After 32 years of flying I had my first verbal confrontation with a fellow airplane passenger sitting next to me.  She accused me of being an “elbow assaulter” for  invading her seat space.  More specifically, my right elbow repeatedly made contact with her left shoulder

I was on my way back to DFW  from San Francisco after a terrible day in which I totally bombed a speaking engagement. It was the last flight out.  I admittedly was a little cranky.  The aircraft was a Boeing 737.  I was in window Seat 13A.   It’s a three seat row. All three were occupied.  If you have flown a 737 coach you know that it’s basically a flying bus with little leg or elbow room.  Add to the mix that I am 6’2  23o lbs and she was not a petite individual. That left about 1 inch max of shoulder room to maneuver around.  In that situation, it is extremely difficult to occasionally not make some type of body contact with the person sitting next to you unless you become a statute for the entire flight.  I was also attempting to use my laptop which was almost impossible because the guy in front of me reclined his seat into my groin.  To be clear, this was not a case of  my body spilling over into her seat.  She had simply taken control of the armrest to my right as she is entitled to do and had adjusted herself in a “sleeping position”.  She was not sitting upright in her seat.  It was  physically impossible for me to sit in a normal position and type or even adjust myself occasionally without my elbow occasionally touching the part of her shoulder that was on the armrest.  Sensing her annoyance, I made various maneuvers in my seat and tried to flatten myself against the bulkhead as much as humanly possible to give her as much room as possible while still being able to type.

After about the 3rd or 4th time I brushed up against her shoulder, she looked at me and firmly asked me to stay out of her seat. I calmly explained to her that I was as far up against the bulkhead as I could be. In lieu of sitting perfectly still the entire flight or in an awkward position there was nothing I could do.  Our bodies were inevitably going to make contact . That was not good enough for her.  She made it clear it was her seat, she had paid for it and I should cease my “elbow assault”.

The back and forth escalated to the point where I calmly but firmly told her that there was nothing I could do and she could either deal with it or call the flight attendant to be moved. I would have gladly moved but it was a full flight and there were only middle seats available. I was not going to give up my window seat to only find myself in a worse situation.   This was coach.  Space is tight.  Baby’s are going to cry.  There are going to be unwelcome smells.  People are going to recline their seat into your groin.  Shoulders are going to occasionally touch.   As I expected,  the flight attendants told her there was nothing they could do but move her to another available middle seat.  She was having none of that.  She had paid for her seat.  I was an unwelcome trespasser to be evicted by any legal or non-legal means.  It was that point the attendant began to feel my pain. I saw the slight eye roll.   A firmer tone took hold as she repeated told the passenger that  while I may be an “elbow assaulter”  it was not a capital offense.  The FBI and Homeland Security would not be called to the gate and I would not be given a parachute and ejected from the plane.  The passenger finally grudgingly got up, gave me a “f*ck you” glare and moved to another seat.

What is the proper etiquette here?  I am a big guy but not outside the norm of people who fly. I was not spilling into her physical seat space.  Ironically,  two seats up from me were two guys who REALLY had space issues.  They seemed to be getting along just fine. (see photo).  I frankly do not see anything I could do to appease her other than moving to a middle seat which I was not going to do or flatten myself against the bulkhead and sit perfectly still the entire flight.  To get some insight, I went to someone I know.  Flight attendant veteran  Heather Poole, who blogs about her flight experiences and allegedly has a book on the subject coming out.  In her blog “Middle Seat Etiquette”  she says:

• Leave the armrest for the middle seat passenger. The window seat passenger has the window, while the aisle seat passenger has the aisle, but the middle seat passenger has nothing, nada, zilch, so please, for the love of god, give the person in the middle seat something, anything, an armrest, please!
• Do not hit the middle seat passenger in the head with your newspaper, even when the middle seat passenger is asleep and you are fairly sure they will not feel it.
• Do not use the middle seat passenger’s tray table. Even if the middle seat passenger is not using it.
• Do not put your feet under the seat in front of the middle seat passenger, no matter how long your legs are, even if the middle seat passenger is short.
• Do not place your luggage underneath the seat in front of the middle seat passenger. The middle seat passenger has luggage, too.
• Do not bring aboard a pet, choose an aisle or window seat, and then expect to put the pet under the middle seat because it does not fit under your seat.
• Do not raise the armrest between you and the middle seat passenger, no matter how well you are getting along.
• Keep your hair away from the middle seat passenger, no matter how pretty or how manly it may be.
• Remember, middle seat passengers are people too!

What about being tagged as a  window seat “elbow assaulter”  when there is no place to put the elbow but at your side?  Heather? Help!

Stay tuned for episode two of “Airplane Armrest Wars”

Delonte West must not have been paying attention when the NBA players union began warning players by some reports up to four years ago, to forgo the swag  and extra Bentley in anticipation of the work stoppage that has paralyzed the NBA to date.  Despite earning 14 millions dollars during his NBA career, he is apparently unable to make ends meet.  He is now employed at Regency Furniture Showrooms, in order to “stay afloat during the lockout.”   He had also applied to Home Depot prior to accepting the Regency Position that probably pays no more than 10-15 dollars an hour.  Is Delonte the exception to the rule of players who actually listened and who had agents with balls enough to demand that they engage in sound financial planning at risk of losing a client?  We will not know until paychecks start being missedbut basic human psychology and previous experience says that the Home Depot ranks may well swell with high priced inventory stockers and price checkers if the NBA lockout does not resolve soon.  While Delonte’s situation is unique in that his criminal record prevents him from playing overseas it will prove to be very common in terms of players who are living paycheck to paycheck and need to feed the nut one way or another if they can’t land an overseas gig.  It’s not like this is a new phenomenon or there are no case studies for players to look at and take a serious view of their potential financial situations.

We all played our violins to death when we heard of Latrell Sprewell’s financial troubles. On Halloween 2004, Sprewell, who was in the final season of a $62-million five-year contract with the New York Knicks, said he was insulted by the Minnesota Timberwolve’s offer of a contract extension that was reportedly worth between $27 million and $30 million for three seasons. Sprewell stated, “I’ve got my family to feed.” That quote become a national moniker for the public perception of athletes as greedy, out of touch individuals. Apparently, Sprewell still can’t feed his family. His yacht was  repossessed and his home faced foreclosure. He also reportedly owes  $3.5 million in back income taxes to the state of Wisconsin.

