In recent months former running back for the Seattle Seahawks, Marshawn Lynch, has become the poster child for professional athlete personal finance. The mainstream media’s been painting Marshawn Lynch as a model of frugality, implying that the man’s saved up $50 million in his career because he never spends a penny.
Well, these claims are all false, and Marshawn Lynch went on 60 Minutes Sports which aired on Showtime to discuss 1) just how frugal he actually is when it comes to personal finance, 2) how he’s human and makes financial mistakes just like everyone else, and 3) he discussed a pretty traumatizing experience involving disgusting insects that has directly affected his frugality as an adult.
You can watch video of the interview here, in which he discusses that traumatizing childhood experience, or you can scroll past the video to see his statements in print:
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via Will Brinson at CBS Sports:
JW: Everybody I’ve spoken to about you has referenced your financial savvy. What’s the source of that?
Marshawn: You ate cereal before?
JW: I’ve eaten cereal.
Marshawn: Alright. Have you ever had a roach in your cereal before?
JW: No.
Marshawn: You haven’t, right?
JW: I have not.
Marshawn: If you came from eatin’ cereal with roaches in it before, Dawg . . . Feel what I’m sayin’? You wouldn’t want to do that again, right? Once you’ve seen the lowest of the low, you don’t want to go back. But, like I told you before, it’s not me–I have a good team and some smart family members around me.
Cockroaches in his cereal. The dude found cockroaches in his cereal when he was a child. I cannot even begin to fathom having childhood moments like that…Oh wait, I can, I grew up in Florida where we call cockroaches ‘palmetto bugs’ and they are literally everywhere you turn…Not to mention things like finding alligators in pools, finding scorpions in my camping tent AND in my bed at home, alligator snapping turtles in my backyard, rattle snakes galore..Still though, that must’ve been pretty traumatizing for Marshawn.
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As noted on CBSSports.com, the interview then goes on to discussing the nearby park that Marshawn grew up next to, and it sounds like the worst place on earth.
His mother would punish him for sneaking out to the park and when you hear him describe the park it’s no surprise she wasn’t happy her son was there.
We’ll start from the ground. When you look on the ground, you might see some needles. You might see some Pyrex [the cookware commonly used for making crack cocaine]–you know what I’m sayin’, Dawg? There was a lotta drugs. And if you lift your head up and open your eyes, you might see a prostitute walkin’. . . . What I would call real life, man. It wasn’t no bells and whistles.
So this isn’t a clear cut explanation of Marshawn’s frugality as a pro athlete with a reported $50 million in the bank. I guess it implies two things though: 1) when you grow up having nothing you’re able to live on very little, which went a long way in enabling him to save $50 million, and 2) the desire to never fall back to that place in life is an EXTREMELY powerful force, one that drives him to be very cautious with his spending.
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For more on this interview you can click on over to CBSSports.com by following the link!