In honor of the upcoming Super Bowl, it seems like a great time to take a look at real estate from a professional football perspective. The massive amounts of money earned - and spent. The incredibly over-the-top decor. The state-of-the-art features. And those (very) few who manage to live humbly despite big bank accounts they could use to buy just about anything.
Take a look at the Super Bowl of real estate in our latest version of Did You Know, Pigskin Edition.
What self-respecting pro football player would even dream of buying a home without its own football field? Just ask former Seattle Seahawks lineman Walter Jones, whose Huntsville, AL mansion comes with full-size football field included.
Sound like a dream come true? The home could be yours for a mere $3 million.
Who says flippin' ain't easy? Just ask Rob Gronkowski, the Patriots tight end, who's as famous for his injuries as he is for his notorious South Tampa party pad. Make that ex-party pad.
The property featuring "a wood-paneled elevator, custom-built fish tanks and a casino-style security system (was) previously best known as the football star's 'party house,'" said NESN.
It was sold for $2.08 according to the Tampa Bay Times, down from a list price of $2.4 million but up a reported $800,000 from what he paid for it.
Rob Gronkowski's South Tampa home, Realtor.com®
Who said flippin' ain't easy again? That would be Hall of Fame wide receiver Jerry Rice. Rice's Atherton, CA mansion sold in 2013 after seven (seven!) years on and off the market., and he didn't do quite as well as Gronkowski.
"Rice began testing the waters way back in 2007, when he listed the custom-built manse for $22 million," said Realtor. "A year later, the 13,908-square-foot home reappeared on the market sporting a price cut of nearly $9 million." That is the same figure reported to be the final sales price.
Want to know what $9 million buys in one of the country's most exclusive neighborhoods (Forbes named Atherton the wealthiest city in the nation in 2013): a French-chateau-style property on 1.2 acres with six bedroom suites, 10 bathrooms, a state-of-the-art movie theater, a game room, a full bar, a wine room, a pool and spa, and "over $500,000 worth of weights and training equipment, a sauna, and a steam room complete with cold-plunge."
RGIII's house is as fancy as his playmaking.
"With his star status in D.C. firmly entrenched, NFL sensation and quarterback-on-the-mend Robert Griffin III is settling in for the long haul," said MSN. Griffin bought an 8,800-square-foot estate in Aldie, VA's Creighton Farms golf course community. For $2.5 million, he got three acres of land and a home that includes a library, a game room, a stone wine cellar, an elevator, and a master bath with a 60-inch Jacuzzi, according to the Washington Post.
Robert Griffin III's home, Realtor.com®
If you can break down the defense, you can break down the fundamentals of design.
If you're Eddie George, that is. The former NFL running back is "turning a critical eye to home building and design as a judge on a new reality television show," said Newser. "George joins designer Nate Berkus and interior decorator Monica Pedersen on 'American Dream Builders' debuting March 23 on NBC.
So what does a retired football player known about home design? George majored in landscape architecture at Ohio State University and has "since opened The Edge Group, a planning and architecture firm with offices in Columbus, Ohio and Nashville, TN."
A house is just a house. Unless it's a castle. That's apparently what New England quarterback Tom Brady and model wife Giselle Bundchen had in mind for their Brentwood, CA home. Along with its 22,000-square-foot expanse, the home has one very unique feature: a moat.
Want to check out the video for yourself? Here's the link.
The Moat, Huffington Post
Do we hear $5 million? That's the number Kurt Warner was hoping to hear when, after his Paradise, AZ mansion sat on the market for years, he put it up for auction. The 11,300-square-foot estate has "six bedrooms, seven bathrooms, an exercise room, a home theater, an in-ground trampoline, a billiard room, a massage room, a 62-foot pool with a waterfall, its own elevator and a guest house," according to the Associated Press.
The home sold at auction for about half of its list price.
In 2013 the minimum pay for a rookie was $405,000. Just sit with that as we examine some facts
Stories of pro athletes who spend every dime and end up penniless are all too familiar, but what about the stories of those who scrimp and save and celebrate a multimillion-dollar contract by buying... almost nothing at all.
"Meet NFL rookie Giovani Bernard," said The Blaze. "He was signed by the Cincinnati Bengals in the second round of the 2013 NFL draft and ultimately awarded with a $5.253 million dollar contract along with a $2.2 million signing bonus. The rookie's multimillion dollar contract is far more than most rookies will ever see in their first year in the NFL. But you wouldn't know any of that based on his modest lifestyle. Bernard lives in a "modest apartment" and drives his girlfriend's mom's van.
Check out ESPN for a cautionary tale about how crazy easy it is for a rookie athlete to blow $5 million.
Or, check out Chad Ochocinco's (before he went back to Johnson) $100,000 Semi-Truck, featured in Business Insider's "11 Of The Most Outrageous Purchases Ever Made By Pro Athletes."
"As a 32nd birthday present to himself, Ochocinco bought a custom super truck. Trucks like this also typically get around 7 miles per gallon, so driving it around is almost as expensive as the truck itself."
Johnson, a six-time NFL Pro Bowler /reality star made as big of a name for himself on the field as he did off, and may or may not be bankrupt today after years of extravagant spending, depending on who you believe.