While there is certainly the stereotype of the financially irresponsible NBA athlete, no professional sport is immune.

Let’s take a look at some high profile athlete financial sob stories over the years:

1. No one my age can forget Jack”The Ripper” Clark , star player for the Boston Red Sox who filed for bankruptcy in 1992 in the middle of his second year of a three-year, $8.7 million contract with Boston; he listed $6.7 million in debts. Jack was a master of financial planning and prudent asset acquisition. His bankruptcy petition listed assets such as 18 automobiles, including a 1990 Ferrari that cost $717,000 and three 1992 Mercedes Benz cars costing between $103,000 and $143,000. He owed money on 17 of the automobiles and was liable for about $400,000 in Federal and state taxes. He had also lost about $1 million in a drag-racing venture. Sounds like Jack would have been more at home in the NBA. You can read about it here

2. Johnny Unitas, Hall of Fame quarterback for the Baltimore Colts, filed for bankruptcy in 1991 citing numerous failed business ventures in his petition These failed bits included bowling alleys, land deals and restaurants. He filed forChapter 11 bankruptcy in 1991.

3. Mike Tyson The name speaks for itself. Mike’s bankruptcy was highly publicized. Despite earning hundreds of millions during his boxing career, Mike kept it simple. His bankruptcy petition simply stated: ” I am unable to pay my bills”. According to federal court records, his liabilities totaled about $27 million. You can read that story here.

4. Dorothy Hamill, the women’s figure-skating gold medalist in the 1976 Winter Games, filed for bankruptcy after a series of financial setbacks. Hamill said she has experienced financial setbacks as a result of poor financial investment advice and management.

5.  Derrick Coleman:  Coleman’send-game’ list of assets in his bankruptcy petition consisted of  a Seadoo watercraft, his NBA pension, 1957 Buick convertible, worth $20,000; a 1970 Chevrolet Nova, worth $5,000; and a 1997 Bentley convertible, valued at $50,000 and some fur coats.

6.   Antoine Walker: Despite earning a reported $110 million over the course of his 13-year NBA career, former player Antoine Walker is apparently broke.  In 2011 Walker pleaded guilty to one felony count of passing a bad check with regards to 770k in gambling debts.

These are just a few of many athletes’ tales of woe. It is not a phenomenon limited to professional sports — just ask M.C Hammer. Prior to his declaring bankruptcy, it was made public that his day to day living expenses far exceeded his income of $33 million. If I am going to veer off to celebrities, I certainly have to mention Kim Basinger and Michael Jackson and Nicholas Cage.

When the Toronto Star ran an article alleging that a shocking 60 percent of NBA athletes “go broke” five years after retiring, did we not all pull out that very tiny violin we have reserved for such occasions? The NBA players union and the NBA have both disputed that assertion. The article goes on to talk about all the people taking advantage of and “scamming” these athletes. While I have no doubt there is truth to this, I can also understand how such a generalization would make the NBA uncomfortable. It leaves you with the impression that 60 percent of NBA players are not only financially inept but also idiots in general. This is simply not true. While good business sense is often lacking, I view many of their mistakes as being more mistakes of trust, credibility and lack of life experience than anything else. Smart, busy people who can afford it, hire people with targeted expertise to help them. This allows them to focus on their expertise. Sometime mistakes are made and bad judgment is used in who we hire and hang out with. That is not unique to the NBA or professional sports. This happens to everyone. That is life. It happens all the time. It just does not make front page when we screw up. If there is any question at all as to how badly we as the general public screw up, just look at the personal bankruptcy filing statistics.

In order to get a perspective from the inside, I contacted Jordan Woy, a highly respected sports agent and a principal in the sports marketing/management firm of Schlegel Sports. Jordan has represented numerous high profile athletes

Here is what Jordon had to say:

I think there are several reasons why so many athletes “go broke”. First, whether it is a lottery winner, an athlete or a star entertainer, if they are not equipped with the knowledge on how to make and save money they are in trouble. When they didn’t earn it through disciplined business practices and they don’t have those skills they usually go through it quickly. Most lottery winners or athletes make a great deal of money in a short period of time. They start spending it on things that only go down in value (cars, jewelry, partying, entourage, etc) and start to evaporate the money they do have. They can carry this off until they stop earning big money. This is when the trouble starts. It is hard to believe that MC Hammer, Mike Tyson, Evander Holyfield and now Ed McMahon are broke. These are people who earned hundreds of millions over time and it disappeared. Lavish spending and entourages were probably the downfall for the first three for sure.

Most athletes play for four to ten years if they are lucky. After they pay taxes (can be 40 to 50%) and agent fees and buy their first homes, cars, outfits, jewelry (plus, cars, clothes and jewelry for friends and family), they are left with very little. When they first “strike it rich” all of their longtime friends and family expect help. Most athletes feel obligated to help everyone out at first then they wise up. They also want to keep up with their teammates. If someone buys a Bentley, they have to buy one; if someone buys a $75,000 watch, they have to buy one to keep up the appearance. Then, of course, when the career ends and they are still living in a multi million dollar house, driving 3 expensive cars (and insurance), traveling in private planes and taking Limo’s when they go out on the town, reality sets in. The money dries up very quickly.

However, if athletes educate themselves, learn money management skills and make smart, safe investments along the way, they are usually in very good shape. After representing athletes for over 20 years, we call this our “life plan”. We take out clients on working vacations in the off season to places like Las Vegas, Cancun and on a cruise to the Bahamas to learn business networking. We have people from industries such as real estate, oil and gas, financial planning, credit repair, asset protection/estate planning, etc come to educate the players and their wives so they can learn about these business and also determine if they are interested in any of these industries for life after sports. One of the financial planners who comes always says most people die coming down from Mt. Everest not going up. The goal is for these athletes to get to their Mt. Everest AND to get down safely.

