It is sad, honestly. I don’t know what the current percentage is, but I remember a number being thrown around in years past indicating more than 70% of NFL players are broke within two years of retirement.
Yes, that sounds about right.
I know an offensive lineman who had a career with the Bengals. He's about williams age and played in the late 2000's and 2010's. Probably had about the same earnings. He is a country boy, from a church-going family, didn't have a "posse" or a baby-momma, and didn't have expensive tastes. Married his college sweetheart and has 3 kids.
He saved all his NFL earnings, and bought/runs a golf-course and winery, which is his new career.
A friend came to visit from Oregon and told me he was talking to a black gentleman at the airport while waiting for his flight , the man was a airport employee cleaning the waste baskets they started talking about the previous nights football game and my friend said to him “you look like you played a bit of ball in your day” and the guy admitted he actually played for the NY Giants back in the day... I won’t say his name but I looked it up and it was true he was a great player but had to work hard for his money now.