5 NFL Players who went broke after retirement

Most NFL players make a significant amount of money each year, but the average career span of a player in the NFL is significantly lower compared to other sports.

Some NFL players invest wisely during their playing days to ensure a comfortable life after retirement but plenty lack the foresight to do so or make bad investments and end up losing all of their money shortly after they stop playing.

Five NFL Players Who Lost Their Fortune After Retirement

Below is a list of five great players who made a fortune during their playing days but ended up losing it all.

#1 - Warren Sapp

Warren Sapp played twelve years in the NFL as a defensive lineman for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, where he won a Super Bowl and then the Oakland Raiders before retiring in 2007.

Sapp made an estimated $80 million in his career which is a significant amount of money, especially in the late 1990s and early 2000s. However, the money didn't last long.

Sapp lived like a king and spent frivolously while making bad real estate investments. He also went through a divorce and had to pay alimony and child support to his ex-wife.

In 2012, just five years after retiring from the NFL, Sapp filed for bankruptcy. He did try to rebound with an analyst job at the NFL Network which paid him over $100,000 a month which he used to clear his debts. But in 2015 he was fired from the network and apparently still owes millions of dollars in alimony.

#2 - Bernie Kosar

A former University of Miami standout and quarterback for the Cleveland Browns, Dallas Cowboys and Miami Dolphins, Bernie Kosar had spending problems, despite having a college degree in finance.

Kosar was featured in ESPN's "30 for 30" feature titled "Broke," which showcased how bad investments, excessive spending and a lengthy divorce led to Kosar losing all of his money and filing for bankruptcy in 2010.

#3 - Luther Eliss

As a starting defensive tackle for over a decade, Luther Eliss made over $20 million during his NFL career.

But six years later, he was broke after making some poor investments and apparently trusting the wrong people with his money. Eliss and his wife have twelve children and had to apply for assistance to help put food on the table.

Eliss took a job coaching the defensive line at the University of Idaho football team in 2017.

Highlights of #Lions legend Luther Elliss. pic.twitter.com/aIZNzVMrQk

— Detroit Lions (@Lions) March 23, 2019

#4 - Vince Young

Vince Young earned $34 million while playing in the NFL as well as $30 million in endorsement deals. But in 2012, he defaulted on a payday loan worth nearly $2 million.

Young also filed lawsuits claiming that people he trusted used $5.5 million of his money in investments that he didn't authorize. He filed for bankruptcy in 2014 and has since made payments to all the companies he was indebted to.

#5 - John Elway

John Elway is currently making a significant amount of money as President of Football Operations of the Denver Broncos. But after retiring from the NFL, he lost almost all of his hard-earned money in a Ponzi scheme. Elway invested over $15 million in what he thought was an investment and lost more than half of it.

In the late 1990s, the quarterback was offered a 10% stake in the Denver Broncos franchise for $15 million and another 10% if he decided to forego the remainder of the $21 million that the Broncos owed him in salary.

Elway said no, but had he taken up the offer, his investment would have currently been worth over $400 million.

"After 60 years, for the first time in my life, I was glad I wasn't the guy pulling the trigger.”Great look at the post-John Elway #Broncos now under the leadership of GM George Paton — via @MikeSilver: https://t.co/ocqtJ4Tscf

— Ian Rapoport (@RapSheet) May 3, 2021