So, what do you think? Are the financial mistakes that athletes make any different than your mistakes or mine? They are certainly mistakes made with a higher downside. When we hear these stories are we just unable to comprehend that someone could have that much money and spend it all? Can we learn lessons on how to live our lives from their highly publicized financial gaffes? Do we even care at all?

With all due respect to Latrell Sprewell and Delonte West, we have our own families to feed

I recently decided to “unfollow” a lot of  Twitter accounts.  The reasons are simple.  My primary Twitter interests are sports, law and current events.  I want to pull those  news items and opinions out of my twitter-feed easily and without a lot of noise.  I have little interest in tweets about social media engagement, MLM marketing, branding etc.  You get the picture.  While I do have other interests,  I wanted at least 75 percent of my twitter feed to be  primarily subjects I can semi-intelligently engage on.  I love to engage. Finally, I did not wanted to be caught up in the ” How Do I Increase My Klout Score”  Twitter madness.  I will tweet what I find interesting.  I will re-tweet what I find interesting.  I will engage on subjects I find interesting.  If that interests you follow me.  If it does not interest you, why are you following me?  You shouldn’t.  I’m not going to follow you unless you are tweeting within my interest zone regardless of whether you follow me.   It’s not personal.  I repeat… It’s not personal.  This is Twitter.  We are not next door neighbors sharing a beer over our privacy fence.

With the above in mind, I took a hard look at my account. It was a social media mess of my own idiotic doing. I had over 40k followers and I was following accounts consisting of a bunch of stuff I did not care about born of the mindless following of nameless and faceless accounts.   I estimated that 75 percent of my feed was the field of social media related with tweeters on every possible permutation of social media, digital branding, networking and MLM marketing,   Nothing wrong with those endeavors. I simply have very limited interest in them.  I began to actually read some of the Twitter profiles on the accounts I was following.  I sifted through the game changers, gurus, mavens, change agents and ninjas.  I concluded that It was time to get back to basics. It was time to eliminate the noise and focus on getting to the content that makes Twitter fun for me.

The rampage began. I began unfollowing almost everyone making a living in the social media/digital arena unless I actually knew them or had a long standing twitter relationship with them.  I had other criteria for cutting people loose but this was the primary criteria.  I repeat,  it was nothing personal.  Many however, took it as a personal affront to their twitter existence.

It ranged from the 5th grade tweeting to me  “Oh Yea! I’m un-follwoing you back!  to “fuck off“.   Come on people, its only Twitter. You don’t know me.  I don’t know you.  There are real people out there you can tell to fuck off.  It’s NOT personal!

An NBA lockout is almost upon us.  Bottom line for the fans?  No basketball to entertain us.  Bottom line for the players?  No money to support lifestyles that in almost every case is well beyond yours, mine and every other working stiff.  NBA baby mamas across the country are getting nervous about their child support. We know that Lebron James will have more than enough put away to survive an extended NBA lockout but what about the average NBA Joe who has not been crowned king?

Almost half of all workers live paycheck to paycheck.  The NBA is no different. It may be even worse because many NBA players, like other major sport professional athletes,  generally come into their money at a young age without the maturity and life experience of making financial mistakes over the course of years and learning from them. Without life lessons, educated restraint and  people to trust, most will tend to spend to the level of their insolvency  It’s a biological drive. That might shock some.  The bottom line is that a person making  5 million a year without the benefit of the above will tend to spend all of it  and still cant make the rent when the music suddenly stops.  Between multiple mortgages, multiple expensive cars, multiple baby mamas and posses combined millions can dwindle quickly into the realm of dead ass broke.  Just ask Latrell Sprewell.

We all played our violins to death when we heard of Latrell Sprewell’s financial troubles. On Halloween 2004, Sprewell, who was in the final season of a $62-million five-year contract with the New York Knicks, said he was insulted by the Minnesota Timberwolve’s offer of a contract extension that was reportedly worth between $27 million and $30 million for three seasons. Sprewell stated, “I’ve got my family to feed.” That quote become a national moniker for the public perception of athletes as greedy, out of touch individuals. Apparently, Sprewell still can’t feed his family. His yacht was repossessed and two homes he owned went  into forclosure.

While there is certainly the stereotype of the financially irresponsible NBA athlete, no professional sport is immune.

Let’s take a look at some high profile athlete financial sob stories over the years:

1. No one my age can forget Jack”The Ripper” Clark , star player for the Boston Red Sox who filed for bankruptcy in 1992 in the middle of his second year of a three-year, $8.7 million contract with Boston; he listed $6.7 million in debts. Jack was a master of financial planning and prudent asset acquisition. His bankruptcy petition listed assets such as 18 automobiles, including a 1990 Ferrari that cost $717,000 and three 1992 Mercedes Benz cars costing between $103,000 and $143,000. He owed money on 17 of the automobiles and was liable for about $400,000 in Federal and state taxes. He had also lost about $1 million in a drag-racing venture. Sounds like Jack would have been more at home in the NBA. You can read about it here

2. Johnny Unitas, Hall of Fame quarterback for the Baltimore Colts, filed for bankruptcy in 1991 citing numerous failed business ventures in his petition These failed bits included bowling alleys, land deals and restaurants. He filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in 1991.

3. Mike Tyson The name speaks for itself. Mike’s bankruptcy was highly publicized. Despite earning hundreds of millions during his boxing career, Mike kept it simple. His bankruptcy petition simply stated: ” I am unable to pay my bills”. According to federal court records, his liabilities totaled about $27 million. You can read that story here.

4. Dorothy Hamill, the women’s figure-skating gold medalist in the 1976 Winter Games, filed for bankruptcy after a series of financial setbacks. Hamill said she has experienced financial setbacks as a result of poor financial investment advice and management.

These are just a few of many athletes’ tales of woe. It is not a phenomenon limited to professional sports — just ask M.C Hammer. Prior to his declaring bankruptcy, it was made public that his day to day living expenses far exceeded his income of $33 million. If I am going to veer off to celebrities, I certainly have to mention Kim Basinger and Michael Jackson.

