As a 13 year veteran of the NFL and a former professional athlete, there is something about the business of pro sports that bothers me. It is a great quantum leap for a person of humble beginning to go from rags to riches, but often times the lack of education will cause some to go from rags to riches, back to rags. One thing I have learned is that there is a common thought among most, if not all agents and financial advisors,  that the athlete should concentrate on their craft, and allow them to take care of and control everything else, money included. It is a reality that these athletes do live busy lives during their season, and in theory, the thought that their agents or financial advisors will make prudent decisions on their client’s behalf makes some sense. But the problem with this way of thinking is that the athlete is not learning how to make these moves and decisions for themselves. These young men and women need to be educated how be decision makers and how to take care of themselves. They need to be apprised of “EVERYTHING” that is going on with their money and how it relates to their financial future. The player should require that their agent educate them in all areas of service that he or she is paying for, because there will come a time when the 6, 7 or 8 digit salaries will cease, there will be no more commissionable income for the agent or FA to earn from the player and at some point the relationship will be severed. In the end what has the player learned or how has the agent helped the player advance himself on all levels. This process does nothing more than handicap the athlete, and we wonder why there are so many horror stories in regards to athletes and their finances. Athletes need to know the how to, and all the inner workings of investing their own money, the purchase of a home for themselves,and in doing so if better financing options are available to them. They need to understand why the stocks and securities that they own are being bought and sold, and should know that every time one is bought or sold that there is a commission that is being paid to the broker whois doing the buying and selling, whether they make or lose money for their client, these are just a few examples. In a nutshell they need to command more control of their lives and money, and move away from that bill of goods that’s sold to them to focus on their work and relinquish control of everything else to an advisor.

Most agents and FA’s instill a belief in their client, that no deal is a good deal, unless they bring it to the table. If the athlete brings them something for advice and/or due diligence that they are interested in, often times they are advised that it’s not a good deal.  They are frequently referred to deals or someone who the advisor knows for investments and deals. This could be and often times is a conflict of interest to the ignorance of the athlete. I’ve seen it happen and was advised many times to work with  people my agent knew, trust me I missed out on some great opportunities adhering to this advice. There are some advantages and disadvantages to working with someone who your agent or advisor has a personal relationship with, he may know them well often times and probably have built a level of trust with them. From my experience competition and diversity will provide the best opportunity for anyone to realize what’s best for themselves, and all options should be explored for the best pricing and the most competent person and/or company for the job.

There are some solid agents, FA’s and advisors out there, unfortunately there are many snakes out there as well, that rely upon the fact that these young athletes won’t be paying attention. Many who’s intentions are not in the best interest of their client, but on how to get what’s best for themselves out of the relationship, in the end the athlete is the one who suffers. These young adults are growing exponentially on a financial level, but rarely on an intellectual, spiritual or maturity level. It is difficult to think that you could take someone who’s never had much and have them begin to earn large sums of money, and believe that they will know what to do with it besides buy cars, jewelry and unnecessary material things. When one hasn’t had much, and then is endowed with much, a sense of entitlement sets in and the common thought is that they should have all that they want and desire.  Money and life doesn’t work that way, and truly wealthy people understand that. It is not about what you can buy, as much as it is about how you can create for yourself a lifestyle that is sustainable beyond your playing days, by learning how to keep more than you spend and passively grow what you already have. This is what must be learned if these young athletes are to ever experience true financial success and freedom. This needs to be learned at the point in these athletes careers when they are at the peak of their earning potential. Unfortunately not many agents or financial advisors hold these concerns for their clients. In their minds it’s all about control, controlling their clients and the best way to accomplish this is to keep them ignorant by creating a sense that they will always need the agents or FA’s assistance. Education plays a vital part in the overall development of these young entrepreneurs, and their advisory team is doing a grave disservice to their client if they aren’t providing it. Wake up young athletes and smell the coffee, there have been many examples before you, and to not observe history is to insanely repeat the same mistakes again and again. Many veterans will share their story with you and help educate and mentor you, but you need to look at history, it can be a tremendous educator. Agents, FA’s and sometimes even organization personnel will steer you away from the veterans of your sport, they would have you to believe that the old veteran wants something from you. You are smart enough to disseminate who those people are, but there are many past veterans that want to see you succeed and would gladly share their past successes and failures with you. They will confirm the pitfalls, traps and scams that they have fallen victim to, we want you to be the best you can be, on the field and off, you’ve worked hard and deserve the best that life has to offer. This is a vital piece of information that is missing for the overall advancement of these young athletes. The agents and FA’s do not want the athletes to have this knowledge. I know that what I am preaching goes completely against the grain of how most uninformed athletes think, and more importantly how many agents and FA’s want young athletes to continue to think!!!!!

Seth Joyner
12/21/09

I just finished watching the movie “Invictus” starring, Morgan Freeman and Matt Damon. A portrayal of Nelson Mandela and his attempt to unite the country of South Africa, after his release from prison. I don’t claim to know all of the history and how the events of this movie affected the country  of South Africa based upon the movie’s outcome, but it contains many tremendous life lessons none the less.

First, let me say how impressed I am with Nelson Mandela as a human being. His ability to move past the hatred, injustice and bigotry that imprisoned him for 29 years is nothing short of miraculous. The mental fortitude that he possessed to forgive and forget, and his endeavor to build a democratic, free and equal South Africa for blacks as well as whites, is something the United States of America and world could learn a great deal from. His story is truly an inspiration to the whole human race.

