My guess is that seventy percent of the guys who spent ten years or more in the NFL....are broke by age 45, and just working for their relatives or lucky to have a job with some high school or college football situation.
The smart guys put their money into some trust fund, and carefully avoided handing out cash left and right to friends. Most are not that much better off than players who played in the 1960s for $12k a year.
I read something not long ago about Jack Lambert, the Steelers linebacker of the 1970s. When his playing days were over, he disappeared from the limelight. It seems that durung his career, he saved, spent and invested wisely to the point where after football, he really didn’t have to work anymore.
And in the 1970s, football players didn’t pull in nearly as much money as players do today.