ESPN’s outstanding 30 for 30 series made a noteworthy return on Tuesday with the airing of “Broke,” a documentary about athletes losing their money. It was an excellent program and well worth a viewing no matter who you are.
The program touched on many different aspects of financial challenges facing athletes, and one area concerned family. It was in that section where former World Series MVP pitcher Curt Schilling shared what may have been the greatest anecdote from the entire program.
Schilling says he saw a greedy mother try to charge her successful son for raising him.
“I actually saw a player get a bill from his mother for $25,000 for raising him,” Schilling recalled. “It was on his birthday. It came with a tie, and it said, ‘if you’re not going to be a part of our lives, here’s your birthday present, and I would like you to pay me for having raised you in my home.'”
And here I was thinking that these were the greediest parents in the country. I guess I was wrong.
Once again, I highly recommend that you watch the documentary if you have a chance. As informative and cautionary as it was, I can still see many athletes following the same pattern as those who went broke before them. The reason is pretty simple: most don’t think it will ever happen to them.
