Athletes Who Went Completely Broke With Dumb Decisions

Professional

athletes

are some of the highest paid people in the world, whether it's for touchdowns or home runs. If you give the crowd something to cheer about, you can cash in millions, but with great financial power comes great financial responsibility, and not all of our favorite stars. They're up for the challenge, whether they've messed it up in gilt baths, rock and roll cafes, or contentious divorces, these are the sports heroes who made some seriously

dumb

decisions

. attention in exhibition fights and advertising endorsements iron mike became one of the highest paid

athletes

of all time since his debut in 1985 his total career earnings racked up to a staggering 423 million at least so what did he do with all that money? his record fortune in almost anything money could buy bought opulent mansions limousines parties clothes motorcycles and bengal tigers yes she heard me correctly mike tyson bought three tigers as pets and they lived together with him in his two and a half million dollar mansion one of at least six he owned but keeping tigers as pets ain't cheap iron mike paid seventy grand for the big cats with another two hundred grand a year just on his food bill not only that but tyson was forced to spend another 125k just to house train them its not clear if that worked considering one of the tigers kenya ended up attacking one of tysons neighbors for that incident tyson was forced to pay a 250k damage bill what it means and only the costs we know about the billionaire he spent at least 645 000 on tigers adding the 80 carat diamond chain of 173 thousand dollars and gold of two million d For bathtub olars, it can't surprise you that Tyson was bankrupt in 2003.

Yes, a man who once bathed in a golden bathtub and was able to collect $30 million for a night's work was $38.4 million in debt at the time. of his bankruptcy tyson was 37 just seven years shy of his 30th birthday the star had spent over $435k on just one night out now he was approaching 40 all mike had to show for it was mounting debts and over 13 millions in unpaid taxes but it's not all lost by 2021 tyson at least got some of his fortune back no one can smell his current estimated net worth of 10 million yeah that's a lot of money for the rest of us but for tyson that's only 2.4 percent of his original fortune i guess there is such a thing as having too many dollars and mike tyson would know about tying up more than you can chew destructive diego widely considered the greatest player of his generation the glorious Diego Maradona's 21-year football career saw him rise to godlike status in his native Argentina and earn big money when he played for Italian team Napoli between 1984 and 1991.

Maradona raked in 3 million a year on top of that the star was on a date with endorsements and endorsements totaling another 8 to 10 million maradona had it all the star spent lavishly buying five properties in argentina a 360 thousand dollar roll royce a bmw i8 valued at around 175 000 and a diamond ring valued at 360,000 to name a few assets Later in his life, he was even gifted a large amphibious tank by the Belarusian government. Yeah, when you get a free tank, you know you've made it by parading through the streets in his new vehicle. Diego seemed like the richest man on earth, but was he?

In 2005, the Italian government revealed that Maradona had all this money because he was dodging taxes, that's right, while spending at least $895,000 on flashy cars and jewelry, the star owed a whopping $48.6 million in unpaid taxes, despite of this, when he sadly passed away. Away in 2020, the Maradona family expected a substantial inheritance with Diego claiming during his final days that he had $100 million in assets, but when the wake was over and the receipts came in as he revealed his spending had had a major impact on his horde, the maradona family found out their patriarch only had five hundred thousand dollars left to his name i mean not bad but it's barely the millions they expected and to this day those debts to the italian still have to be paid to the government man , not paying all those taxes turned out to be super irresponsible, almost as irresponsible as not hitting the like and subscribe buttons below, go ahead, now you know you want everything right now, what irresponsible sports spender do we have now? ragged without resources as the wide receiver for notre dame in the early 90s ismail's star ragged was on the rise with the promotion of a professional career ismail wanted to commit to the national football league in 1991 but then something unexpected happened the toronto argonauts Ismail was offered a whopping 18 million to play in Canada by the newly formed Canadian Soccer League after success there, he was eventually drafted back to the NFL as a wide receiver for the Oakland Raiders on career contracts in both leagues, ismail amassed around 26.9 million dollars and then retired in peace, without ragged, instead of settling for a comfortable retirement, the former player embarked on a series of business ventures or more precisely, business blunders, there was the idea of ​​the prepaid phone card, the calligraphy business, the religious movie and craziest of all, the rock and roll themed cafe and no it wasn't hard rock each one failed a lot obviously no one told ismail that rock and roll cafe may have already taken the idea which might explain why despite his investment of three hundred thousand dollars, Ishmael still has no idea if the restaurant ever materialized or not. the failures were ismael's fault the rock and roll cafe suffered from chronic mismanagement a rite of passage for every rock band and the souvenir shop was wiped out by hurricane katrina but whatever the cause the dollar couldn't be recovered lost and so ismael's fortune was well and truly wasted as he lost everything ismail was able to avoid total bankruptcy via streaming experts but even then despite all he had lost. the guy just couldn't stop investing and if you can believe it ismail's final investment in the mouth guard company's bike tech actually paid off he may have made some

