Jack Johnson (the hockey player) is bankrupt

This is pretty crazy.

Johnson's parents, a former Michigan basketball player and a U.S. congressman from Iowa are all involved.

http://bluejacketsxtra.dispatch.com/content/stories/2014/11/20/blind-sided.html

 

Not that shocking. People always want to get their hooks into a professional athlete. Families are usually the worst about it.

He's fortunate that he has some prime earning years to get himself out of debt. Usually these guys don't find out about trouble until they can't make another dime.

 

Signing over power of attorney is about the worst idea ever.

And from reading the story, it sounds like the parents felt like they were owed for all the trouble and expense that they went to in prepping their child for a professional career.

 

I wouldn't consider that story shocking, but that's still a pretty fucked up situation. Jesus.

 

DB in the NHL thread, but nobody has commented there.

http://www.sportsjournalists.com/forum/posts/3839520/

 

Ryan Howard isn't bankrupt, but he has had a series of lawsuits with his family. The legal case is over, but it doesn't sound like the family is going to be doing Thanksgiving.

http://www.philly.com/philly/sports/phillies/The_family_legal_fight_over_Ryan_Howards_finances.html

A few months later, according to court documents, Howard watched a TV show titled “Broke” about “the financial plight of certain star athletes who had entrusted their business affairs to the family.”

With Howard in the first year of a 5-year, $125 million contract extension he signed in the spring of 2010, he decided to turn all of his marketing and promotional efforts over to agent Casey Close, whose Creative Artists Agency was a major player in the entertainment world (Close has since left CAA).

In the court documents, Ryan Howard claimed, “Corey and the other family members provided little to this (marketing) process, other than to conceal matters from Ryan. In fact, some potential sponsors chose not to do business with Ryan and RJH because they found the family members difficult to deal with.”

But when, as it was phrased in Ryan’s countersuit, he told his father he wanted to take control of his financial affairs and “have his family just be family,” Ron Howard’s response was that “if Ryan wanted him to walk away from Ryan’s business affairs, Ron should receive $5 million himself and Cheryl should receive another $5 million.”

Howard thus filed a counterclaim against his family members, alleging that his twin brother “engaged in a conspiracy with Ron Howard, Cheryl Howard, and (brother) Chris Howard to defraud RJH.”