Last year, Indianapolis Colts quarterback Peyton Manning signed a contract
worth a record-setting $98 million over seven years. The deal includes a $34.5
million signing bonus. The National Football League’s best players often command
contracts worth upward of $50 million; the average annual salary is more than
$1.25 million. But for many young players, their grasp on this wealth is tenuous
at best. Football is notorious for producing young, well-compensated stars who
do not learn to manage their wealth properly and, once their short careers end,
they realize how fleeting their earning power was.
 | NEW ENGLAND Patriots
wide receiver Deion Branch (top) and Dallas Cowboys
safety Roy Williams. |
Professional players face
the grim reality of a career that, on average, spans less than four years and
can be cut short by injury in the split-second it takes to twist a knee. They
are constantly tempted, and often expected, to live champagne-fueled,
jewelry-laden lifestyles. But not all succumb to these temptations. Worth
spoke with two of the NFL’s brightest young stars—Roy Williams, a safety with
the Dallas Cowboys, and Super Bowl MVP Deion Branch, a wide receiver with the
New England Patriots—who are determined to not only maximize the potential of
every NFL dollar they earn, but preserve their wealth for their progeny.
The Right Game Plan
Williams may be best known for the reckless way he
throws his body around on the field, but he takes an entirely different approach
to managing his wealth. “I don’t take anything for granted, so I’m careful about
the way I spend,” Williams says. “I do the research.”
After Williams
commanded a $4 million signing bonus when drafted into the NFL in 2002, the
eighth overall pick might have been expected to celebrate with a luxury goods
binge. But with childhood memories of financial struggles still fresh, he is
more anxious to use his newfound wealth to secure a comfortable future.
The
25-year-old knows football will give him only a small window of earning power
that might enable him to live comfortably for the rest of his life, so he makes
it a point to learn all he can about investing. “I want to be able to set up my
kids and my grandkids,” he says. Williams, a bachelor whose current salary will
total nearly $3 million through 2006, adds, “I don’t just want to be rich, I
want to be able to create wealth for this generation and beyond.”
But
football carries more risks and fewer assurances than any professional sport. No
contracts are guaranteed. “Football may not be there next year, or even next
week, for these guys,” says John Mangum, Williams’ financial consultant at
Raleigh, N.C.-based CapTrust Financial Advisors and a former Chicago
Bear.
Growing up in Union City, a poor neighborhood near San Francisco,
Williams’ family’s resources were so thin that he did not get an allowance. “If
it wasn’t on sale at the mall, I wasn’t going to get it,” Williams recalls. “I
wore Payless shoes.”
When he received an athletic scholarship to the
University of Oklahoma in 1998, Williams finally had a bit of his own capital to
manage. “I didn’t even have a bank account until I went to college,” he recalls.
After earning collegiate defensive player of the year honors in 2001, Williams
chose to leave college shy of his degree to chase success in the NFL. “It was
too good of a professional and financial opportunity to pass up,” he explains.
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