Welcome to another hour of The Jalen Ramsey Show where we’re here to talk about your life and your money. Open lines at 818-338-0011. The call is free and some say the advice is exactly what you pay for it! Starting off out in Michigan today with Jamal calling from Allen Park. Welcome to The Jalen Ramsey Show, Jamallen.

Hello Jalen and thank you taking my call. How are you doing today?

Better than the Jaguars under Tom Coughlin. How can I help?

I’m calling because I think it’s time for me to hang ’em up. Just hang the whole career up. No point anymore.

Jeeze — team trades for Jared Goff and you respond by quitting? Quite the vote of confidence in the Lions organization there.

I’m only up here doing the walkthrough on my place and getting the deposit back. I’m a free agent this season and, with the interest my agent is hearing, I’m just thinking I’ll be better off just taking free government money instead of working.

Oh yeah? What country are you a citizen of that forgoing employment during your prime is the most lucrative option?

America! Socialist America!

The same socialist America that just hit the one year mark on their pandemic timeline having provided trillions in funding to businesses and pro-employment programs and all of $1,800 total to some citizens, which I doubt include you considering NFL compensation tables? What’s your real bitch?

Well if I’m not gonna be playing ball then I need to go back to school and learn the computers or something. And I think I’ll just go ahead and save all my own money and let the government pay for free school for me, right? I mean, I had to pay off my own $50K in student loans and now China Joe is just going to pay for everyone else’s education? Nah, this playing ball is for the birds. I’ll just play video games and wait for my check to arrive.

Well, so much for trying to convince potential GMs that playing football is your passion. Then again, being a UFA at the end of your rookie contract is an unattractive place to be already. Too old for a rookie contract and so freely let go that no GM can’t help but look at you as used goods.

No no, it’s fine. I thought I’d have to abuse my body for another three to five years but now I can just get free stuff, right? Maybe I’ll be a professional student. Return to San Diego and get my masters or doctorates maybe.   

Look, you’re upset that you paid off your student loan debt and now it’s on the table as a stimulus option for our economy as we sluggishly exit the 2020 recession. I get it. But isn’t it a little shortsighted to quit on the NFL over a potential one-time handout that you won’t even get? Especially when you know there’s nothing coming behind that.

I guess. I’m just…I’m pissed. I’m working hard and, regardless of the economy everyone else is enjoying, I’m having economic anxiety! There’s nothing pumping cash into frozen windmills does for me. How about hand that cash to the billionaire NFL owners who are going to lose two billion dollars from not having fans in the stadiums so it can trickle down to me? I worked my ass off to pay those loans down and now everyone else just gets it for free?

You pay for security at your house? Does it piss you off that other people need the help of the police to secure their communities then? Do you pay for your own groceries? Does it piss you off that other people are getting WIC and SNAP benefits? You pay for your housing? Does it piss you off that other people get housing assistance?

It pisses me off that the guys who didn’t have to play ball in college — and so they could have a job and thousands of hours of more free time in school — are going to get their loans paid off. These are loans to party schools for bros who just wanted to hang for four years, not tuition assistance for Section 8 Tech.

Why?

Because fuck those guys. I paid mine down! Why can’t everyone else? I got a job after college that doesn’t translate to shit! These guys are doctors and dentists and lawyers and I’m going to be on my ass out of the NFL at 25 and, what, looking for an entry level office job? Come on!

Well believe it or not, the government isn’t really thinking about you in this. Figure that student loan debt is a $1.7 trillion problem; even knocking out $600 billion leaves a $1.1 trillion problem while we continue to make loans without any changes to the programs so it’ll be back to $1.7 and worse in no time. I do agree with the premise, however, that putting money in people’s pockets will infuse the economy quickly.

Not mine.

No but you got plenty more than $10K since the 2017 tax bill passed. So maybe you get yours and they get theirs and everyone gets a little bit and, more important than who gets what handout, maybe the cumulative benefit of everyone getting a little something and, in turn, generating a kick to — or “priming”, if you will — the national consumer cash flow.

See?! You would never agree to this out of control extreme spending recklessness!

Dude, I take as much money from the government as possible. I do stuff on my taxes that I would NEVER proclaim out loud on here NOR EVER ADVISE any of you dare take part in these The Dark Arts of Tax Schemes. This is free money; when have I told anyone to turn down free money? You think I’m gonna be upset that some people don’t need it or don’t use it or whatever? What do I care? I don’t get most of the money the government hands out. They handed out $28 billion to farmers during the China thing; I didn’t see a cent of that. I laughed because I already got my handout when I became rich. Shit, if America is good at one thing, it’s keeping the rich rich. So go on and get rich and then the government will take care of you.

