Phillip Buchanon's story about money and his mom is sad but important

There are plenty of stories of NFL players blowing their money, with the tales often involving family members having their hands out, but few are as stark, specific and revealing as the story Phillip Buchanon tells in his new book.

Fox Sports published an excerpt from Buchanon's book, "New Money: Staying Rich." In the excerpt, the former NFL cornerback talks about family members, particularly his mother, coming to him for money after he was drafted by the Oakland Raiders in 2002. Buchanon says his mother told him he owed her $1 million for raising him.

"Well, that was news to me," wrote Buchanon, who played 10 NFL seasons for five teams. "If my mother taught me anything, it's that this is the most desperate demand that a parent can make on a child. The covenant of having a child is simply that you give your child everything possible, and they owe you nothing beyond a normal amount of love and respect. There is no financial arrangement."

Buchanon wrote that he bought his mother a house instead, and told her to sell his childhood house. But he says she kept both houses, renting one to an aunt, and he ended up making the payments on both. He wrote that it was a mistake to buy such a big house for his mother, and proposed a solution.

"I offered to buy her a comfortable house in my name for her to live in. This way she wouldn't have to take out any loans or put my little sister and brothers in a situation where the roof over their heads could be taken away. She'd move out of the house that was too big for her and into this new one. Instead, she opted for $15,000 cash.

"I told her that if I gave her the $15,000, not to come calling when she got into trouble. Needless to say, she ended up calling. And, what's worse, she lost the house." 

Buchanon told Fox Sports that he wants future generations of athletes to avoid the mistakes he made. In his book description from his website, he warned that "'fun friends' and family will view you as an endless ATM." He also wrote about family members asking for money to get something fixed, but the things would never get fixed after Buchanon wrote them a check. When Buchanon later offered to pay for the repairs directly to the company doing the work, all of a sudden family members weren't so interested anymore.

The stories of athletes spending their money have been told before, and ESPN Films did a good job compiling many in the documentary "Broke." And, of course, not all NFL players spend all the money they made in football. But the ones who do, after being given millions of dollars at a very young age, have regrets. Buchanon hopes others avoid the mistakes he made, even if he had to share some uncomfortable stories about his family to get his point across.


(sports.yahoo.com)