Category Archives: sports

Don’t Ever Ask An NFL General Manager For Money Advice

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The NFL season never ends, and even though it’s been over a month since the Super Bowl, there’s always something going on.  Free agency and the upcoming draft are the current orders of business.  It’s a great model if you have any ties to the NFL!

One thing that I’ve learned is that general managers in the NFL are great with making money decisions for the purposes of managing the salary cap, but that the same types of decisions would make them awful at dispensing any sort of personal finance advice.

  • They’re always delaying things – You’ll often hear about general managers working players who ‘restructure’ their contracts.  This is a great benefit to the team this year because it frees up salary cap space.  The thing is that it merely shifts the money around so that more money is owed later on.  This would not be advisable for anybody’s household finances.
  • They lie – Many general managers sign players to contracts that they have no intention of fulfilling.  The thing is, in many cases, the players themselves know this, but go along with it anyways.  Since contracts aren’t guaranteed, a player can be cut, but for the purposes of salary cap management, the player will be signed for a longer period of time so that the bonus can be spread over a longer period of time, again making today’s obligation seems smaller.
  • Some of them cheat – More than a couple of teams have been penalized because they violated the rules of the salary cap.  It’s amazing to me that they would not see this during the actual moves that caused the problem, showing just how complex the system is.
  • They can’t relate – The salary cap for the past season was over $120 million dollars.  There’s virtually no way to tie that back to the average household income.

My guess is that the wives of most NFL general managers run their household finances.  Otherwise, the whole thing would be an overly complicated mess.

But, yay for the full time NFL season!

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You Can’t Succeed If You Don’t Put Yourself In A Position To

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This post uses some sports related analogy, but I promise, even you non-sports fans should continue reading as I think it’s a point that everybody should bring home.

In two days, my hometown Detroit Tigers will begin playing in the World Series.  The team was last in the World Series six years ago, in 2006, when they lost to the St. Louis Cardinals.  (Side note: I had tickets to a potential game seven in that series, but unfortunately, they lost in five). They haven’t won the World Series since 1984, and even though I was just ten at the time, I still remember them winning it as it was the first professional championship won by any of the Detroit teams since I’d been born.

This year, the Tigers have gotten here in somewhat dramatic fashion.  Go back to the pre-season, and they were predicted by just about everybody to win the American League Central division.  This was predicated on several ideas: The Tigers had Miguel Cabrera, arguably one of the best hitters in the game, had just signed Prince Fielder, had Justin Verlander, had lots of other great pitchers, and the general consensus was that most of the other teams in their division, well, kind of sucked.

So, it was pretty surprising when the Tigers struggled for most of the season.  They were only in first place in their division for sixteen days the entire season, at several points being so far back that their chances of making it to the playoffs were all but written off.  Thanks to some good play at the end of the season, combined with a complete collapse by the White Sox, and the Tigers found themselves in first on the most important day: the last day of the season.

With 88 wins (not many compared to other playoff teams) and a season that was nowhere near expectations, nobody was really sure what to make of them.  Two other teams got a lot more hype: The A’s, who had come out of nowhere, winning their division on the last day of the season, topping off a season that nobody saw coming.  And the Yankees, who are expected to make the playoffs, and did, winning a league leading 95 games.

Those happened to be the two teams that the Tigers faced.  The A’s took the series to the full five games, but the Tigers squeaked by, and were set to face off against the mighty Yankees.  Or so it seemed.

The Tigers made fools of the Yankees.  There is simply no other way to put it.  They held the Yankees to six runs…in the entire series, with four coming in the first game.  This led to a four game sweep.  Something that probably not even the most diehard Tigers fan saw coming.

So, even though they were below expectations throughout most of the regular season, they are now going to be playing to be champs.  And, they’re here simply because they put themselves into a position to succeed.

They didn’t do it the way that everybody wanted (or at least Tigers fans), which would have been exactly what was predicted: Take control from the beginning of the season and coast to the division win.  Instead, it was a nail biter and there were many, many headaches throughout the way.

