Inspired by ESPN’s “30 for 30: Broke,” which chronicled athletes’ financial troubles after sports, the Uninterrupted’s (now SpringHill Co.'s) “Kneading Dough” series has returned for its 4th season. Its goal, according to this season’s host, former NFL WR ANDREW HAWKINS, is to change the narrative around athletes’ fiscal responsibility. Hawkins joined SBJ's Andrew Levin on the latest episode of “SBJ Unpacks: The Road Ahead” to break down what audiences can expect from the season, finances during a pandemic and lessons he wished he learned earlier in his career.
On why some athletes are tentative to discuss personal finances:
Hawkins: Some of it is pride. Some of it is an embarrassment issue. I don’t think it’s just siloed to finance either. I think we’re all self-conscious about the things we don’t know and how people are going to perceive that. If you say that you don’t know something, you might think someone thinks you’re stupid for not knowing. The reality is, and that’s what the whole basis of the show is, you’re not. You don’t know something until you’re taught. You don’t know something until you’ve experienced it.
On key lessons he wished someone taught him earlier in his career:
Hawkins: Understanding earlier how to get leverage and keep leverage. … You’re young, and you just think it’s all about how I do on the field. That’s just not the reality. Even within the field, with your team, it’s creating leverage, a need for your team to keep you, a need for your team to use you, a need for your team to have to you a part of the organization. Once you get that leverage, it’s how do you maintain it? That’s how you make the most money within your sports. The same thing goes outside of that. How are you leveraging that opportunity into other opportunities outside into things you’re passionate about and understanding that sport is going to end?
On how the pandemic has influenced athletes’ personal finances:
Hawkins: It varies from situation to situation, sport to sport, athlete to athlete, like everybody else in the pandemic. The best practices (for athletes) are for everybody: It’s budgeting. What I’m hearing from most athletes that I’ve talked to about the pandemic is understanding how you need to persevere through this thing, and that might be making sacrifices in your shopping. It might be making sacrifices in things that you don’t need by saving a little bit, having a little bit of a nest just to make sure you’re in the best possible case-scenario if this lasts a little longer than we all expect.
