(Photos taken by Calandra Coone © 2008)

Duane Starks, Ray Lewis, Michael Stone and Reggie Howard

During Labor Day weekend Ray Lewis, Michael Stone, Duane Starks, and Reggie Howard were in Atlanta to introduce their new company Allied Athlete Group. The group is focused on empowering athletes by helping to ensure they have the tools they need to be successful off of the field during and after their playing career. The event was held by the pool side at a five star hotel in Buckhead and there were several different athletes and former athletes who came out to support the group. Julius Erving better known as Dr. J, Dorsey Levens, Brian Jordan, Ed Hartwell and Ovie Mughelli just to name a few.

The NFL has some issues. You have to look beyond the bright lights of the big stadiums and the billions of dollars they generate annually to identify some of them. They are not properly arming these young men with the necessary tools they need to deal with life after they become rich over night. In a lot of instances these young athletes are unprepared when it comes to how to handle their business when they have a seemingly endless supply of money at their disposal. The league tries to educate them a little at the Rookie Symposium, but obviously it’s not enough when you consider that 78% of NFL players will be bankrupt, divorced or unemployed within 2 years after retirement. The message needs to be reinforced on several different occasions. These young men need to be educated on how to manage their finances and plan for life after football. They make large sums of money, but it can evaporate quickly if they don’t know how to take care of it.

Athletes need guidance from someone to help them make the best decisions they can possibly make.

This is where Allied Athlete Group can be helpful. Their mission is to help the athletes make the most of their professional positions. They want to help them regain the identity that they lose in the process of being in the NFL.

These athletes tend to forget that there’s life after football. All they need to do is look at the quality of life of some former players. Of course those players didn’t make as much money as the players today make, nor did they have the type of medical care today’s players have. The one thing they all have in common is the fact that they are all human. The body is fragile and there comes a point where all the medicine in the world can’t undo some of the damage that’s been done. Someone needs to stop Shawn before he gets to that point.

The NFL is a business and they are only going to do so much. They can’t worry about each and every individual player’s finances and or well being. Just like regular adults, the athletes have to take responsibility for their own future. If Allied Athlete Group is going to be successful, they have to teach the players that it’s OK to seek help when they don’t understand something. Hopefully they’ll be able to unify the players in a way that they haven’t experienced thus far. I caught up with two of the Founders of Allied Athlete Group, Ray Lewis and Michael Stone to find out a little more about what they hope to accomplish with this company.

Calandra Coone: What made you guys get together and form this group?

Ray Lewis: It was actually inspired by a couple of us. I was actually doing something else, but Duane and Mike Stone finally got together and they called me. It took us a while to get the concept of what we wanted to do because we’re not here to step on anybody’s toes; we’re just here to bring a greater enlightenment and enhancement to our lives while we’re playing in the National Football league. We have the ability to help so many people right now in this world.

CC: Did you notice anything in particular that led you to believe athletes needed help managing their money?

RL: Oh absolutely. Being in this business 13 years there’s decision and things to where I wish I had certain counsel back then. We just want players like ourselves to take back their true identity so they understand as they’re going through life why this relationship is important or why they should go to this meeting and why they should look at their finances triple times per day. See what happens is when you come into this business everybody says “I can take care of you, just worry about football” but that ain’t life. Life is, you take care of you and let football take care of itself cause its just football.

 

CC: So you didn’t have a veteran player or anyone pull you aside when you were younger to try to influence you on how to spend your money or was it just something you had to learn the hard way?

RL: Ultimately it’s your money, but take the money aspect out of it. I’m just talking about your identity that you lose. That’s what happens through the process of being a rookie, signing with an agent and getting a financial advisor. You don’t really know whose controlling your money or whose controlling your image. This business is more about the concept of a true brotherhood and understanding what’s important about you and what’s important about your business.

CC: One last question, what can we expect from the Ravens this upcoming season.

RL: Optimism. Hah ha, another year.

Calandra Coone: Tell me about Allied Athlete Group and how it came about.

Michael Stone: Basically we’re a group of athletes who decided to come together because of course unity is strength and I think there are issues within the athletic realm that need to be addressed. We’ve become advocates for the cause making sure we can pull athletes together so when there are issues we can unite.

CC: Do you wish you had something like this a few years back?

MS: Yeah I think it would have been powerful if Allied Athlete Group would have shown up after Hurricane Katrina happened. You know a thousand athletes strong to say this is the cause we want to get behind. I think we’re going to have the opportunity to do a lot of things in the future using this unity. That’s the only thing we’re pushing, unity and the network of athletes. We’re pushing athletes to start communicating and working together more because it brings a better world for the athletes.

CC: Do you think the NFL should do more to encourage the athletes to do these things or is it something you all have to take on yourselves?

MS: I think the NFL does a great job, but we can compliment them because we are an internal organization coming from the athletes’ perspective. We want to make sure we’re looking out for the personal well being of the athlete.

CC: What do you think the bigger problem is with the athletes? Do you think it’s managing their image or managing their money?

MS: I think its youth. We come into our sport young and a lot of people understand our leverage and understand how to solve our situations, but we aren’t privy to that information at all times. We want to make sure that we have older athletes talk to the younger athletes and vice versa in an effort to make sure we’re building a community within ourselves.

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