Players who are in it for the money will sometimes spend little time around the town or community after a game, leaving the club and its supporters disillusioned.Ī club can get in too deep while spending to chase a premiership, thinking that success will help balance the books, but then crash when the cash runs out. Such is the often strange world of semi-professional Australian rules footballers, some of whom are said to be paid more than $60,000 for a 20-week season – almost double what the best players in the AFLW competition make (though the recent signing of a new enterprise bargaining agreement means this pay will be doubled next season).ĭespite efforts by the AFL to curb the influence of money on the lower tiers of football, including by introducing salary cap and points systems designed to prevent clubs from loading up with highly paid elite talent, some say it continues to have a corrosive effect on the game, even when no rules are being broken. Through a convoluted series of events, including a Contiki tour someone involved with the club did with one of Dwyer’s mates two years earlier, the coach came upon Dwyer’s mobile number.ĭwyer says someone from the team called him up and asked if he would be interested in making the drive north from Melbourne every week, if the price was right? And did he know anyone else who could play? It was 2016 and the town, which in that year’s census had recorded a population of fewer than 100 people, needed players. ET to learn from premier experts and entrepreneurs how you can beat inflation, hire top talent and get access to capital.“We drove past two clapped-out buildings and down a gravel road and then you just see the light towers at the footy oval, and that’s the first thing you see,” he says. Take your business to the next level: Register for CNBC's free Small Business Playbook virtual event on August 2 at 1 p.m. "People make money, but if they don't have any equity or honor, it all falls away - and that sounds real existential or spiritual, but it's for real."ĭON'T MISS: Want to be smarter and more successful with your money, work & life? Sign up for our new newsletter! because people understand equity and honor," Crews said. "I have more money now than I ever had in my entire life. He credits that success to a simple mindset: If you pursue jobs you'll genuinely enjoy and take pride in doing them well, money will follow. He's since starred in commercials, television shows and movies over a 24-year acting career. I never stopped working."Ĭrews later took a $12-per-hour job as a security guard for movie and television studios, giving him close proximity to the entertainment business. I went, 'Oh my God, I actually made this money on my own.' I was never broke again. It wasn't glamorous, but it was a turning point, he added: "I had $64 at the end of the day. When his ex-teammate stopped lending him money, Crews took a job sweeping factory floors for $8 per hour, he said. He and his wife moved to Los Angeles so he could pursue an acting career, and he relied on loans from a former teammate to get by, he said. Roughly 16% of professional football players go bankrupt just over a decade after they retire, according to a National Bureau of Economic Research study published the year prior.Ĭrews struggled financially much more quickly after retiring from the NFL, he told CNBC Make It in 2018. The average NFL career lasts 3.3 years, as of 2016. That doesn't necessarily equate to lifelong wealth. "When I got cut go back in the locker room and ask the players if they wanted their portraits painted," he said, noting that he'd charge around $5,000 to paint his ex-teammates on the backdrop of city skylines.Ĭrews likely would've made more money in today's NFL: Practice squad players with two seasons of experience made a minimum of $15,400 per week last year, and nearly $50,000 per week when elevated to a game-day roster. To supplement his income, Crews developed a side hustle around his artistic talents. The Chargers now play in Los Angeles, and Washington D.C.'s team is now called the Commanders. It's unclear how much money Crews made in total during his NFL career, which included 32 games for the Rams, San Diego Chargers and Washington Redskins. A fast-food employee working 40 hours per week at that rate would make $170. Minimum wage was $4.25 per hour in 1993, both federally and in Wisconsin. "I would have made more money at McDonald's," Crews, 55, said.
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