When the Toronto Star ran an article alleging that a shocking figure that 60 percent of NBA athletes “go broke” five years after retiring, did we not all pull out that very tiny violin we have reserved for such occasions?  While the NBA players union and the NBA have both disputed that assertion the point is made.  The article goes on to talk about all the people taking advantage of and “scamming” these athletes. While I have no doubt there is truth to this, I can also understand how such a generalization would make the NBA uncomfortable. It leaves you with the impression that 60 percent of NBA players are not only financially inept but also idiots in general. This is simply not true. While good business sense is often lacking, I view many of their mistakes as being more mistakes of trust, credibility and lack of life experience than anything else. Smart, busy people who can afford it, hire people with targeted expertise to help them. This allows them to focus on their expertise. Sometime mistakes are made and bad judgment is used in who we hire and hang out with. That is not unique to the NBA or professional sports. This happens to everyone. That is life. It happens all the time. It just does not make front page when we screw up. If there is any question at all as to how badly we as the general public screw up, just look at the personal bankruptcy filing statistics.

In order to get a perspective from the inside, I contacted Jordan Woy, a highly respected sports agent and a principal in the sports marketing/management firm of Schlegel Sports. Jordan has represented numerous high profile athletes

Here is what Jordon had to say:

I think there are several reasons why so many athletes “go broke”. First, whether it is a lottery winner, an athlete or a star entertainer, if they are not equipped with the knowledge on how to make and save money they are in trouble. When they didn’t earn it through disciplined business practices and they don’t have those skills they usually go through it quickly. Most lottery winners or athletes make a great deal of money in a short period of time. They start spending it on things that only go down in value (cars, jewelry, partying, entourage, etc) and start to evaporate the money they do have. They can carry this off until they stop earning big money. This is when the trouble starts. It is hard to believe that MC Hammer, Mike Tyson, Evander Holyfield and now Ed McMahon are broke. These are people who earned hundreds of millions over time and it disappeared. Lavish spending and entourages were probably the downfall for the first three for sure.

Most athletes play for four to ten years if they are lucky. After they pay taxes (can be 40 to 50%) and agent fees and buy their first homes, cars, outfits, jewelry (plus, cars, clothes and jewelry for friends and family), they are left with very little. When they first “strike it rich” all of their longtime friends and family expect help. Most athletes feel obligated to help everyone out at first then they wise up. They also want to keep up with their teammates. If someone buys a Bentley, they have to buy one; if someone buys a $75,000 watch, they have to buy one to keep up the appearance. Then, of course, when the career ends and they are still living in a multi million dollar house, driving 3 expensive cars (and insurance), traveling in private planes and taking Limo’s when they go out on the town, reality sets in. The money dries up very quickly.

However, if athletes educate themselves, learn money management skills and make smart, safe investments along the way, they are usually in very good shape. After representing athletes for over 20 years, we call this our “life plan”. We take out clients on working vacations in the off season to places like Las Vegas, Cancun and on a cruise to the Bahamas to learn business networking. We have people from industries such as real estate, oil and gas, financial planning, credit repair, asset protection/estate planning, etc come to educate the players and their wives so they can learn about these business and also determine if they are interested in any of these industries for life after sports. One of the financial planners who comes always says most people die coming down from Mt. Everest not going up. The goal is for these athletes to get to their Mt. Everest AND to get down safely.

So, what do you think? Are the financial mistakes that athletes make any different than your mistakes or mine? They are certainly mistakes made with a higher downside.  When we hear these stories are we just unable to comprehend that someone could have that much money and spend it all? Can we learn lessons on how to live our lives from their highly publicized financial gaffes? Do we even care at all?

With all due respect to Latrell Sprewell and big time professional athletes,  we have our own families to feed…

I am a recovering addict. It’s no secret. I will have been sober for 4 years on April 8th of this year. I know Charlie Sheen hates the word “sober” because he associates it with 12-step.  I however find it suitably descriptive so I will use it.  I’ve gone through addictions to alcohol, coke, sleeping pills, steroids, and even Tylenol P.M.  Throw in an eating disorder and I was once officially a certified Charlie Sheen mess minus the hookers and porn stars.

What turned me around?  I had a blackout.  My 1st and only one.   I  acted like a public and private idiot during the blackout.  No one got physically hurt. No DWI.  No car wreck.   That was my low point.  The next morning I looked in the mirror and decided that I was no longer having fun.  I was doing damage to my body.  I was doing damage to my relationships.  Changes needed to be made.  I did not have the “strength of will” that Charlie Sheen claims to have.  I am not a warlock.  With all deference to my dad and brothers, I don’t have “Adonis DNA”.  I knew I needed a starting point even though at that point I did not know what the term “help” actually entailed.   The next day I walked through the doors of….. I know I am not supposed to say it,  AA otherwise know as Alcoholics Anonymous.

We are not supposed to talk about being in AA.  That is why I almost always  refer to it as 12-Step.  It is called the principal of anonymity.  The 11th Tradition.  I however, already outed myself.   I believe I have that right despite what the hard core AA fundamentalists preach.  I am sure I will get hate mail and called narcissistic, arrogant and self-absorbed.  Don’t care.  It’s my life to talk about as I see fit.   What I do not have  is the right to do is out anyone else.  That can ruin lives, careers, relationships.  On that front, Charlie Sheen is a scumbag for outing Chuck Lorre for being in AA.  I do understand why he did it.  When we get angry on such a personal level, we often take personal shots we know will hurt the most at the expense of reason and compassion.   Addicts are notorious for taking shots like that.  When an addict’s self worth is completely stripped, ad-hominems are often the weapon of choice to make us feel better.  I have seen it in myself.  I have seen it in other addicts.  Sheen is no different.  Strip away the fame, money and bizarre statements and its an insecure guy with a a problem doing coke  and using porn stars and rhetoric to pump himself up because he/she is afraid to face the reality of the situation.  That’s what addicts do.  Charlie may think he is unique but strip the last name away and the song and story is the same one told since addictions entered the human condition.

Breaking down Charlie’s rant with regards to AA, he has not said anything that has not been said before by other disgruntled addicts.  I agree with some of it.

