Ravens offensive tackle Bryant McKinnie has been ordered to pay $4.3 million to a company that gave him a loan before last year’s lockout.
Pro Player Funding, a company that specialized in “lockout loans” last year, has obtained a judgment against McKinnie ordering him to pay $4.3 million, TMZ reports. McKinnie got a loan for $4 million just before the lockout began, and he’s been ordered to pay it back in full, plus fees and interest.
According to the report, the loan had a high interest rate and a clause that allowed Pro Player Funding to call in the entire amount due if McKinnie missed one payment. Once the lockout ended in August, McKinnie planned to have his paychecks go directly from the Vikings to Pro Player Funding, but he missed a payment when the Vikings cut him in training camp. McKinnie is now with Baltimore; it’s not clear whether his paychecks from the Ravens are going directly to Pro Player Funding.
Any player who took out a “lockout loan” is in serious need of financial counseling. The lockout didn’t cancel any games and therefore the lockout didn’t cost any players any game checks. A player whose financial situation is so precarious that the mere possibility of losing a paycheck had him scrambling to find a loan has made horrible decisions with his money. And a player like McKinnie, who made tens of millions of dollars in his nine years with the Vikings, should have enough money socked away that he never has to take out a loan again for the rest of his life.
The players’ union spent $44 million on insurance to help players get by in case the lockout had cost them a year of NFL paychecks. What players really need is financial planning for the 50 or so years that they’ll go without NFL paychecks.