Another high-profile celebrity athlete is facing foreclosure.
This time it's Plaxico Burress, the former New York Giants wide receiver best known for making the game-winning catch in the final minute of Super Bowl XLII – a spectacular feat that helped the Giants topple the New England Patriots.
Unfortunately for Burress, the past two years have been spectacularly bad. He's now being
sued by Deutsche Bank National Trust Co. for $3.3 million for allegedly failing to pay the note on a palatial, waterfront home Burress bought in Lighthouse Point, Fla. for $4 million back in 2005.
It's perhaps little wonder that Burress is behind on his mortgage, considering he's actually in prison stemming from a self-inflicted shooting about a year and a half ago.
In November 2008, Burress was in a Manhattan nightclub with a gun hidden in his pants. That gun went off and shot him in the thigh, and the Giants later released Burress.
After being charged with criminal possession of a weapon, Burress struck a plea deal to get a lesser charge and was sentenced to two years in prison.
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10 Ways to Reduce Incarceration
10. Don't Commit Crimes
Seems pretty obvious, but those who are locked up (and are actually guilty) didn't seem to get the memo that crime does not pay.
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AP
BlackVoices.com
10 Ways to Reduce Incarceration
10. Don't Commit Crimes
Seems pretty obvious, but those who are locked up (and are actually guilty) didn't seem to get the memo that crime does not pay.
10 Ways to Reduce Incarceration
9. Get a Good Lawyer
Far too many people, particularly minorities, wind up in the clink because they didn't have adequate defense. The court system's public defenders are underfunded, understaffed and overburdened. Get a lawyer. He or she will might be able to get you off the hook. That's all some people need to get on the straight and narrow.
10 Ways to Reduce Incarceration
8. Support Businesses That Build Rural Economies
With much of America's farmland disappearing, rural areas are becoming desperate for places to employ their idle populations. Politicians from those areas lobby for funding to build state prisons, so that their people are employed. In many states, although inmates cannot vote, they are counted as part of the population, thereby justifying more funds for those areas. When farms, mills and plants in small rural communities subsist, there is no need to build prisons to replace them.
10 Ways to Reduce Incarceration
7. Support Drug Rehab Centers
Drug addiction is not a crime, it's an illness that is treatable, thank God. For the amount of money spent on trying, housing, feeding and providing health care for people locked up due to drugs, a small fraction of that money could be spent rehabilitating drug addicts so that they could permanently get the monkey off their backs, thereby destroying the market for dope.
10 Ways to Reduce Incarceration
6. Don't Elect 'Tough on Crime' Politicians
Instead, vote for candidates who campaign on crime prevention, community counseling and youth intervention. Most important, support politicians who advocate increased funding for public education. Preventive measures can reduce both.
10 Ways to Reduce Incarceration
5. Discipline Your Kids
Child abuse is very bad. Don't hurt 'em. But applaud mothers who knock the hell out of their kid in public for smarting off at the supermarket. Courthouses have lines around the block of young people whose parents thought it was cute for them to act like little ghetto birds when they were 4. But now at age 18, when you are taking out a second mortgage on your home to pay legal bills, that cute crap doesn't work. Big secret: Judges hate cute.
10 Ways to Reduce Incarceration
4. Get Out, Stay Out
One of the main points a Pew Research Center report on this issues brings up is the number of recidivists -- or people who keep going back. They make up a large number of people who are incarcerated in this country. In fact, if it weren't for them, the 1 in 100 stat wouldn't be nearly as high.
10 Ways to Reduce Incarceration
3. Crackdown on Rogue Gun Dealers
Remember the D.C. sniper? Well, between 1997 and 2001, guns sold by the clown who supplied him were involved in 52 crimes, including homicides, kidnappings and assaults. Still open to this day, the dealer also can't account for 238 guns or say whether they were stolen, lost or sold, or if their buyers had to undergo felony background checks. These chumps keep in close contact with the supportive gun lobby to make sure gun laws remain weak.
10 Ways to Reduce Incarceration
2. Threaten Your Children
This relates to #5, and is very important. You know about the ratio of high school dropouts in jail to educated people who are not in jail. Okay, just to drive the point home, the National Educational Association says 75 percent of all people in America who are state prison inmates are high school dropouts. This means if your child quits before he or she graduates high school, there's a one-in-three chance you'll get a 3 a.m. call saying: "Mama, I'm in jail, I need you to come get me." What you do from there is up to you, but I'd leave their little butts locked up.
10 Ways to Reduce Incarceration
1. Quit Getting High
More than half of the people imprisoned in this country are doing time because of drug offenses. Ronald Reagan's "War on Drugs" was moronic rhetoric at best, designed to galvanize conservative white politicians who hate black people and their religious right constituents. And we can certainly see the merits of legalization as alternative. But piggybacking off #7, the fact of the matter is dope creates an illicit economy of marketers, investors, speculators and has a very large consumer group. That consumer group drives the whole thing.
10 Ways to Reduce Incarceration
What strikes me about the situation with Burress is that he was like many athletes and celebrities, making tens of millions of dollars, who apparently have no real financial plan for their lives. Yet, it was a little less than five years ago – March 17, 2005, to be exact – that Burress signed a $25 million contract with the Giants. In late 2008, he inked another deal with the Giants: a five-year, $35 million contract extension.