Charlie says AA is a cult.  AA certainly has some cult-like qualities.  I don’t think there is anything wrong with that.  Group-think is fundamental to the AA recovery process.   Many people need to embrace the group-think mentality to get sober and stay sober.  That works for them. More power to them.  Some don’t need it or want it.   We are simply not wired for group-think and push back against it on all levels.  This is where I break.  I do not think getting over addiction is a cookie cutter, one Big Book fits all scenario.  Individuality is ok.  It is when other members try to force group-think on people who may need a different road, those people start screaming cult.  I have rejected much of 12-step group-think philosophy. I took the aspects that I felt worked for me and embraced those.  I made the program mine.  I feel that has worked for me.  Of course there are those in AA who are threatened by anyone who does it differently. They dismiss us as as “dry drunks” and doomed to failure. That drives people away. That’s a cult.

Charlie infers that addicts can cure themselves through strength of will.  I absolutely agree that it is possible to look in the mirror, say “enough is enough”  and never look back.  I know some of those people.   I would also say that it’s the acute minority that can do that.  Most need support.  Support from people similarly situated is a great thing.  I love that about AA. Those people are my friends. Many are my confidants outside of the setting with regards to my struggles.

There are those that argue that if you can quit without AA you must not be an addict.  I view that as again, AA standardized “Catch 22″ circular logic semantics.  They tell you that if you follow the steps odds are good you will stay sober but if you relapse you must not have followed the 12-Steps.  When I hear that I always feel a little like Capt. John Yosaarian.

That is not to say that Charlie can’t beat it with will like he says he has. He could be that rare guy.   I would say however that the facts of his past speak for themselves.  Despite whatever semantic label he wants to put on it to make himself feel better, his history demonstrates that he does NOT have “Adnonis DNA”.  It demonstrates that he is not one of the chosen few that can cure themselves with mind over coke.  Why?  He has tried and failed before.  Because he now chooses to semantically call it something else to justify his actions does not change the fundamental nature of those actions.

Finally, Charlie says he is having fun.  Money and fame can buy a lot of fun in the moment.  I did not have the money and fame but I would be lying if I said that there were not fun moments.  The problem was that eventually the bad moments substantially overshadowed the fun moments which came less and less frequently.   It is a complex formula that is different for every addict eventually totaling out at our low point.  Charlie has not hit his low yet.  It is different for everyone.  He also has a high, “low threshold.”  I had a low  “low-threshold” relatively speaking to many others.  It did not take much for me.  The problem with a high “low-threshold” is that those more often than not, they do not end well and often end tragically.  You do not have to simply deal with and evaluate the low like I did.  You have to survive them.  With each new low, Charlies chances of  surviving his new low change dramatically for the worse.   That is not about Charlie.  This has been proven time and time again in addicts around the world. Charlie is not exempt from the laws of physics as they apply to addiction. The other high probabilities are prison or permanent physical incapacity.  I am not a doctor but the notion that Sheen has not shortened his life dramatically regardless seems preposterous to me.

This was another reason I found the strength to not look back.  My family does have “Adonis DNA” when it comes to living long, healthy lives.  Why fuck with that. Too many other random chance events that can take that away in a heartbeat. Too much fun to have once I learned that fun did not have to involve altering my mental state and shorting my life.  Hope Charlie learns the same and lives though the learning process.  Too much to live for.

The new definition of insanity: Raising 50k or more in a city with the 6th highest crime rate in the nation to erect a statute of a fictional crime-fighting Cyborg movie superhero.  A superhero that starred in a movie that was filmed somewhere else(Dallas, Texas) generating no revenue but plenty of negative recognition for that crime-ridden, blighted city.

Welcome to Detroit, Michigan. An online fund-raising campaign has raised $50,000 in less than a week to erect a statute of RoboCop.  For those unaware, RoboCop was a 1987 movie set in a crime-plagued futuristic Detroit. It’s about a police officer who is supposedly murdered, but brought back as a party human/most machine cyborg haunted by residual memories of his past.

Hey Detroit! Real people are being mugged raped and murdered on your streets at record levels making it a real life “Old Detroit”. Why would you want to glamorize that?  You should be raising statutes to real cops who have given their lives to keep you safe in a city where your chances of staying safe are at the low end of the probability curve. Don’t raise money for fake robot heroes from movies that did not even bring revenue to your city from the filming but profited off it’s reputation as one of the most murderous cities in the country. We in the city of Dallas thank you for allowing us to do that.  It was great for us.

I do have a proposal to the city of Detroit.  I will go to people behind the original RoboCop and ask them to donate some of the profits towards your statue if you promise to take Kwame Kilpatrick back off our hands when he gets out of prison.  More realistically, donate the 50k to organizations that support real cops. You could even donate it in the name of RoboCop. If he were real, he’d appreciate that. That’s keeping it real.  Detroit needs that type of realism a lot more than a monument to nothing at all.

While I did not read it,  I found the title of the  book, The Pedophile’s Guide to Love and Pleasure: a Child-lover’s Code of Conduct listed for sale on Amazon. com offensive. You probably do as well. Given the title, it’s a safe bet I would find the content offensive.   I also find the fact that Facebook allows groups that deny the Holocaust on it’s site offensive. You may or may not. Many don’t. I find the current play of the Dallas Cowboys  offensive.  If you’re a Cowboys fan, I know you do.

I find many things over a wide spectrum of content and speech offensive. It’s human nature. It is also human nature for people to disagree on what constitutes offensive content. Call me crazy but I suspect there are those who are not pedophiles and who also do not find the book in question offensive.  It can be difficult for companies like Facebook and Amazon to strike a balance in such content when it is not in itself illegal and when they claim to emulate free speech values in  the content they allow on the site.

That being said, I find it offensive that Amazon would publicly state a “free speech platform” in defense of the pedophilia book and then bow to consumer pressure and threats of boycotts removing the book in blatant contravention of that statement.  Assuming that Amazon removed the book and not the author, I find the hypocrisy offensive.  This was about money, not morals.  This was about being on the brink of their biggest profit season of the year. If this was March, in my opinion,  they cite that free speech policy and don’t pull the book. This was “shopping season censorship”. That’s fine. That’s their right. Amazon can arbitrarily  remove whatever content they want regardless of their policies. I wish they would simply cite that right without reason and not pretend they emulate free speech values.

