Professional athletes at the height of their craft often pull in more money annually than many people will make in their lives. This could mean millions of dollars per year for NFL players, NBA players and MLB players.
As you can imagine, this makes things rather complicated when considering child support, as their earnings are so far above the norm. It gets even more complicated when there are numerous children and multiple mothers involved.
For instance, former NFL cornerback Antonio Cromartie is infamous for having 10 children. While some are with his current wife, who he married in 2008, those kids have a total of eight different mothers.
That’s costly for Cromartie. One report claimed that he had to send each of the seven women he’s not married to $3,500 per month. In total, that means he pays $294,000 in child support every single year.
Cromartie is far from the only athlete in this position. For instance, former NFL running back Travis Henry reportedly has 11 kids with a total of 10 different mothers. In 2009, he said he was paying $17,000 every month. He fell behind and went broke. When he owed back payments of $16,000 to one child in Florida, he was arrested and put in jail.
These are just two examples, but they show how complicated high-earner child support can really be. It can lead to serious nonpayment cases and that makes life hard for everyone who is involved — the mother, the father and the child. In these situations, it’s important for everyone to know their legal options.
Source: The Grio, “Does ‘baby mama drama’ make pro athletes go broke?,” Kunbi Tinuoye, accessed Feb. 15, 2018