Mark Brunell, an 18 veteran quarterback in the NFL, is facing bankruptcy today due to failed real estate deals. The quarterback has earned over 52 million dollars in the past decade in salary and has been one of the most effective quarterbacks in the National Football League.

The combination of bad timing and an aggressive investment plan has cost Brunell the millions he has earned on the field.

While my heart goes out to Brunell and his family, you see these bad deals all the time with pro athletes. The incredible earning power these athletes have for a short period of time makes them feel they can attempt risky investments and succeed at the level they do on the playing field.

Lenders tend to get sucked into their celebrity. Deals they would kill if it were you or I investing they approve. Partially because the athlete has their wealth behind them and it is so public, who else has their salary on 1,000 sites on the internet, but also because they can go home and tell their kids and friends they did a deal with a real life star.

A word to the wise, if a deal you are looking at has a celebrity attached to it, be very careful. Odds are their is more risk than is healthy.

One of the disputes involves a real estate project in Jacksonville Beach, involving a $2.2 million loan made by CNL Bank in 2005. CNL began foreclosure proceedings on the property in May 2009, accusing the partners of defaulting on the loan.

Brunell, a Ponte Vedra Beach resident, also invested in several other businesses including real estate projects in Traverse City and Grand Rapids, Mich. Those real estate investments failed, and Michigan-based Select Bank won a $1.1 million judgment against Brunell and his partners.

“The timing of the group’s real estate acquisitions at the height of the real estate market, in hindsight, clearly was not good,” Brunell said in a statement e-mailed to the Times-Union.

Brunell said he had personally shouldered the payments on the loans for several years, as the group worked to reach a resolution with financiers.

“In the end, we couldn’t and I am no longer able to shoulder this burden,” said Brunell, who declined to comment further when reached by the Times-Union on Thursday night. via Jacksonville.com

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