I get it. If you ain’t never had nothing, when you do get something, you don’t know what to do with “IT”. I liken it to becoming a mother for the first time. Yes, I cared for my younger siblings and I even had the honor of checking in on the well being of older family members. You couldn’t tell me they were not my responsibility. However, when it came to bringing my first child into this world it was different. Whether it was natural instincts or learned “care taker” skills, I knew this new life was a gift.

Dare I compare your athletic prowess to another of GOD’s gift and ask you to assert dominion over it, yes I will. Especially since the very audience you perform for, whom you need to purchase your jersey, come to your games and check for your news updates to justify your relevance is watching you, for glimmer of reflection into their own lives. “If this brother cant control himself how the heck can I do the right thing in the hood?”

In comparison your contemporaries in the sports field are laughing at you and writing about your follies so others can join in the laughter. Matt Haupert, Featured Columnist for the Bleacher Report, wrote about 11th athletes in his May 19, 2014 column, “Hilarious Things Athletes Buy with Their Money”.

Not surprisingly, two of the athletes where non-black. Yes, money squandering is an equal opportunity employer. The egregiousness is what the non-black athletes I-N-V-E-S-T-E-D their money in versus the what the black athletes spent their money on with the definite promise of “NO R.O.I.”, return on investment.

Baseball player and pistachio lover, Rollie Fingers dropped all his loot into “Pistachio Farms”, producing pistachio pancakes, pistachio smoothies and a bunch of other, proven to be, useless pistachio products no one was buying. Yet and still it was a business with some expectation of employing individuals and producing a product that would garner potential income. On that same note soccer player Lionel Messi, purchased his neighbor’s home after they began reconstruction and could not afford to finish the project. They became a nuisance and unruly so Messi scooped up the lot and increased his land ownership. Real estate, when purchased or acquired properly is always a sound investment.

So to the remaining “9” athletes featured in this article, yes they spent money too. Here is the embarrassing list of items:

• An “ATM” -placed in the kitchen next to the fridge
• A bed with a fish tank head board -reportedly cost 23,000 dollars
• Wild or Exotic Animals -This was the chart topper, more than one fool wanted to domesticate a wild cat

This list goes on but I wont to give a special shout out to Jerome Williams, the “Junk Yard Dog”, who purchased his own mascot. While I am sure his ego was on “10” when he came up with this little marketing “tid bit” he did however began using the mascot as a motivational tool in Detroit schools encouraging individuality and promoting change for the world.

A foole and his money,
be soone at debate:
which after with sorrow
repents him to late.

 

Sources:

http://bleacherreport.com/articles/2068695-hilarious-things-athletes-buy-with-their-money/page/11