Amazon’s statement about the book when the controversy arose:

“It is censorship not to sell certain books simply because we or others believe their message is objectionable,”

“Amazon does not support or promote hatred or criminal acts, however, we do support the right of every individual to make their own purchasing decisions”.

Amazon has now pulled the book. From an “offensive” standpoint good for them.  It was offensive.  From a “what we just said about censorship and individual rights is bullshit”  standpoint, it was also offensive.  Shame on Amazon for pulling it.  If they want to change their  “free speech emulation” policy fine, change it and post it.  Until then, spare us the hypocrisy when removing the book was really all about shopping season censorship…

I came across an interesting piece about cyber-bullying of  gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender teens on Facebook and the steps the social network was taking to combat it.  This is nothing new.  As long as their are people, there will be hate speech.  It’s the human condition. As a representative correctly point out, Facebook is just as vulnerable to this condition as other cross-sections of society.

What I found interesting was the hate speech/free speech discussion. When does free speech become hate speech in social networks like Facebook?”  I was at first confused.  Is not  hate speech for the most part free speech?   That is unless it incites others to imminent violence, threatens the President Of The United States and some other narrow exceptions.  Why make the confusing distinction?  The reason the distinction was valid in this article was that it was specifically referring to Facebook and not the brick and mortar world.  Facebook is a community that attempts to emulate 1st Amendment ideals of free speech but that’s where it ends. It ends there because Facebook is a private company.  As such, the 1st Amendment and traditional free speech values have no practical bearing.  Free speech and hate speech are just terms of art within the network to be adjusted by the network to best suit the interests of the network.  Translation? Free speech and hate speech are whatever Facebook and other social networks say they are at any given moment.

So what are they?  Two years ago, I debated this very issue with Facebook representatives relating to Holocaust Denial.  I felt that Facebook Groups promoting Holocaust Denial were in themselves “hateful content” as outlined in Facebook’s Terms Of Service and should have been removed from the site.  Facebook felt differently.  I even presented my thoughts  to a group of employees at Facebook corporate offices.  While not agreeing with their position,  I came to understand their point of view about having internal standards to which employees can look at content and not have to make value judgments about a particular type of speech. Without such standards Facebook employees assigned to deal with these issues would be overwhelmed with disputes over content that one person may find “hateful” and another felt was legitimate expression. They could not hire enough employees to deal with these types of disagreements.  As one employee put it, Facebook was  looking for “binary certainty” in making these decision on “hateful content”.

There is the rub.  What is the binary standard?  To this day, to my knowledge, Facebook has never released or publicly stated how they evaluate “hateful content”.  Where and how do they draw the line?  I have an idea how they do it because I was privy to internal exchange with their employees.  Why not tell everyone.  Why not some transparency.  The same transparency many employees acknowledged was lacking  when I spoke there.  Two years later, nothing much has changed with regards to “free speech” and “hate speech”  The general user perception is that it is whatever Facebook says it is.   At least in the brick and mortar world I can pull up The Constitution and Supreme Court opinions that guide me.  That standard does not represent the beliefs of all Facebook users across the world but for better or worse that is the standard Facebook uses. It’s transparent.  Emulate that aspect as well.

Have been checking out the efforts of the JIDF to squash the “Kill A Jew” day events that have been popping up on Facebook.

There was one a few days ago that the organization was successful in getting taken down.  Another one popped up two days later to take its place. It looks like it’s the same people trying to get a rise but the general bottom line is the same.  In addition to all the great content and information on Facebook, there is a lot of antisemitism and hate speech against  ethnic, religious and gender orientation minorities.  Facebook does what it can to keep it in check when made aware of the problem within the inherent flaws of  user-based self-reporting systems.  There however, is simply so much more of the hatred than there are employees at Facebook to monitor it.

I try to take most of this crap in stride as there are idiots everywhere.  The most troubling aspect of “the day” is not that some anti-Semitic idiot would put it up but that so many are willing to play along and incite the hatred in the page commentary.  Strong evidence that it is much more than a silly page put up by a moron. It is a stark reminder that Facebook is not just a place for friends to connect and share information.  It is a venue for those of like mind in hatred of not only Jews but any minority group to take that message, find those who agree and take hatred viral.

I wonder if they will talk about that in the new Facebook movie, The Social Network. I doubt it.  People are more interested In Mark Zuckerberg’s quirks and dalliances than they are about real issues affecting all of us in that network.  That’s to be expected.  People want to be entertained.  I hope it’s more entertaining than Kill A Jew Day.

Actor Nic Cage is reportedly in dire financial straights.  It appears to be a case of yet another star caught up in a celebrity cash crunch with a new but sadly familiar story in the Hollywood ranks of stars either unable or unwilling to take an interest in the mechanics of their finances and paying a heavy price.

Nic is not the only star to go down “the road to financial ruin”  Many a movie star has fallen victim to bad investments bad advice and down right fraud because they detach themselves from the fruits of their labor.

Facing bankruptcy, former Johnny Carson sidekick, the late Ed McMahon  went public regarding the financial miscues leading to the possible foreclosure on his $4.8 million mansion.  He owed more than $600,000 on the mortgage, some $750,000 to American Express, and around $1.5 million overall.

“Being Ed McMahon was an expensive proposition,” David Fisher, the co-author of McMahon’s autobiography, told the Huffington Post. Fisher recalled watching as McMahon walked through hotel lobbies doling out money to anyone who tipped his cap. In a Larry King Live interview, McMahon’s wife Pam McMahon explained, “Because you’re a celebrity, people think you have a lot more than you have. And you always want to take great care of all of your friends and your family and everybody, and you do …. ”

It’s hard to have context or sympathize with troubled finances off such lofty perches. Did anyone really feel sorry for singer MC Hammer after he declared bankruptcy in 1996?  When he filed the paperwork, we learned that his living expenses far exceeded his annual income of $33 million: Hammer owned a $12 million house and reportedly had a staff of 250.  (Yes, 250.) Who wouldn’t love to see that spreadsheet?