He realized that he needed to find something that would unite the people of South Africa, and he did so through the sport of Rugby. He created a sense of national pride in the national Rugby team, that the apartheid regime and white South Africans held much reverence for, and the black African population held much disdain for. The country of South Africa was the host country for the 1995 Rugby World Cup, the team was not very good at all and was not expected to get pass the opening rounds, the only way they even qualified was because they were the host country. He took it upon himself to meet with the team captain (Matt Damon) and helped to create a sense of national pride that inspired these young men to discover the best in themselves. Not only were they inspired, but they  became an inspiration to the entire country. Black South Africans for the first time ever felt a sense of pride  in their country, as this team advance through the tournament undefeated, upsetting one team after another to claim the World Cup title.

I am a firm believer that sports, and particularly team sports is one of the greatest life teachers anyone could ever experience, for adults and especially for young people. It has taught me and many others before me, that much can be achieved through teamwork. First of all, every teammate has a roll to fulfill and when each teammate does their job, it benefits the entire team. Individually and personally you learn to sacrifice for the betterment of the team, to endure the hardships of losing and  learn the joy of winning together, to persevere in tough times, to fight on when things look bleak, knowing that if you fight on without quitting, things always have a chance to turn in your favor. If you give your best that that’s all anyone could ever ask or expect of you, you never succeed alone, it takes everyone to succeed. Sometimes you will be the star and sometimes you have to play a supporting role, you win as a team and lose as a team. Communication is paramount in sports, if your not talking and communicating, it’s hard to know what to do and what your teammates expect of you. Trust, you have to believe and trust that your teammate will do their job as you are doing yours. Discipline is discovered through sports, the undisciplined player or team rarely achieves success. These virtues in sports, mirrors everyday life and are applicable and vital to the success in life to any successful person.

These life lessons are paramount to young people, this is why it troubles me to hear of a sports program being canceled or discontinued, because I have lived these lessons first hand and realize their importance in my life. Great coaches understand this, and implement these virtues into their coaching style, they understand that not only are they responsible for improving young people as athletes, but as human beings as well. Sport participation should be a fun and enjoyable experiences, but it should also be a time of learning and growth for all who participate. Winning is great, everyone wants to win and gravitate toward winners, why, because subconsciously they possess all of these qualities and we are inherently attracted to them. But winning is secondary to these important life skills.

I love the diversity of all sports, and I am not a proponent of a kid playing just one sport. That seems to be the norm today, you lock into one sport and focus all of you time and energy on that one sport. I played football, baseball, basketball and ran track and that kind of diversity made me a better athlete. There are skills and lessons that I’ve learned in these various sports that once I deciding that football was what I loved most, made me a better football player. Baseball created great hand-eye coordination, basketball ball created great endurance and footwork, track developed my ability to run properly and help with my overall speed. Diversity has always been the spice of life, who wants to do, eat, see or experience the same thing everyday. Diversity helps you identify what your true passion is, and helps you figure out what you don’t like.

To all of the coaches and teachers that contributed to my sports career and life, I say thank you. You will never know what a positive impact upon my life you have had. As an avid sports fan and athlete for life, it’s my duty to pass on to young people all of the wisdom and knowledge you have imparted on me, at the end of the day isn’t that what it’s really all about, exposing young people to environments, situations and experiences that will form and shape their lives in ways that allow them to be all that they were created to be. Great movie, great story, great life lessons, a must see movie!!!

Seth Joyner

12/23/09

Wow what a weekend of great football games. It never ceases to amaze me how bad teams can play so inconsistently, yet manage over the last four weeks to find a way to pull it all together, and look as though they could’ve been good all year-long.

Looking at the major upsets this weekend, a Tampa Bay team with nothing to play for, pulled off an upset of the NFC’s #1 seed New Orleans Saints. The Saints seemed to have the game locked up at halftime leading 17-3. Only to have the Bucks make a game of it by scoring 14 points in the 4th quarter to send the game into overtime, and kicked a 47 yard field goal in OT for the win.  The NY Jets playing the AFC’s #1 seed, Indianapolis Colts, manage to keep their playoff hopes alive with a 29-15 win. Now everyone was up in arms about  the Colts pulling Peyton Manning and other pivotal starter to rest and protect them from injury. Head Coach Jim Caldwell has taken a lot of heat for pulling his main players and not going for the perfect season. A no win situation for sure, but if Peyton Manning, Dallas Clark or Reggie Wayne had gotten hurt, the sentiment would’ve been why did he have them in a game that meant nothing. The most perplexing game was the Monday Night game, the Chicago Bears pulled off the most suprising upset of the weekend, beating the Minnesota Vikings 36-30, in a game that had huge seeding implications for the Vikings. They’ve relinquished home field advantage to the Saints, and possibly the #2 seed to the Eagles if they can pull off a win Sunday against the Cowboys.

The NFC playoff picture is pretty much set, but the AFC has way too many if, ands or buts to even speculate who will wrap up the final two WildCard spots. One thing’s for sure, the playoffs will be interesting to watch, with some of the elite teams coming back to the pack over the last 3 weeks, anything can happen. It will also be interesting to see if teams that have clinched playoff spots, will rest their starters in week 17 games. There are positives and negatives to doing so; first you have an extra week to get some of your guys that are nicked up healed and rested for the stretch run, conversely, with most of the top teams having high-powered passing attacks, timing is paramount. If teams like the Colts, Chargers, Saints, Eagles and Vikings choose to rest players, that’ll mean they will have gone 2 1/2 weeks without playing a meaningful game, that could hurt the momentum they have built over the course of the season. It’ll be intriguing to watch how it all plays out. You always want to be peaking as the playoffs begin, the Cardinals proved last year that if you can get hot at the right time anything is possible. I like the Eagles, Cowboys, Cardinals out of the NFC, and out of the AFC, the Chargers, Patriots and you can never bet against Peyton Manning and the Colts, these teams seem to be hitting their stride at just the right time. One things for sure, we are in for one of the most exciting post seasons in recent NFL playoff memory.

Seth Joyner

12/30/09