But you know what? Nobody remembered those headaches as they watched the Tigers make that last out during the final game of the Yankees series.

None of it mattered, and it was all because they put themselves in a position to succeed.

So, what are you looking to do?  What is your ‘World Series’ that you want to win?

Is it getting out of debt?

Is it paying even one credit card?

Is it saving enough for a house?

Many times, people don’t have that ‘perfect plan’ in place to reach their own personal ‘World Series’, so instead they do nothing.

Here’s the thing, though.  You don’t need to have that perfect plan.  Not everything fell into place for the Tigers, but in the end, they’re where they are because no matter what, they never gave up and they still kept in play.

If you don’t put together some plan and start working toward paying that loan or that credit card, saving for that house, or whatever it is, you will never get there.

I repeat: If you don’t try, you will never get there.

The Tiger found themselves down many games in the standings.  Even with eight games left, they were three games out of first, which the odds say is a complete longshot.  If they would have mailed it in, it would have been understandable.  They didn’t.

Neither should you.

So, go ahead and give it a shot. I’m not going to lie.  You may not get there anyways.  But, just like the Tigers found out, you can do it and you can do it in dramatic fashion to boot.  You can succeed.

But only if you put yourself in position to do so.

So, what are you waiting for?

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Why I Admire The Heck Out Of Mark Cuban

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For a good long time, my opinion of Mark Cuban could be boiled down into two main points:

  • He got lucky selling Broadcast.com to Yahoo for billions before the dot.com bubble burst
  • He was annoying as an outspoken and brash NBA owner.

If these are thoughts you have, I’m here to tell you that you need to think again!

Since forming those opinions in the early 2000’s, I’ve done a lot more research and have become a lot more aware which now leads me to have a great deal of respect and admiration for him.

What changed?

Let me give you a few things which have helped me re-shape my views:

  1. Shark Tank – I first became a little more aware of Mark Cuban when he debuted on the ABC show, Shark Tank.  Even though there’s a lot of glom and production that goes into making it interesting to watch for viewers, the fact is that the ‘sharks’, who purchase stakes in ideas that they see as moneymakers, are savvy and have business knowledge.  After watching him on a few episodes, I realized that can pick through an idea and determine if it makes good business sense.  What really won me over, though, was seeing that he takes it one step further, often passing up on ideas that he sees as moneymakers, but that aren’t suited to his expertise.
  2. He Wants To Be A Champion – In 2011, his NBA team, the Dallas Mavericks, won the NBA championship.  After owning the team for over a decade, he got what he wanted: To be on top.  I started looking at all the ‘trouble’ he got into over the years and realized that he was that way because he wanted to be successful, and he was setting the standard for his team.  When his team wasn’t performing, he wasn’t afraid to call them out.  He expects and demands success.  In short, I used to roll my eyes when I saw news articles about his involvement in the NBA.  Now, I think he’d be a welcome addition to other leagues (it’s been rumored that he wants to buy a baseball team)
  3. He Didn’t Just Get Lucky – For a long time, I dismissed the billions he made with Broadcast.com as dumb luck.  He sold his company to Yahoo for billions, only to watch Yahoo take it over and later shut it down, basically getting nothing on their investment.  It’s easy to think that he just happened to get lucky, but let’s face it, he knew what he was doing when he sold.  We can all think that if someone came to us and offered us a ton of money for something we were working on, that we’d sell.  This is even easier when you have the retrospect that comes after the dot.com crash.  But, let’s think back to those days before the dot.com crash.  Everything was going up, up, and away.  How many people would have taken pause at Yahoo’s offer, figuring, “Hey, if I can get $5.7 billion today, maybe I should hold out and get $10 billion in a few months.”   Bottom line: Many people don’t know when to cash in their chips.  Mark Cuban did and that is something worth noting.
  4. He Works Hard.  Really, Really Hard – Doing more research into the companies and endeavors he’s taken before and after making his billions, it’s clear to see that he’s driven.  Back in the early 2000’s, I sort of figured him the type that just took the billions, bought his basketball team, and sat back soaking it all in, taking the occasional time off from lounging by the pool to annoy the NBA by spouting off about this or that.  In reality, nothing could be further from the truth.  He put a ton of effort into Broadcast.com and other companies he had before then.  He works hard as an NBA and business owner.

