These athletes lost all their money, sometimes
going broke as soon as they left their sport. Debi Thomas, a bronze medalist at the 1988
Olympics, was an African-American trailblazer and once the most popular figure skaters in
America. After retiring from skating, Thomas graduated
from medical school and began practicing orthopedic surgery. Her attitude caused problems. She bounced from job to job. She tried starting her own practice, but it
failed. According to the TV series Fix My Life, on
which she appeared in 2015, she lived in a bedbug-infested trailer with her fiance. Her medical license lapsed and her only income
came from selling gold bullion. In 2012, she approached a police officer,
saying she had a gun and that she planned on hurting herself. This led to a bipolar diagnosis, which she
denies. Thomas told the Washington Post, "I'm very misunderstood because I look at
the world differently. You can call it the Olympian mentality." Behind the facade of a hoops prodigy, Kenny
Anderson hid a more complicated life. As he told SB Nation in 2013, he was molested
by two different men and spent his childhood in the shadow of his mother's addictions. His NBA earnings totaled more than $63 million,
but his demons remained. His lifestyle, which included numerous mansions,
11 cars, and eight children by three different mothers, took a toll on his wallet. He filed for bankruptcy in 2005, the year
he left the NBA. As he explained to Forbes, "I wasn't a gambler or a drug addict, but
I did foolish things." In the 2017 documentary Mr. Chibbs, Anderson
showed what it meant to lose so much. Anderson says he lives comfortably now, and
his main focus is being a better parent to his many children. "I had everything. Millions. And I was, like, miserable." Vince Young's college football coach told
Sports Illustrated his former star quarterback was "obviously one of the best to ever play
college football." Many fans consider Young's 2006 Rose Bowl
performance one of the best. It bought him a ticket to the NFL, but despite
winning Offensive Rookie of the Year and earning two Pro Bowl appearances, Young struggled. After clashes with his coaches, he played
his last NFL game in 2011. A suicide scare and a DUI turned him into
tabloid fodder, and a lifetime of ignoring his finances led to bankruptcy that same year. He was far too generous, notoriously spending
$15,000 for one meal at a Cheesecake Factory. In recent years, Young has righted his financial
ship and took a job at his alma mater, the University of Texas. He played for the Saskatchewan Roughriders
of the CFL in 2017 before an injury forced him to retire, most likely for good this time. Arantxa Sanchez-Vicario won 14 tennis Grand
Slams and became only the second woman ever to be ranked No. 1 simultaneously in both
singles and doubles. Despite earning $17 million in prize money
over her 17-year career and another $40 million in endorsements, the icon told Spanish magazine
La Otra Conica, "My parents left me with nothing, and now
I am indebted to the [tax authorities] and I will not be quiet." Sanchez-Vicario sued her father and her brother
for restitution. According to her lawsuit, her family was living
extravagantly, thanks to offshore accounts and duplicitous dealings, while she got by
on €1,500 per month. Crowned World Council heavyweight champion
in 1986, Mike Tyson went on to win the World Boxing Association and International Boxing
Federation championships. He ruled the ring into 1989, but things started
to fall apart. His wife, Robin Givens, divorced him, alleging
physical abuse. In early 1990, he lost the championship to
an underdog. In 1991 he was accused of rape, and in 1992
he was sentenced to six years for the crime. When he got out of jail after serving only
three years, Tyson returned to boxing. During a match with Evander Holyfield, Tyson
was disqualified for biting off part of Holyfield's ear. The boxing commission withheld $3 million
from his purse. He lost another big fight in 2002, and filed
for bankruptcy in 2003. He wasn't earning enough to support his $400,000
a month lifestyle, and his debts totaled more than $20 million. He was probably regretting the $173,000 diamond
chains. "I never really learned the art of handling
money as a kid. That's a art." Hall of famer Dennis Rodman spent millions
of dollars not on diamond chains but on NBA fines. In 1997, he was fined $25,000 for kicking
a cameraman. An 11-game suspension for the incident cost
him around $1 million. Later that year, he was fined $50,000 for
"expletive-laced" comments he made about Mormons while he was in Utah. In 2000, he raked up $13,500 in fines in five
games. Fines weren't the only things sucking the
cash out of Rodman's personal fortune. Rodman's lifestyle cost him around $31,000
a month, and he wasn't taking home enough money to pay for it. In 2012, CBS reported he owed $860,000 in
child support payments and owed about $350,000 in California state taxes. According to CNBC, before his infamous murder
trial, OJ Simpson was worth an estimated $11 million. The trial cost him around $50,000 a day. Yet he continued to generate income while
he was in custody, mostly through the sale of memorabilia, which actually increased in
demand. OJ Simpson autographs were even more valuable
if they were dated from the time of the trial. Even so, during the civil trial that followed
his acquittal, his attorneys claimed he was $850,000 in debt. As of 2014, the Goldman and Brown families
say they've been able to collect less than 1 percent of the $33.5 million they were awarded
in that case. Simpson has a pension from the NFL worth $25,000
