Pro Athletes broke from bad investments, gambling and....

[Reality]

Wholy Star Trek, Batman!  Is this true?

http://vault.sportsillustrated.cnn.com/vault/article/magazine/MAG1153364/1/index.htm
Exerpts:
By the time they have been retired for two years, 78% of former NFL players have gone bankrupt or are under financial stress because of joblessness or divorce.

Within five years of retirement, an estimated 60% of former NBA players are broke.

Seperately, Michael Franzese is allegedly ex mafia soldier who was involved in recruiting athelets and collecting gambling debts.
Guest on Jim Rome today, (missed it) but interview with gambling-mafia type guy who says they rape the athletes regulary.
I heard (secondhand) he says at minimum 25% of pro athletes are involved in gambling and many do point shaving-throw games.  What little i heard he seemed to be truthful.  Anyone hear the interview today?  He also has a book, might be worth a read.
http://www.michaelfranzese.com/

Don't believe everything printed in The Smoking Gun, but here is an opposing view:
http://www.thesmokinggun.com/archive/franzese1.html

[Reality]

zig please verify:

? Numerous retired MLB players have been similarly ruined, and the current economic crisis is taking a toll on some active players as well. Last month 10 current and former big leaguers?including outfielders Johnny Damon of the Yankees and Jacoby Ellsbury of the Red Sox and pitchers Mike Pelfrey of the Mets and Scott Eyre of the Phillies?discovered that at least some of their money is tied up in the $8 billion fraud allegedly perpetrated by Texas financier Robert Allen Stanford. Pelfrey told the New York Post that 99% of his fortune is frozen; Eyre admitted last month that he was broke, and the team quickly agreed to advance a portion of his $2 million salary.

[ziggy]

zig please verify:

? Numerous retired MLB players have been similarly ruined, and the current economic crisis is taking a toll on some active players as well. Last month 10 current and former big leaguers?including outfielders Johnny Damon of the Yankees and Jacoby Ellsbury of the Red Sox and pitchers Mike Pelfrey of the Mets and Scott Eyre of the Phillies?discovered that at least some of their money is tied up in the $8 billion fraud allegedly perpetrated by Texas financier Robert Allen Stanford. Pelfrey told the New York Post that 99% of his fortune is frozen; Eyre admitted last month that he was broke, and the team quickly agreed to advance a portion of his $2 million salary.

I don't know, but I did read something in SI about that.  It wasn't invested with Stanford, but was invested with a money manager, who had deposited in a money market with Stanford.  So it wasn't at risk, because it was in a money market.

[Reality]

I don't know, but I did read something in SI about that. 

Insider info, please.

[ziggy]

I don't know, but I did read something in SI about that. 

Insider info, please.

Come on man, no way I ask his mom about this.

[Reality]

Madera Coffee Shop.

"Where insiders meet"