Long story short, Mark Cuban didn’t just get lucky.  He’s intelligent, hard working, and expects nothing short of full success, putting everything he has into achieving that success.  I admire him and look forward to seeing what else he accomplishes in his career.

What do you think of Mark Cuban?

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Watching The NFL In A Whole New Way

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Tonight kicks off the 2012-13 NFL season, as the Dallas Cowboys take on the defending Super Bowl champion New York Giants.  For the last few years, the opening game has always been on Thursday, but so as not to coincide with the convention acceptance speech, they moved it back a day.

Whatever.

But, this season will be a new experience for me.  Or at least one that I haven’t experienced in over ten years.

I started playing fantasy football around 2000 when everything started getting really popular online.  For the first couple of years, I played free leagues available through Yahoo, all with total strangers.  These were OK but they were pretty lame because:

  • You didn’t know anybody.  The leagues I joined were formed by people joining at that particular time, and when there were enough players, that started the draft.
  • Half the people didn’t bother.  After the draft, at least 2-3 people would never touch their team again, and another 2-3 would usually drop off.  This made things pretty frustrating.

In 2003, I was invited to play in a league by a friend who had another friend whom I’d met that ran the league.  Knowing two people was better than none, and everybody was active.  It was fun, but since most of the other guys knew each other through work, I was still the odd man out.

So, in 2004, a friend and I started talking and decided to form our own league.  We invited a bunch of friends, and soon enough we had ten of us, all who I knew personally.  I was the commissioner.  This draft and all of the others were held online.  In fact, that first year, I was down in Florida for a work assignment.

That league ran for eight seasons, until I finally decided to fold it at the end of last year.  After the first season, we actually added two more teams and ran with a dozen after that.  The best years were between 2005-07.  I never won but came as the runner-up in 2006 or 2007.  After 2008, the buddy that originated the idea ended up leaving the league under not-so great circumstances.  A couple of other people left along the way.  While I always found replacements, they were never as close of friends as those who departed.  The ‘chatter’ of the league message board also died off throughout the years.  People all maintained their teams, but a lot of the ‘fun’ had gone out of it.

When another really close friend announced he was leaving, that made up my mind to shut it down.  Because a lot of the ‘fun’ had gone out of it, I decided to shut it down, and let everybody know around May that we wouldn’t be continuing.  This let people have plenty of time to find new leagues, should they still want to play.  Some people were upset, but I know it was the right decision.  I also was ready to stop being a commissioner.  Putting everything together, managing the money and payouts, settling conflicts, and calming tempers was all part of the job.  The unpaid job.

But, it’s definitely going to change the way I watch the NFL.  When you have a fantasy football team, you watch games and stats based on the guys you have on your team.  There’s no getting around it.  You’ll get mad when a guy on your bench scores a TD and you didn’t start him.  You will see the stat ticker and realize that your opponent for the week had the guy that had a 4 touchdown game.

I realized that in many cases I stopped rooting for actual NFL teams, but was instead rooting on who I had on my team.  I always root for my hometown team, the Detroit Lions, but even then, when your fantasy opponent had Calvin Johnson on his team, cheering for one of his touchdowns still had a touch of bittersweetness.

I’m excited to get back to actually rooting for and against teams.  The Jets.  I hate them.  Same with the Packers, Bears, and Vikings.  After all, they are in our division, you have to root against them.  Before, I still held those allegiances but would still be OK with cheering a Packers TD if I happened to get the fantasy points from it.

I can see myself getting back into fantasy football after a year or two.  Not as a commissioner.  I’m done with those days.  But, for now, I’m actually looking forward to the break.  And to seeing football in a whole new light!

Do you play fantasy football?  How does fantasy football cloud your perspective when watching games and rooting for and against teams?