dumb

mistakes but bitech is still on the business support, ismail may not have all the money it once had but at least we can say it's not

broke

anymore, which is more than can be said for some others on this list. deplorable dykstra for baseball fans of a certain generation.

Nicknamed Nails due to his uncompromising playing style, that winning attitude that signified by the end of his career in 1996, Nails had earned an impressive $36 million, not only that, but also after investing in a successful chain of car washes, dijkstra had grown that figure to a whopping $58 million in 2008, but $58 million just didn't satisfy mordo-seeking dykstra, he became a stock pick columnist, dykstra took at least 250 000 in secretly issued shares in exchange for recommending those shares to dot com street underwriters who paid a whopping thousand dollars a year for his advice and the reason it sounds bleak is because on top of that his desire to live in big.

It led him to publish a glossy magazine called Players Club, whose bills weren't cheap because of all this complex business. credit cards to finance his lavish lifestyle in one he left a 32,000 charge for a chartered jet from atlanta to montana so he could watch his son's minor league baseballb the whole game doesn't exactly sound like a business expense to me, ya That in 2012 Dykstra found himself on the receiving end of fraud and money laundering charges after being sued for everything he had left behind. times have changed, however, in august 2020, dijkstra announced that he had gone 27 consecutive months without being arrested, although that is a good start, he surely regrets his crimes and shady dealings that led to those jail sentences, brash brunell calls it sad but some people are jacksonville jaguars fans and if you're a jaguars fan you'll know the meaning of the word lose things were no different in the late 90s and the long-suffering team was ready for a player star to join their ranks enter mark brunell while brunel couldn't take them to the super bowl, the quarterback still

went

on to become one of the greatest players in jaguars history and with a run like that, you can bet the coin got a call in the field.

By the end of his career, Brunel had earned nearly $70 million that would surely be enough to keep him comfortable for the rest of his life. million dollars now invested in whataburger fast food chain brunel spent a fortune establishing whataburger restaurants in and around the jacksonville area but the people of jacksonville were not as interested in whataburgers as brunel thought and the restaurants began to lose money at the same time It was the time the quarterback invested $11 million in a company ironically named champion llc, but that money used to invest in the real estate market was lost in the great housing market crash of 2008 and Mark was left with no choice but to file for a chapter. 11 bankruptcy and this was when he was still an active nfl player in 2010 he was left with only 5.5 million dollars in assets vs almost 25 million dollars in debt today brune I'm only worth four hundred thousand dollars a lot of money for the rest of us, but when you've tasted that sweet millionaire lifestyle, there's no going back, what a tragedy.

