NFL Hall-of-Famer Terrell Davis Tells Young Athletes: ‘Write Your Own Checks’

The financial tips just keep coming from older athletes. This time, NFL Hall-of-Famer Terrell Davis gives excellent money advice to young athletes: “Write your own checks,” according to CNBC.

Before retiring from an on-the-field injury, Davis, who played for the Denver Broncos from 1995 to 2001, made approximately $19 million in his eight seasons in the NFL, according to Sportrac. One of his biggest regrets was letting other people write checks for him during the height of his career. He is now encouraging young players to make sure they keep track of their own finances.

“Don’t have anybody writing your checks or paying your bills for you,” Davis tells CNBC Make It. ″[I] don’t care how busy you get. You can never get too busy to write your own checks or pay your own bills,” Davis says. “You’ve got to see what’s coming in and what’s going out.”

Davis also told CNBC last year that one of his biggest money mistakes was putting money into a project in Atlanta before it was green-lighted by the city. The deal didn’t meet the expectation, it ended up floundering, and he lost his entire investment in the project. It’s one of the reasons he urges young players to not take every deal that is placed in front of them. “I’d look at a deal and if it was a good deal, I’d jump on it, and that didn’t always work out. A couple of times, I’ve been in bad deals,” he said. “I would just say to take more time. There’s always going to be another that comes on the table.”

“Really do your due diligence on things and make sure that it is what it is,” Davis said. “There’s a saying … trust but verify.”

Davis helped create Defy, a CBD-infused performance drink geared toward athletes. The idea for Defy was born in 2017 when Davis first used hemp extract to recover after workouts and to ease his joint pain. It officially launched in May of last year. “You’ve got to have the drive. You’ve got have goals. You’ve got to be able to take some risk.”