We love watching sports stars do their thing in the fields. But many of them have a different unappealing lifestyle behind the glass doors of fame. Many of them have lost a great deal of their fortune due to one reason or another. Some of these broke sports stars include:
Bill Buckner
Bill Buckner’s started having bad lucks when he made a big mistake in Game 6 of the 1986 World Series. His career ended after that and he went Broke after starting an investment in a car dealership. It lasted only two years before closing down.
Mike Tyson
Mike Tyson, the former heavyweight champion of the world earned more than $400 million throughout his boxing career. He lost it all through reckless spending, poor investments and trusting insincere people. He filed for bankruptcy in 2003 but has been rebuilding his brand and life.
Antoine Walker
Former NBA star Antoine Walker made $108 million during his basketball career. He lost it all and was forced to file for bankruptcy in 2010. He lost his fortune through gambling, reckless spending, divorce issues, and legal trouble.
Vince Young
Vince was the former Titans quarterback who once graced the cover of “Madden NFL” in 2008. The former BCS National Championship made about $34 million as a football player and squandered it in new years. He spent the majority of his earnings and alleged that a financial planner had misappropriated $5.5million of his money. He filed for bankruptcy in 2014.
Diego Maradona
Diego Maradona was considered to be the greatest soccer player ever. In 2009, he was found out to owe 37 million euros in back taxes to the Italian government. Maradona has only been able to pay 42,000 euros off the debt and is in a bad financial state.
Evander Holyfield
Evander Holyfield had his mansion foreclosed on in Atlanta in 2008. The former heavyweight champion made about $350 million as a professional boxer. It was revealed in 2012, that he had squandered his wealth and was very broke.
Lawrence Taylor
Lawrence Taylor could easily pass as the greatest defensive player in the history of the NFL. He was former New York Giants linebacker and ventured into the business after his retirement. Taylor enters into a series of poor investments and was even defrauded when he got involved in a penny stock scheme. He pleaded guilty to tax evasion in 1997 and was placed on a three months house arrest, five years of probation and 500 hours of community service.
Lenny Dykstra
Lenny Dykstra was former Phillies and Mets outfielder. After his playing career ended, he started a high-end jet charter company and magazine marketed to professional athletes called the “Players Club”. The company failed and he filed for bankruptcy in 2009. He was later found guilty of fraud in 2012 and was given a three-year prison sentence.
Marion Jones
Marion Jones won Olympic gold medals for sprinting. She was later dragged into a dope scandal and implicated in a check-counterfeiting scheme which led to criminal charges. Despite earning millions from endorsement deals, she was stripped of her five Olympic medal wins and sentenced to six months in prison in 2008.