And the list of celebrities and athletes who’ve gone bust goes on: Michael Jackson, Kim Basinger, Suge Knight, Dorothy Hamill, Burt Reynolds, Mike Tyson, Anna Nicole Smith ….

Why is it that celebrities and pro athletes who seem to have everything can’t seem to control anything related to finances?  They make millions, but they live paycheck to paycheck.  Most of them couldn’t tell you how much they have in their checking account. Many have never written a check or seen a bank statement.  From time to time, they go broke, but don’t even know it until their agent or business manager tells them.

The public perception is that these high-paid celebrities and athletes are completely out of touch with basic money management skills. Is that perception accurate?  I spoke with several professional athletes and Hollywood celebrities to find out.

“Most celebrities I know do not manage their own finances,” the actor Ed Begley Jr. told me.  Begley’s been around—best known for his role as Dr. Victor Ehrlich on the television series St. Elsewhere, he currently hosts a reality show on HGTV called Living With Ed on Planet Green—so he’s seen actors enter and exit, financially speaking. “I can count on one hand the celebrities that I know who write their own checks,” he says. “I know many who sign their own checks, but I’m talking about doing it all yourself on Quicken or QuickBooks, as I do. I actually enjoy it.”

Celebrities, Begley says, need to to do more with their money than just spend it. “At the very least, make sure that no one other than you can sign a check for over $500. That would save a lot of the heartache you hear about with folks losing all their dough to someone they blindly turned over their fortune to.”

Celebrities can be especially vulnerable, the actor Armand Assante (Gotti, American Gangster) told me, because not only do they frequently make enormous sums of money, but the perception that they handle it badly can attract greedy hangers-on.  “There’s a general perception that people in the arts and entertainment industry have little business acumen,” Assante says. “They are therefore easy prey to financial exploitation.”

I asked Assante how he handled his finances.

“I’ve always had good instincts in business,” he said.  “I have very little interest in it for its own sake, so I have chosen people I entrust important decisions with.  That’s where your instinct has to reign. Most of the people I deal with are impeccable with excellent business sense and do superbly for me because they’re trustworthy, reliable and independent in their decisions.  Sadly however, even the best-intentioned of financial advisors fall prey to others if profit is the moral motive of the moment.”

Ultimately, Armand says, “one has to assume total accountability.”

The financial landscape is no less bleak in professional sports. I’ve seen estimates projecting that 50 percent of all NBA athletes live paycheck to paycheck—this in a sport where the minimum salary is currently $442,000 for a rookie—and that over 60 percent of NBA athletes are broke within five years of retirement. There’s no reason to expect that the numbers are much different in other sports.

“It’s hard to argue with the widespread perception that athletes and celebrities are the worst managers of their money,” says Patrick Johnson, a former wide receiver for the Baltimore Ravens and the Toronto Argonauts of the Canadian Football League. Part of the problem, he says, is that they then turn to advisors whom they shouldn’t trust. “Exposure to so many unethical advisors paves the way for what eventually happens. Any advisor that is worth anything should care about what happens to his client.  Many of them do not.”

Spending too much, paying insufficient attention to their finances, trusting their money to people whom they haven’t thoroughly vetted ….

Everyone can enjoy a little schadenfreude in seeing overpaid celebrities and their money soon parted. But are their financial mistakes really so different from ours?

©2010 Brian Cuban

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Former NBA stars Antoine Walker and Derrick Coleman are Broke.  The Real Deal, Evander Holyfield stared into the financial abyss although it appears he is getting his finances under control.  Just a few of the high profile athlete having to scale back his lifestyle to the level to which you have I have been accustomed.  The list is long and distinguished. Why is it that athletes who seem to have everything are often completely unable to control anything related to finances?

We all played our violins to death when we heard of Latrell Sprewell’s financial troubles. On Halloween 2004, Sprewell, who was in the final season of a $62-million five-year contract with the New York Knicks, said he was insulted by the Minnesota Timberwolve’s offer of a contract extension that was reportedly worth between $27 million and $30 million for three seasons. Sprewell stated, “I’ve got my family to feed.” That quote become a national moniker for the public perception of athletes as greedy, out of touch individuals. Apparently, Sprewell still can’t feed his family. His yacht was  repossessed and his home faced foreclosure.

While there is certainly the stereotype of the financially irresponsible NBA athlete, no professional sport is immune.

Let’s take a look at some high profile athlete financial sob stories over the years:

1. No one my age can forget Jack”The Ripper” Clark , star player for the Boston Red Sox who filed for bankruptcy in 1992 in the middle of his second year of a three-year, $8.7 million contract with Boston; he listed $6.7 million in debts. Jack was a master of financial planning and prudent asset acquisition. His bankruptcy petition listed assets such as 18 automobiles, including a 1990 Ferrari that cost $717,000 and three 1992 Mercedes Benz cars costing between $103,000 and $143,000. He owed money on 17 of the automobiles and was liable for about $400,000 in Federal and state taxes. He had also lost about $1 million in a drag-racing venture. Sounds like Jack would have been more at home in the NBA. You can read about it here

2. Johnny Unitas, Hall of Fame quarterback for the Baltimore Colts, filed for bankruptcy in 1991 citing numerous failed business ventures in his petition These failed bits included bowling alleys, land deals and restaurants. He filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in 1991.

3. Mike Tyson The name speaks for itself. Mike’s bankruptcy was highly publicized. Despite earning hundreds of millions during his boxing career, Mike kept it simple. His bankruptcy petition simply stated: ” I am unable to pay my bills”. According to federal court records, his liabilities totaled about $27 million. You can read that story here.

4. Dorothy Hamill, the women’s figure-skating gold medalist in the 1976 Winter Games, filed for bankruptcy after a series of financial setbacks. Hamill said she has experienced financial setbacks as a result of poor financial investment advice and management.

These are just a few of many athletes’ tales of woe. It is not a phenomenon limited to professional sports — just ask M.C Hammer. Prior to his declaring bankruptcy, it was made public that his day to day living expenses far exceeded his income of $33 million. If I am going to veer off to celebrities, I certainly have to mention Kim Basinger and Michael Jackson and Nicholas Cage.