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From A Bloody Sock To A Bloody Mess

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Curt Schilling was one of my favorite baseball players in the 2000′s.  Whether you love or hate the Red Sox, anybody who follows baseball surely remembers the Red Sox ending their 900 year title drought partly because Curt Schilling wanted it so bad that he pitched throughout the playoffs with a tendon so bad that his foot bled and turned his sock blood red.  Regardless of the pain and the blood, his performance helped the Red Sox win the 2004 World Series.

He was a dominant force before and after that and the ‘Bloody Sock’ is one of the icons that shows his talent and his heart of a champion.

Unfortunately, that didn’t carry through for very long in his post-baseball career.

After retiring from baseball, Curt decided to form a video game company.  He invested just about every penny he had saved from his baseball earnings into this company.

It went belly up.  Recent reports indicate that all of the money that he made from baseball is gone.

Imagine that.  Being one of the best pitchers in the game.  Having one of the most iconic pieces of clothing enshrined in the Hall of Fame (that’s where one of the bloody socks ended up).  Representing the force behind ending a decades long curse.

Only to lose every dollar that’s associated with it.

What a mess.

Here are the three things that I think Curt Schilling did wrong with the whole video game fiasco.

  1. Got involved with something that he wasn’t an expert at – I’ve heard that Schilling was a gamer.  He loved playing video games.  Cool.  Maybe he loved playing them and beat all the other players in the clubhouse and on the team planes.  I don’t know.  Even if he was the master at playing video games, I can’t really imagine that Curt Schilling was a seasoned video game developer.  Chances are he had people pitching him ideas and decided to act on it, but did so without the expertise and knowledge that someone forming this type of company and making this type of investment should have.
  2. The investment itself – Speaking of making an investment, what was he thinking investing everything into this company?  You often hear success stories of people starting a company with everything they have and turning it into a roaring success.  That’s all fine and good if you have a few thousand bucks, but he lost fifty million dollars.  Fifty million.  That’s insane.  If he wanted to get involved in the video game industry, fine.  Let him have his fun.  But, under no circumstance should he have invested any more than $10 million dollars.  He should have found investors to make up the rest, and if he couldn’t, maybe that would have clued him in that the idea he was working on wasn’t a winner anyways.
  3. The blame game – The story of the investment goes that Rhode Island made an investment into his company with the promise that the company would provide 450 jobs to Rhode Island residents.  When things seemed to be going south, someone in the political system talked about the problems.  This essentially shut the video game company down.  Schilling said that if this information hadn’t been disclosed, he could have found investors to keep things going.  In other words, he was putting his own mistakes on others.  I don’t buy it.  If he was playing the blame game at the end, chances are he was delusional the entire time that things were headed south and his money was going out the window.

Where will Curt Schilling go from here?  I have no idea.  Will he be penniless?  Somehow I doubt that.  But, maybe his retirement will be going around and charging for autographs.  I know many former stars can make a living doing that, but nowhere near the lifestyle and security that $50,000,000 (or even $40,000,000 had he followed my second point above) would have offered.

From bloody sock to a bloody mess.

And it really could have been avoided.

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Weekend Roundup: November 11, 2011 – Baseball Free Agency Edition

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One thing I’ll never understand is major league baseball and their free agency schedule.  For baseball, free agency starts three days after the end of the World Series.  There is no waiting around.  With that apparent urgency, you’d expect that something would happen.  But, what happens?

Nothing.

Since free agency started a week ago, I think I’ve seen one player get signed.  Jim Thome.  Who I thought had retired at least three years ago.  B-O-R-I-N-G!

In football, free agency takes place quite a while after the Super Bowl, but it’s worth the wait.  A couple of years ago, Jim Schwartz, the coach of the Lions, rang Kyle VanDenBosh’s doorbell at 12:01am to try to convince him to sign with the Lions (and he did!).  Football is a flurry of activity and it’s fun to watch!

Why baseball makes the start of their process a collective yawner is something I have yet to make sense of.

Here are some great blog posts as well as links to some carnival round-ups that I was included in this week.

Have a great weekend!

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