a month, and by law the Goldmans and Browns can't take any of it. So he may have lost millions, but he isn't
exactly destitute. Dorothy Hamill was just 19 when she won figure
skating gold at the 1976 Winter Olympics. It was tough for a teenager to suddenly be
smart about managing millions of dollars from endorsements. Hamill filed for bankruptcy in 1996, claiming
$1.3 million in assets and $1.6 million in debt, with "[no] contracts to perform, to
endorse products, to commentate, or to perform other professional services." She could no longer self-market her way out
of her financial woes. "It just wasn't everything I thought winning
an Olympic gold medal would be." Hamill blamed her estranged husband for talking
her into bad business ventures, although her friends told the press that she had pretty
terrible spending habits. As of 2018, Hamill says she's changed her
ways. She said, "The good news is I've finally found people
that are trustworthy and I'm a little smarter." Golfer John Daly made a name for himself on
the PGA tour in 1991, when he won the PGA Championship playing as an alternate. His performance earned him the coveted title
of Rookie of the Year. Daly squandered the money he earned as a professional
golfer in one of the most devastating ways possible. He gambled it all away in casinos over about
15 years. In a 2014 interview with TMZ Sports, Daly
says he calculated his total gambling losses at around $90 million. Daly told TMZ that he would often take out
million-dollar markers and play blackjack. Sometimes he'd have as much as $600,000 on
a single table. When asked if he regretted his gambling days,
he just said, "Man, I had a great time." In 1985, at the age of 17, Boris Becker became
the youngest men's singles champion at Wimbledon. By 1996, he had three Wimbledon wins, plus
a U.S. Open win and two Australian Open wins. The New York Post says he was worth about
$63 million in prize money and sponsorships. Becker lost a large portion of his fortune
after a brief romantic encounter with a Russian model named Angela Ermakova. She got pregnant, which was particularly awkward
since the hookup happened while his wife was also pregnant. The subsequent divorce and child support for
his various children is estimated to have cost him over $26 million. The German government later came after him
for millions in back taxes. Finally, in 2017, after decades of financial
woe, Becker was declared bankrupt. Deuce McAllister got into the University of
Mississippi on his own merits and made a name for himself in football. He went on to a career in the NFL, where played
for nine seasons and was voted into the Pro Bowl in 2003. He became legendary while playing for the
New Orleans Saints, setting their all-time rushing touchdown record in 2008. According to Pro Football Talk, McAllister
made "tens of millions" during his career, but then he made the unfortunate decision
to buy a Jackson, Mississippi, Nissan dealership, which went bankrupt in 2009 after Nissan says
he defaulted on his payments and went over his credit line. By 2011, Whitney National Bank was after McAllister
for an unpaid $1.8 million mortgage. Former NFL quarterback Mark Brunell was once
worth about $50 million, but he squandered it all on nine shaky business enterprises. According to SB Nation, five of those nine
businesses went under, and as of 2011 Brunell was the subject of six lawsuits. The worst of all his investments was real
estate firm Champion LLC, which lost him a ton of money when the market crashed. SB Nation said he was so broke that he planned
to get a job as a medical sales representative upon his retirement, but in 2018 he landed
a job as a local TV sports anchor. He also works as a high school football coach
for the Episcopal Eagles, which is a gig he says he loves. He told 1010 XL, "Honestly, when I took the job I thought I
may do it for two or three years, and now I'm going into year six and I have no plans
of leaving anytime soon." All-Pro Lawrence Taylor was a Hall of Fame
nominee who played linebacker in the NFL for 13 seasons and earned about $50 million over
the course of his career. A lot of that money went toward a drug and
alcohol problem. "I went on a binge for like, uh, over a year. Every day for over a year." At its worst, Taylor said his drug habit cost
him thousands of dollars a day. In 1988, he was suspended for failing the
NFL's drug test, and he was later arrested for buying crack cocaine from an undercover
officer. Taylor also once owned a $10 million business
that went bust, and in 1990 he filed a false tax return that came back to bite him. In 1998, he filed for bankruptcy protection
to avoid foreclosure on his $600,000 home in New Jersey. In 2010, he was arrested on charges of having
sex with a minor. He pleaded guilty and got probation. Former quarterback Michael Vick became infamous
back in 2007, when he pleaded guilty to charges related to an illegal dog fighting ring. Vick co-owned Bad Newz Kennels, which was
training around 50 pit bull terriers to participate in high-stakes dog fights. They executed the dogs that didn't perform
well. Vick spent 18 months in prison and accumulated
$17.8 million in debt. In 2008, he filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. Since then, he's tried to redeem himself. In 2014 he told ESPN that he filed for Chapter
11 bankruptcy instead of Chapter 7 so he would have an opportunity to pay back his debts. He said, "I didn't want to stiff people who never stiffed
me." Check out one of our newest videos right here! Plus, even more Grunge videos about pro athletes
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