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- Former NFL player Wale Ogunleye said many athletes don't know how to best use their money to help those they grew up with.
- Ogunleye now leads UBS' sports division and wants to help more athletes improve their financial literacy.
- Visit Insider's homepage for more stories.
The contract that former NFL defensive end Adewale Ogunleye signed in 2006 broke records: The Chicago Bears gave him $33 million for six years, the most a restricted free agent had ever gotten.
But when Ogunleye returned to visit the Park Hill Projects in Staten Island where he grew up, he said he was overcome by survivor's guilt. The neighborhood where Park Hill is located has a higher percentage of children living in poverty, 69%, than in 98% of all US neighborhoods, according to Neighborhood Scout.
"Imagine all those kids and all the people in those homes, and I'm the one guy out of the whole projects that made it to the big leagues," Ogunleye told Insider. "Seven people in two bed room apartments, and I got this big old house in Chicago. I feel a sense of guilt."
He wanted to do something, but realized he lacked the financial literacy to help his community most effectively.
"I want to give back, but at the same time I don't know how, so what I do is I throw a bunch of money at it thinking it's going to please me … This is where the financial industry has to step in."
So Ogunleye went to get his MBA at George Washington University. In November, he was named the head of sports and entertainment at the global financial services firm UBS.
In his new position, he is coordinating educational programs to help young professional athletes improve their financial literacy and manage their newfound wealth responsibly. Last month, Ogunleye and UBS announced a partnership with the Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Conference to offer that education to students at 14 colleges and universities.
"Most of the families that I know and the places that I've come from, we never had these life skills and financial questions," Ogunleye said. "Even though I was 10 to 15 minutes away from Wall Street, Wall Street might as well have been in Nigeria."
78% of NFL players experience financial distress after retirement
Ogunleye's parents came to the Park Hill Projects - also the home turf of the Wu-Tang Clan - from Nigeria. Through football, Ogunleye earned a scholarship to Indiana University, where he set the program's all-time sack record.
Once in the NFL, Ogunleye said, he saw first-hand the risky way many young athletes spent their first pay checks. Once, he said, he and several other athletes were invited to invest in a luxury car re-sale scheme.
"There was this $2 million Bugatti, and the word was, 'Hey let's all chip in and buy this $2 million Bugatti and sell it to some Saudi Arabian oil sheikh, and he'll buy it from us for like $3 to $4 million,'" Ogunleye said. "I know some guys lost money on that."
Years later, he's glad he said no to those car salesmen.
"They found a few athletes that knew nothing about buying cars," Ogunleye added.
According to UBS, about 78% of former NFL players experience financial distress two years after retirement. Among players drafted between 1996 and 2003, 16% filed for bankruptcy within 12 years of retirement. The trend is found in other sports, too: 60% of NBA players go broke within five years of departing the league.
About 70% of all NFL and 80% of NBA players are Black, and in general, financial literacy is less prevalent in communities of color. A study by the TIAA Institute concluded that on average, Black adults answered just 38% of questions on a financial literacy exam correctly. Only 5% of those surveyed answered over 75% correctly.
Ogunleye wants to change how financial firms work with athletes
Ogunleye said that in financial planning, "the goal is to push your money forward to future generations." But with athletes, the cash flow often "moves backwards."
"When you're giving backwards to your family, your mom, your dad, your grandmother, no, you can't grow your wealth that way," he said. "That's where if we don't get a grip of the survivor's remorse, we'll continue to find ourselves in places that we've always been."
Ogunleye also thinks that financial advisors, for the most part, simply aim to help athletes avoid bad investments as they work to build personal wealth. But it's harder for athletes to find professionals who will help them figure out the best ways to invest in their communities.
That's why one of Ogunleye's goals in his current job is to push the finance industry to help athletes do exactly that.
"It's too transactional," Ogunleye said of traditional wealth management. "It's too 'Oh my goodness, look at Patrick Mahomes' contract, I wish I was his financial advisor.' It should be more like, 'Wow look at Patrick Mahomes' contract. I wonder what he wants to do moving forward. I wonder who he wants to help.'"
In Ogunleye's own life, that has meant making several philanthropic trips to Nigeria. He has helped to fund medical clinics, scholarships at local schools, and drinking-water wells for communities like the ones his parents are from. He believes it is possible for other athletes to similarly invest in their communities, but their financial advisors need to be on board and know how to help.
"FAs can't say, 'I don't like dealing with athletes because they have these posses or this ecosystem around them where there's just too many people hanging on,'" Ogunleye said. "Well, if you knew what these gentlemen came from, you could empathize with what's going on. Maybe now you can deliver a plan to help."