He made over $75 million during his 12-year NFL career which was the collective payment of three lucrative professional contracts, but incredibly it wouldn't last long during his playing career, Sap had started to develop some dangerous spending habits.

went

overboard spending the money on things like $4.1 million mansions, a $1,200 lion-skin rug, and bizarrely, 240 pairs of Air Jordans worth over $6,000, that's right. , six thousand dollars in 240 pairs of the same shoe, a great and the iconic shoe I do not deny it, but spending that amount only on shoes is limited and wrong, it can be said that of two of the other unnecessary expenses of sapp, a great painting nude of a woman a and a pair of boxing gloves signed by muhammad ali neither of which came cheap his wasteful spending was fine and really out of control in 2012 the spending spree was forced to end r for sap filed for bankruptcy what happened to all those gloves and shoes and lionskin rocks disappeared into a liquidation fund at the time sapp had just $6.45 million in assets, just under $6 .7 million dollars that he had accumulated in debt to pay off that debt, he worked as an analyst on the nfl network and earned more than forty five thousand dollars a month things were changing for him until he was arrested in 2015 on prostitution charges and fired from that cushy job today sapp is back in the dark to tally his debts discounting a brief reappearance in court for some highly illegal activity it seems as if he never thought he'd lose his cash reckless rodman it's hard not to be fascinated by dennis Rodman nicknamed the Worm for his incredible rebounding ability Rodman earned hoops and 27 million during his NBA career and at the height of his fame Rodman was the 10th best player paid from the nba, so it's no surprise that robin pursued a lavish lifestyle of excess in 1996 bought a two-story house on the boardwalk for $825,000, the house became the center of the party in Newport Beach with revelers partying at what I think were some very expensive parties and on the way to the party drive away guests could ogle into rodman's collection of high priced cars, there was the h1 custom painted hummer the custom painted lamborghini gallardo the custom built 1996 porsche 993 tt and a retro 1959 cadillac convertible and that was just a glimpse into his multi-million dollar collection though he didn't always have something to show for his spending, he once lost a million dollars in one fell swoop in 1997 when he kicked a referee in the groin and found himself facing a fine and an 11-game suspension that was a costly mistake that it turned out he really couldn't afford to make in In 2012, the worm had finally spent all the cash on his bizarrely outrageous lifestyle that year Rodman appeared in court to address charges that he owed $800,000 to his ex-wife and child support there, attorneys for Rodman claimed that the player had no means to pay the money because the former millionaire had no money and was barely holding on to his remaining winnings today.

Rodman is worth less than 2 percent of his NBA winnings at only $500,000 to a player who could have been set for life and shows how quickly such riches can disappear boris bills now there have been few careers as triumphant as that ofboris beckers between 1985 and 1996 becker won three wimbledon championships, two australian open and one usa with all that success and a 76.9 per cent singles career win rate you can bet the money poured in just of the prize money becker earned a luscious $25 million, but that was literally not half of it, through endorsements and Endorsement Deals Becker made another $105 million for a total career earnings of $130 million of dollars, but unless you're careful with your millions, the cash can disappear quickly after you retired in 1999.

An acrimonious divorce from his first wife, Barbara Feltus, cost the player $25 million in the breakup alone. Becker lost a luxury condo in Miami and was forced to pay another 1.2 million buying a felt property in London. Becker's debts only increased in 2002 when the German government revealed that he had e waived 3 million in taxes to avoid prison becker was forced to accept a huge fine of 300,000 euros a little over 450 thousand dollars today 10 years later and becker was still defaulting on debts this time in a luxury villa in mallorca la 62-acre estate complete with basketball court, guest house and orange grove would cost the once-rich money he just didn't have anymore all these near misses finally came to a head in 2017 when, having spent almost all of that $130 million, a British judge declared Becker bankrupt, although the court hesitated to give a concrete number, it was reported that he was in a bind.

Becker's staggering $54 million in debt would end up auctioning off his hard-earned trophies raising $937,823 in the process, but even that wasn't enough to save him from a 2019 decision to extend his bankruptcy restrictions until October 16, 2031. a decision made after the ever-responsible becker was found to be hiding assets worth over 6.1 million i guess between bankruptcy and bankruptcy becker wins george worst from 1963 to 1974 george best the iconic player of the manchester united soccer team he scored 137 goals and 361 appearances for the team cementing his place as a club legend all that success did not come without notoriety however best also has the distinction of becoming one of the first famous soccer players and in the heyday of his fame, he was earning the equivalent of 1 million a year, much of that was used to fuel the hedonistic parties of the players which best didn't deny when best declared bankruptcy in 1983 he openly admitted to spending a whopping 90 of his money on women's drinks and fast cars, this also meant he couldn't pay a £16,000 unpaid tax bill that skyrocketed at sixty thousand pounds approximately two hundred tho dollars and dollars today in the ten year feud that inevitably followed shortly after his retirement in 1984 the superstar was utterly

