Wednesday, August 12, 2015

Man of means. And brains.

So maybe your Jaded Meter has red-lined, finally. Maybe you're tired of bad acts by professional entertainers whose stock is not the well-delivered guitar lick or line of dialogue, but the well-delivered lick on the athletic field. Maybe you're weary to death of overpaid, self-entitled athletes being subsidized by overpaid, self-entitled billionaires.

I could see why, on the morning after the Jets lost their starting quarterback in the most ridiculous manner possible: A broken jaw in a locker room fight with a teammate.

(Although, come on, what happened to Geno Smith is kind of funny, considering for whom he plays. I mean, you lose your QB in a locker room fight? How is that not the most Jets thing ever?)

 In any case ... I have exactly the antidote for your Jaded Meter's elevated state.

Consider this guy.

An NFL man of means not only living within his means, but well within his means? How cool is this?

As documented by my former JG colleague, Michael Rothstein, Ryan Broyles is that rarest of creatures, a man who didn't lose sight of his perspective when an NFL team dropped millions in his lap. Instead, he actually took to heart what they tell you at the rookie symposium, all those cautionary tales of athletes who blew through their money and then were left penniless by the time most normal career arcs are just starting to track upward financially.

He listened, when most do not. And so he drives a red Ford Focus rental in training camp. And he and his wife drive Mazdas, not Benzes. And they live, more or less, on $60,000 a year and plow the rest of Broyles' millions into investments.

This is a man who is not going to be selling insurance to make ends meet when his career ends. This is a man with, apparently, more financial discipline than 99.9 percent of the American populace.

So when your Jaded Meter soars and you're tempted to think everything and everyone in professional sports these days has been contaminated by money ... think of Ryan Broyles.

And realize there's an exception to even the most distasteful rules.     

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