I recently read in USA Today a hedge fund manager named Kirk S Wright was convicted of bilking his clients out of millions of dollars, many of whom were NFL players, and was ordered to pay almost $20 million in a lawsuit brought by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. It would be interesting to know who the NFL players were and if they were retired or actively playing. If the latter, then when they found out that Mr. Wright had done them wrong and bilked them out of their savings, it had to have a negative effect on their performance on the field. Today, few professional athletes who are earning millions of dollars have someone they can totally and completely trust to look after their earnings so that the money will be there when they do retire.

But such was not the case with former Kansas City Royals third baseman and hall of famer George Brett, because he had his brother Bobby. Bobby Brett was his brother’s keeper and looked after George’s earnings so that today, they are both so wealthy that they even own one or two minor league baseball franchises in the Northwest U.S. I’ve always maintained that Bobby Brett was one of the reasons George was as successful as he was. When George came to the plate, the last thing on his mind was who was looking after his money. If every professional athlete had someone like Bobby to look after their finances, it could absolutely help their performance in their sport.

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