broke

with his parties had set in addiction to alcohol and eventually disease his last words published in the world news was saying just don't die like me wow we'll let one speak for himself moderate iverson nicknamed the answer allen iverson is considered one of the best players in nba history to put his success in perspective average Iverson's playoff score of 29.7 points per game is second only to the legendary Michael Jordan during his 15 year career allen iverson raked in a dump found at 155 million now iverson didn't invest it or save it like many of the spendthrift stars in this video iverson directly spent it his monthly expenses included ten thousand dollars in clothes ten thousand dollars in restaurants and over ten thousand dollars worth of groceries yes ten thousand dollars worth of toilet paper and onions a month because iverson bought for his entire entourage that could include up to 50 people now iverson trusted his friends but that might not have been the best decision suspicious of banks It doesn't take a genius to figure out where he was probably going, but it wasn't like Iverson wasn't squandering the dome himself.

Friends of his revealed that he regularly dropped between 30,000 and 40,000 a night at strip clubs. Anecdotally, this happened so often that Iverson picked up his own money from the night before and threw it a second time. Iverson's wastefulness went on and on. car when he forgot where his ride was parked now that's just bragging due to unnecessary getaways like that all of iverson's assets had been depleted by 2012. the player was forced to declare himself if he filed for bankruptcy when he couldn't pay a debt 900,000 to a jeweler in georgia, how many pieces of jewelry did this guy order?

But luckily, iverson had a lifeline left. One year and a $32 million trust fund that he'll have access to in 2030, so despite his recklessness and a few years, Iverson will likely revert to his old spending habits. year of career in the nba randy brown earned a fortune of 15 million dollars there were 12 successful years for brown who won three championships with the chicago bulls a team led by the return of michael jordan from all the nba championship rings that They've won those are by far some of the most valuable are these kinds of historic accolades that most basketball players can only dream of owning one day, but Brown's time with his championship rings didn't last after poor investments.

In real estate and restaurant business brown was left with no choice but to file for bankruptcy in January 2008 and guess what valuable assets the player was forced to auction off yes it was the rings and an extremely painful decision brown was forced to sell his three rings the crown jewels of his career to debt collectors an anonymous bidder paid fifty-three thousand eight hundred thirty-three dollars for the tr it is, but that reportedly barely made a dent in the debt that needed to be paid. and losing a powerful ring can really ruin a guy just look at gollum the sloppy canseco with 462 home runs to his credit jose canseco's baseball career saw two world series titles with the oakland athletics and new york yankees conseco he was one of the best in mlb a world leading six stars and home runs in the 1988 and 1991 seasons and as we know premium success means premium cash with conseco putting down a healthy $55 million fortune, the slugger looks set to life if he hadn't caught himself in a disastrous cascade of bad

decisions

, divorces and tax offenses in 2008, after being out of the game for roughly nine years. his 7,300 square foot mansion in los angeles in which he owed the bank more than two and a half million that year he claimed that his two divorces had also cost them between 7 and 8 million each he also claimed that when the stock market crashed He lost another 11 million and Seiko's low point came when he ended up living in a friend's garage with just $20 to his name in 2012.

A reporter revealed that Canseco still owed the 1.1 million IR in unpaid taxes that The year he filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy unfortunately hasn't gotten much better for him in 2021, Jose accepted an offer of $50,000 to star in an amateur boxing match against a sports intern on a bar stool. He was humiliatingly defeated in less than 10 seconds. a far cry from the $55 million he once got, but Canseco recently said he's doing just fine and he's no longer plagued by legal problems. I mean, you gotta praise a guy who gets up after being knocked down like that, which one of these?

Do you think the athletes made the dumbest decisions and who do you think he really didn't deserve the financial trouble from him? Let me know in the comments, and as always, thanks for looking.