The life of a pro athlete is exciting and glamorous. But it’s also very hard. Athletes have to be incredibly dedicated to their sports. You simply do not make it at that level if you’re not willing to put in the work. Talent is not enough.
This means long hours at the gym or the practice facility. It means working on holidays. It may mean skipping important family events. It also means that, perhaps more so than in other professions, the athlete has to put the job first.
Add into that the fact that playing pro sports come with a lot of travel. Baseball players play more than 100 games during most seasons. Hockey and basketball players are nearing that total. Even football players, with what is soon to be a 17-game season, spend months traveling around the country since they only play one game a week.
All of this means that family life is very hard, even for those who want to make it work. That is part of the reason that the majority of pro athletes get divorced and have decidedly higher divorce rates than most Americans.
You may have heard that money is the main cause of divorce. This just goes to show that money doesn’t fix everything. Many athletes make millions of dollars per year and still wind up divorced because the lifestyle just does not leave much space for a family.
New York City is a hotbed for pro athletes, with many of the country’s premier teams in the four major sports based out of the Big Apple. With so much money on the line, athletes and their spouses need to know what legal rights they have.