In the wake of taking far too many hits last night against Houston,
Michael Vick has a lot of reasons to slide when he runs the football. He needs to keep himself healthy. He needs to stay on the field for the Eagles to make a deep playoff run. But most important, he has to keep playing if he hopes to ever get out from his massive pile of debt.
ESPN's Lester Munson reported on Vick’s financial woes two days ago, and the reality of Vick’s bankruptcy status is enough to make your head explode. Munson explains that Vick is currently living on a fixed budget and that, “nearly two-thirds of every dollar he earns goes to creditors and to taxes.”
Despite earning over $5 million this season, Vick hasn’t even come close to paying back all the money he owes. His only hope to get back in the black is to play brilliantly and secure a lucrative contract extension with a hefty signing bonus, which he’s well on his way toward doing.
Provided, of course, that he doesn’t get hurt.
Munson notes that Vick, on a weekly basis, has to deal with an array of legal issues that practically constitute having a second job:
Vick's finances are so complex that he must be inundated each day with issues, decisions, court papers, e-mails, and phone calls from his lawyers, his family, his friends and his trustee. Even the simple action of selling his condominium on Alton Road in Miami Beach (sale price: $1.1 million) has resulted in nearly 300 pages of court documents and conflicting claims about where the money goes.
If you’ve ever dealt with the legal system before, you know that the amount of tedious paperwork and faxing is enough to make you want to end your life. All you want when dealing with the legal process is to be done with it, and to never get tangled up in it again. The fact that Vick has been able to excel despite all this anguish (not to say it isn’t deserved) is stunning, and the fact that he could earn a $20 million bonus and still NOT be out of legal hell shows you the incredible hole that he dug for himself in his previous life.
So try not to put your head down, Mike. Collection agencies all across the country are counting on you.