Well then I will.

Yeah and let me know what University of San Diego masters programs offer as much potential as being a mature, hungry, veteran NFL UFA. Again, we’re here to talk about YOUR life and YOUR money. You got Hannity or Wolf or whoever to take your calls on public lives and public money but I — oh, what’s that? They don’t take your calls. That’s an interesting way to HAVE A CONVERSATION. And on that note let’s hop over to line two with Deshaun in Houston.

Deshaun, welcome to The Jalen Ramsey Show.


Hi there Jalen. Thanks for taking my call. I wanted to get your advice on some life planning. I’m in a little bit of a career upheaval but still want to be making good decision about my future. 

Well, an NFL career is never not in upheaval. So what’s happening that is inspiring you to reconsider your retirement plans now?

It’s not so much about life as death. My teammate, Louis Nix, passed away last month — very likely a victim of murder or some other type of foul play — and it just really made me look at my own life and I worry about the security of my own legacy.

You got a family? Kids? What are we talking about here? Do you just want to throw a bunch of money at NPR and get your name mentioned alongside the The William T. Grant and Robert Wood Johnson Foundations in between Morning Edition segments?

I’m just single now. Focusing on my game and my career. But I want to plan ahead. It’s just tough because I’m in a pretty nasty dispute with my organization who is basically blowing the whole roster up but won’t trade me and I’m telling them I’ll just sit so, you know, I’m not sure if now is the time to be setting up a life insurance policy or what?

That’s a tough one. Your situation is your own but a couple immediate thoughts. First, if you’re single and no one else is depending on your income, I see no reason why you’d need any life insurance. Life insurance is to supplement the income loss as a result of your death for your spouse or kids or whoever who’d experience a real lifestyle drop when you pass. How many years you have in the league?

Just finished my fourth season.

You’re fine then. Your league benefit includes a $1.2 life insurance policy if you kick the bucket tomorrow. Next item: housing. Not a long-term planning item but I think it goes without saying that, if you’re planning on leaving Houston, don’t be buying anymore real estate there. What are you holding there for land right now?

Just my personal residence and getting out won’t be a problem. You know, I was eleven when my family received a home via Habitat for Humanity. My mom still lives there. It changed my life completely. Granted us stability, for one, but I saw the confidence that it gave my mother. Looking back, I’m sure it’s just the security of having that box for ‘shelter’ checked once we had that home and while she underwent cancer treatment when I was in high school. I know it meant a lot to me to just have my own room in that house.

Are you feeling concerned that you’re going to lose that security?

Nah — I understand that, straight dollars, I’m fine. Hell, I’ll miss out on $20 million if I sit this year and, honestly, that doesn’t give me the kind of heartburn that inappropriate estate planning gives me.

Well, I think you may just be overreacting then. You are watching your teammates moving on to other pastures — I see JJ Watt is joining DeAndre Hopkins in Arizona — and you feel a little out of control, right?

A little.

And you want out so much you’re willing to lose $20 million to make your point.

It’s more than that.

Well, I’m just pointing out that you’re in a very serious mindset. You start writing off $20 million here and sacrificing a year of service there, I’m not sure you don’t have bigger problems. You’re a single, mid-20’s, multi-millionaire with your best days ahead of you. You have a retirement plan that should be set and on autopilot for times exactly like this.

But I don’t want to sit and just stew about my contract situation. I want to feel in control of something.

Then buy a hooker! Don’t go making up excuses to screw with 65 year old Deshaun because, when you get to be him, you won’t appreciate it. You’ve got a career crisis and you owe it your attention. You need to be working out. You need to be studying. You need to be enjoying some of that fabulous wealth this offseason. Finances need to be intentional; not something you decide to take a swing at because your buddy died and you fear the same fate. No — now is the time to trust the process and just ride things out. Your finances will be there when this team situation plays out; but ain’t nothing good going to come of it when you start tampering with a good thing for no reason. Figure out a deal so you don’t walk from $20 million this year.

So maybe I’m just letting my emotions get the best of me here?

Probably. And you know what they say about being emotional.

Never do it.

That is right. Unless you want to start for a team in the WNFL

So that’s it for this hour of the show. Here’s a reminder for those who can to get their vaccine and, for the rest of you, sit tight, mask up, and we’ll see you next time, right here, on The Jalen Ramsey Show.