The wallet gets filled with cash while the mind is loaded with desires. When Antwaan Randle El received his first signing bonus, nearly $1 million, he knew what he wanted to do.
He paid for the truck his agent purchased for him. He paid off his parents’ house. And he shared the wealth with grandparents and his brother.
Recommended Stories
He also tithed 10 percent to his church.
“I did what I always wanted to do,” he said.
Within a year he was nearly broke.
Taxes claimed 41 percent of his $900,000 signing bonus. The tithe and a three-percent agent fee came next. Then, the following tax season, he owed $93,000.
“I was like, ‘Wow,'” he said. “I was just trying to get to the season, to start getting checks coming back in. It made me wake up like I had to be careful. It’s never as much as it seems.”
After buying the Cadillac Escalade as a rookie, Randle El did not buy another car until this past year. He now limits how much he serves as a bank for others, once hearing from cousins he never knew.
“You have to be careful not to overextend yourself,” said Randle El, who is married and has five kids. “Sometimes you give people money and they keep coming back … . And it’s one thing to buy anything and it’s another to know you don’t need everything.”
It’s a lesson others will learn, such as rookie end Jeremy Jarmon, who received a $755,000 signing bonus. Jarmon said he hasn’t even purchased a new shirt yet. He wants to open a money market account, but isn’t rushing any investments.
“Hopefully, I’ll have a huge advantage when I go into the real work force,” he said.
The money can be intimidating, too, especially when the signing bonus is for $1.8 million, as it was for rookie end/linebacker Brian Orakpo, who splurged on an Escalade and a house.
“Now,” he said, “I have to prove that I’m worth it.”
