Stallworth has had a fairly impressive record, and as of holds the Super Bowl record for career average per catch and single-game average. Wallace, and Paris Warren. All rights reserved. Every summer, the NFL's first-year players travel to a hotel in Ohio for a crash course on what life is really like in pro football. This year, we went too. Stallworth is forbidden from contacting her or her family, due to a court order. In , Stallworth agreed out of court to pay an undisclosed sum to the family.
Reyes or me. I had a family. He continues to look for a job in media, having mentally—if not officially—retired from football. Stallworth planned out the rest of his life: First, earn forgiveness from God, then from the Reyes family, then from his own family, then from the NFL. Finally, save fellow NFL players from making the same mistakes. Blue ink on white notebook paper. The prison letters were written in a solitary cell at a Miami-Dade jail.
Stallworth spent nearly every hour in isolation during his 24 days because he was too high-profile for general population.
Over the first few days, he spilled his heart to Palcic on paper, having accepted that his name would be attached inexorably to the manslaughter. I not only have to battle being known only as a pro athlete, but as a pro athlete who pled guilty to DUI manslaughter.
When Washington cut him last August, he sulked around his place in Miami for a few weeks before committing himself full-time to media opportunities and projects like the symposium.
After his session, a player approaches him and quietly asks if he felt drunk when he woke up. Being done with football is part of that. Stallworth is in preliminary talks with the NFL about signing on as a speaker for individual teams. The subject matter is just too raw. About 16 percent go bankrupt within 12 years. Sometimes racial and class stereotypes come into play, too, now with the added twist of head trauma.
But these stereotypes are unfair. Most people who excel at that level are intelligent and focused. Most are also like most other young adults, too: typically naive and impatient in basic financial matters. Stallworth attended the University of Tennessee, where he studied psychology on a football scholarship.
He now works as a journalist and a football commentator. His Twitter feed DonteStallworth conveys the complexity and the craft of professional football, as seen by an expert practitioner of the game. I thought: "What is this? The check just looked fake. I really didn't know what to do with it. Why don't they pay it that way?
DS: Being able to reflect on things now, that seems like a great idea. But from a financial adviser's standpoint, and even from a player's standpoint, that is something that the player should probably take ownership of.
That messes with you, mentally. You really don't understand that once you're done playing, these checks will stop. That's not even the NFL league minimum nowadays. DS: Many guys, especially the higher-drafted guys who are getting a lot of money, will buy their parents a home, buy themselves a home.
After that, it's kind of up in the air. I did everything in my power to make sure I was up to the best of my football ability: my speed, my strength, my route running. My main focus was on football, trying to put myself in position to be drafted first wide receiver. Looking back, I wish I had taken that same approach to my finances before I was drafted. I didn't. I wish I would have taken the same approach to learning about finances and learning how to budget, taking the same approach that you do when you're watching game film, when you're lifting weights and running for three hours, conditioning.
I don't think we put in that same time to learn about our finances as we do on the football field. Some guys are totally on it. Right away they put themselves on a budget. There are many smart guys who do know the ins and outs of investing. These are the smarter ones; Jonathan Vilma , for one. That guy is on top of everything. HP: How do you know what to do when you suddenly have that much money?
It's hard to get into your head, "I can do this, but I can't do that. DS: That's key. When you initially get this money, you have to take ownership to understand: "I have all this money now, but it's not going to last forever.
I was blessed to play You have to understand that you could be making three, four, five million dollars a year. Then the next year it's all over.
You'll never make that type of money again. The smarter guys would say that you want to put yourself in a position where you don't have to work when you're done. Live like a prince now if you have to, so you can live like a king later. DS: Ninety-nine percent of the guys know nothing about the investment world.
They throw names out there. When you're a rookie or a young guy, you're thinking: "If Tom Brady's doing this, of course I should be doing it too. It has taken me years to come to terms with the fact that nothing I ever do will make up for it. But I believe that I have a responsibility to do what I can to stop other people from driving impaired and to prevent other families from experiencing the same loss.
Stallworth is also very active on social media. He often tweets about politics and sports and even posted a picture on Instagram in with actor John Krasinski while he was on the set of Jack Ryan. Throughout his life, Stallworth has certainly made mistakes.
It seems he has learned from them, though, and has turned his life around for the better.
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