Burress no doubt didn't get to collect all that money – not only because he only lasted with the Giants until the spring of 2009, but also because he presumably had to pay his football agent, the tax man, and any other managers, handlers and others working for him. Still, it never ceases to amaze me how quickly people can burn through cash at this level.
It's obvious that many well-paid public figures wrongly assume that the money will simply keep flowing.
Sadly, for Burress, that doesn't seem to be the case. But here's wishing him and his family well when Burress is released from prison. He's eligible to come out in early 2011.
Lynnette Khalfani-Cox, an award-winning financial news journalist and former Wall Street Journal reporter for CNBC, has also been featured in top newspapers including the Washington Post, USA Today, and the New York Times, as well as magazines ranging from Essence and Redbook to Black Enterprise and Smart Money. Check out her New York Times bestseller,
'Zero Debt: The Ultimate Guide to Financial Freedom.'
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Comments: (60)
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By: kingdavidlives on 2/22/2010 4:02PM
When will they learn.
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By: mosuro on 2/23/2010 6:58AM
Just like a lotto winners, within a few years they are broke. Can't understand it. They have never had money before then they go out & blow it all on fancy homes, cars etc. damn, if you make that kind of money why not just buy it without any loans then all you have worry about are property taxes, insurance and up keep. This just proves doesn't matter how much you make you must live within your means.
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By: TOBIAS on 2/23/2010 7:28AM
Such a huge comment..Yes, they make millions BUT very few of them even though they are drafts from University, very few of them understand how to take control of their finances. Sadly enough there is someone there called an agent (and yes, her should be paid) but these guys literally gouge these players . Then, they have all of these louses around them; money suckers who simply take and take and take.
NO-ONE, should be making $5 million in a season and be broke at the end of his time. This is nonsense! THESE PEOPLE/PLAYERS HAVE NO IDEA HOW TO CHOOSE THE PEOPLE AROUND THEM AND TO ADD INJURY FURTHER, THEY BEGIN TO LISTEN TO WORDS LIKE 'HOMEBOY', LONGTIME BUDDY ETC. ETC another name/s for suckers!
If you have a financial consultant (and you DO NOT NEED TO KEEP HIM ON PAYROLL INDEFINITELY..PAY HIM WHEN USED)..1. WHY DONT YOU HAVE TWO/THREE/FOUR APARTMENT BUILDINGS (these genrate rental income later); 2. a couple restaurants/fast food/snack shops/clothing stores etc. etc.......WHERE IS THE SO CALLED ADVICE THAT WILL GIVE YOU INCOME LONG AFTER YOU ARE SEPERATED FROM FOOTBALL OR ANY OTHER GAME FOR THAT MATTER/
These guys go for blood suckers and yes, they suck them dry....thery ARE NOT DOING YOU FAVORS...THEY ARE RIPPING YOU OFF...YOU ARE WORTH ONLY THE MONEY THEY CAN TAKE FROM YOU...
IT IS TIME TO CHANGE THIS NONSENSE; THAT HOUSE SHOULD HAVE BEEN PAID OFF.....HE COULD HAVE HAD A FEW OTHER SMALLER ONE TO GENERATE INCOME AND TAX DEDUCTIONS. THIS NEEDS TOS TOP. AND I THINK OF THE MIKE TYSONS $800 MILLION AND OTHERS ENDING UP BROKE AND THE SOCALLED MANAGERS NEVER IN ANY TROUBLE...
IT IS TIME LAW SUITS BE BROUGHT FOR BAD HANDLING AND ADVICE.........CHECK THE LAW AND SEE WHERE THERE IS REMEDY BUT SOMETHING NEEDS TO BE DONE!!!
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By: don on 2/23/2010 4:27PM
Also proves that if you don't have a brain, you can't manage money. Check out washington d.c. They should never get any money, they don't have any brains either.
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By: Alice on 2/23/2010 7:00AM
Everytime I see these people getting in trouble financially, I then see why Obama cannot handle our countries finances. Just take a look at Kenya where Obama was born, their children have no food or shelter and the USA will wind up just like them as long as Obama is our so called president.
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By: Mark on 2/23/2010 9:25AM
ALICE--
you are an idiot! your comments are repulsive and you should climb can into whatever whole you came out of! "these people" have way more than you will ever acquire and for the record--way more of those people than "these people" are in financial trouble and losing their homes! Your man George Bush is the idiot who made this mess! Now someone has to clean it up! Thank goodness for this so called president as opposed to the idiot who occupied the White House rent free for eight years because he darn sure wasnt workin! Be gone peasant!
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By: vdog on 2/23/2010 9:54AM
And what is your opinion of YOUR PEOPLE after BUSH'S "CONSERVATIVE" SPENDING in the 8 years before OBAMA?
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By: debby on 2/23/2010 10:43AM
HOW CAN U SAY THAT!?!?!?!
your boy Bush (and his puppetmaster Cheney) are responsible for this mess!! It was Bush's BAIL-OUT- and his goood-ole-boy network that made them BILLIONS while they sucked us dry. This took YEARS to excecute, and now you want to blame the man who has been in office for a year, WAKE UP!!!
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By: Lana on 2/23/2010 11:38AM
Spot ON!!!
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By: Ray on 2/23/2010 1:08PM
Alice-Judging by your comment I can tell you are in your early teens.It is evident because before an adult comments on POTUS, he or she will do their homework. Next time before you comment, do not listen to what your right wing parents rather tell you. Do your homework on the internet, especially of you are going to comment on POTUS.
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