasp what goes on beyond the playing field or court. A lot of those people want a piece of the athletes and the life, without ever working to achieve it themselves.

Some, not all, student-athletes turn to sports as a way to escape low income upbringings or dismal futures. But what is it that drives them right back into the belly of the beast? What causes guys (and gals) who once had nothing, then had everything, to turn around and have nothing again? 

These athletes who go broke are cursed by something that many don't understand to be a curse: A competitive spirit. Yeah, it is a blessing on the field, but a curse off the field. The competitive spirit causes them to take care of people who are liabilities. It causes them to blow money fast. It causes them to live paycheck to paycheck. They are also cursed with attracting leeches and vultures. People swarm in on athletes and prey on their love of competition, egos and guilt complexes

It isn't just athletes who go broke. Too many people never learn about financial planning. Athletes just have more money to blow. All too often athletes, who hit big paydays, know a lot about spending money and showing off, and nothing about keeping the money they make. So I talked with a sports agent about the issues athletes face when they reach their dreams in a professional sports league. 


Me:  How did you become an agent? 

What he said:
My professional background is in law and finance. I earned my Series 7 and Series 66 licenses from FINRA in 2003 and worked for some of the larger Wall Street firms including UBS and Merrill Lynch. I currently maintain afinancial advisory practice with Legacy Wealth Management in Mount Pleasant, South Carolina. I applied to and began law school in 2008, and after graduating, I applied with the NFL Players Association to become a Certified Contract Advisor. I traveled to Washington, D.C., took the agent exam, and opened my own agency, Atkinson Athletics.

Me: What do you look for when seeking an athlete to represent? 

What he said:
Character. I definitely do my due diligence when researching a player that I might want to represent. I consult with coaches, trainers, family members; basically anyone who can tell me more about the player. But sometimes, it's the player's online presence that tells me what I need to know. Twitter, Instagram, Vine, etc. are all great tools for finding out whether a player might be an asset or a liability.

Me:  Who have been some of your best clients? 

What he said:
Without naming names, I'll say that I've been fortunate to represent some hard-working guys who are appreciative of any opportunity they are given. I tend to recruit some of the overlooked guys from smaller schools, and they definitely have that desire to prove they can compete at the next level.

Me: As an agent, do you assist athletes with finding appropriate representation in other areas such as PR, attorneys, and accountants? 
Certainly. I spend a great deal of time cultivating relationships with experts in other fields so that if one of my players ever has an issue or a need for that type of service, I can confidently refer him to someone I trust. Most importantly, I want to refer someone that I know the player will trust.

Me: What issues have you seen with respect to athletes and their knowledge of money matters? 

What he said:

Like most people in their earlytwenties just coming out of college, the athletes I talk to are just trying to take that next big step in their professional life. They have an idea of where they want to go and what they want to achieve, but they haven't necessarily mapped out a concrete plan for the next five, ten, or fifteen years of their lives. Concepts like establishing good credit, managing debt, and saving for retirement are foreign to many guys at this age. Years ago I sat down with an eventual first round draft pick and his agent and family just days before he was to receive a seven-figure signing bonus, and the player's eyes were glazing over with boredom as I covered basic topics such as diversification, mortgages, lines of credit, and other relevant topics that are essential to managing that kind of money. The player ultimately chose to invest elsewhere, and despite his agent's best efforts to educate him, the player ended up squandering much of that signing bonus. The desire to educate himself simply wasn't there.

Me: If you could do something to curtail the issues of athletes losing so much of their wealth post playing, what would you do?

What he said:
Because of the way NFL contracts are structured, there seems to be a propensity by agents and players to 'front-load' a contract with as much guaranteed money as possible; i.e.; signing bonuses, roster bonuses, workout bonuses, etc. There is a very real pressure to get as much money up front simply because the average career is so short and there is no guarantee that a player might be in the League long enough to ever earn a second or third contract. I realize that the current salary cap structure is always a consideration with player compensation, but if players and teams had the willingness to agree to deferred compensation or other alternative forms of compensation, then we might see players hanging on to their money a bit longer. In 1999, the New York Mets decided to buy out Bobby Bonilla's contract to get rid of him. Instead of paying the remaining $5.9 million dollars in a lump sum, they agreed to defer payments until 2011 at which time they would pay him $1.192 million dollars a year for 25 years. The Mets may not be too happy about it now, but I'm willing to bet that the now-50-year-old Bobby Bonilla is probably pretty pleased to be receiving that kind of money this long after his playing career ended.

Me:  One huge issue I've witnessed with athletes is their propensity to give, give, give to their hangers on, without seeing any return on their investments in these people. How might that be mitigated? 

What he said:

It's only natural to want to support your family and friends if you've achieved a certain level of success. After all, they were there for you long before you ever made it to the next level or became a household name. However, setting ground rules and having those tough conversations is a must for players that feel pressured by friends and family. Let them know that there are no handouts. Instead of giving your uncle $5000 'just because', youmight agree instead to send your niece and nephew to a prestigious summer camp or help with their school tuition. If a player is still feeling pressured after establishing the ground rules, then it is probably time to reassess who is in their inner circle. 

Me: What do you feel is the number one cause of athletes going broke? 

What he said:
On the surface, athletes are glorified and highly compensated for what they can do on an athletic field. There is almost an expectation that once they turn pro, they have to begin living this glamorous life where everything comes easy to them and the paychecks don't stop coming. For many, this is a dangerous expectation. To me, the number one cause of athletes going broke is shortsightedness on their part which leads to an inability to comprehend, much less properly manage, a potentially life-changing sum of money. The shortsightedness causes too many athletes to live 'in the now' and not realize that the kind of money that they are making could positively change their families' lives as well as the lives of future generations. I'm not going to blame the players for not having an adequate financial education by the time they reach the pros, but they need to realize that it is impossible to go from having basically zero knowledge of money matters to being able to wisely invest and manage large sums of money. If you can't tell me the difference between a stock, a bond, and a mutual fund, then you have no business agreeing to put your money towards highly speculative deals that random people approach you with. It all starts with education; and athletes need to arm themselves with the knowledge of how to properly research and understand the risks and rewards of any potential financial decision. 





Athletes should realize that being signed professionally is not the achievement of their dreams. It is the beginning of achieving their dreams. The dream is to live a successful life. Not a successful three or four years. 



Follow @YBBG_Blog on Twitter and use hashtag #YBBGTopic for more interesting discussions. 
Check out YBBG on Facebook

Comments

Popular Posts