When the Toronto Star ran an article alleging that a shocking 60 percent of NBA athletes “go broke” five years after retiring, did we not all pull out that very tiny violin we have reserved for such occasions? The NBA players union and the NBA have both disputed that assertion. The article goes on to talk about all the people taking advantage of and “scamming” these athletes. While I have no doubt there is truth to this, I can also understand how such a generalization would make the NBA uncomfortable. It leaves you with the impression that 60 percent of NBA players are not only financially inept but also idiots in general. This is simply not true. While good business sense is often lacking, I view many of their mistakes as being more mistakes of trust, credibility and lack of life experience than anything else. Smart, busy people who can afford it, hire people with targeted expertise to help them. This allows them to focus on their expertise. Sometime mistakes are made and bad judgment is used in who we hire and hang out with. That is not unique to the NBA or professional sports. This happens to everyone. That is life. It happens all the time. It just does not make front page when we screw up. If there is any question at all as to how badly we as the general public screw up, just look at the personal bankruptcy filing statistics.

In order to get a perspective from the inside, I contacted Jordan Woy, a highly respected sports agent and a principal in the sports marketing/management firm of Schlegel Sports. Jordan has represented numerous high profile athletes

Here is what Jordon had to say:

I think there are several reasons why so many athletes “go broke”. First, whether it is a lottery winner, an athlete or a star entertainer, if they are not equipped with the knowledge on how to make and save money they are in trouble. When they didn’t earn it through disciplined business practices and they don’t have those skills they usually go through it quickly. Most lottery winners or athletes make a great deal of money in a short period of time. They start spending it on things that only go down in value (cars, jewelry, partying, entourage, etc) and start to evaporate the money they do have. They can carry this off until they stop earning big money. This is when the trouble starts. It is hard to believe that MC Hammer, Mike Tyson, Evander Holyfield and now Ed McMahon are broke. These are people who earned hundreds of millions over time and it disappeared. Lavish spending and entourages were probably the downfall for the first three for sure.

Most athletes play for four to ten years if they are lucky. After they pay taxes (can be 40 to 50%) and agent fees and buy their first homes, cars, outfits, jewelry (plus, cars, clothes and jewelry for friends and family), they are left with very little. When they first “strike it rich” all of their longtime friends and family expect help. Most athletes feel obligated to help everyone out at first then they wise up. They also want to keep up with their teammates. If someone buys a Bentley, they have to buy one; if someone buys a $75,000 watch, they have to buy one to keep up the appearance. Then, of course, when the career ends and they are still living in a multi million dollar house, driving 3 expensive cars (and insurance), traveling in private planes and taking Limo’s when they go out on the town, reality sets in. The money dries up very quickly.

However, if athletes educate themselves, learn money management skills and make smart, safe investments along the way, they are usually in very good shape. After representing athletes for over 20 years, we call this our “life plan”. We take out clients on working vacations in the off season to places like Las Vegas, Cancun and on a cruise to the Bahamas to learn business networking. We have people from industries such as real estate, oil and gas, financial planning, credit repair, asset protection/estate planning, etc come to educate the players and their wives so they can learn about these business and also determine if they are interested in any of these industries for life after sports. One of the financial planners who comes always says most people die coming down from Mt. Everest not going up. The goal is for these athletes to get to their Mt. Everest AND to get down safely.

So, what do you think? Are the financial mistakes that athletes make any different than your mistakes or mine? They are certainly mistakes made with a higher downside. When we hear these stories are we just unable to comprehend that someone could have that much money and spend it all? Can we learn lessons on how to live our lives from their highly publicized financial gaffes? Do we even care at all?

With all due respect to Latrell Sprewell, we have our own families to feed…

Today I  took a trip to Atlanta, Texas to celebrate Thanksgiving.  Atlanta is an East Texas town of about 6500 people.  As I drove through “downtown” Atlanta it was clear that that any resemblance to its namesake in Georgia was in name only.  It was named after Atlanta, Georgia because many of the early settlers were from that area.

It was a typical one street downtown as I have seen in other small Texas towns such as Olney, Boyd and Archer City where the classic movie The Last Picture Show was filmed.   Streets like you would see in any “Route 66” town across America.    As is standard in small Texas towns, there is a barber, candy shop, bank, hardware store, bakery, sporting goods store, few antique stores, a Dairy Queen and of course a huge, bustling, Walmart.  The staples of  life that can be cut and pasted to countless small towns across America.

There were also numerous boarded up storefronts.

The Atlanta Chamber of Commerce Web Site states:

“Atlanta exemplifies small town America. Warm smiles and warmer greetings reflect a friendly and progressive community.”

What Atlanta and other small towns all over the country never envisioned when they were formed (Atlanta was founded in 1872)  was that small town America would one day be synonymous with the arrival of Walmart.

Today in Atlanta as I lay in a turkey coma on the couch watching The Dallas Cowboys dismantle their opponent in their new stadium dubbed “The Death- Star”  I casually mentioned that it was sad that there were so many boarded up stores. Out of the depths of my turkey fog I heard a voice in the room yell out”

Walmart Did This To Us!

It then occurred to me.   Many in small town America may look at  the arrival of Walmart as the invasion of Evil Empire and its own type of economic Death-Star

Darth Vader, who was unmasked many years ago, didn’t initially destroy these towns with his death ray. He arrived with the promise of peace and prosperity. The Death -Star then set down in the middle of town,  touting every possible convenience a person could want at cheaper prices, with greater diversity and quantity.  Unfortunately no Jedi Knights ever came to the rescue.  They were to busy fueling up their Starfighters at discount prices.

Now, instead of seeing the sign “Victory Tonight And Free Haircut Tomorrow” if the high school football team or basketball team wins, we see, “Going Out of Business Liquidation Sale.”

How can the “It’s A Wonderful Life” dream of small town America possibly compete with the neon lit entrance to the Death Star just a block away?  Instead we see “The Last Picture Show” at the local theater just before it closes for good to be transformed into a Walgreens.  The residents of Atlanta, Texas leave the theater and disappear into the Death Star never to be heard from again by the local merchants.

©2009 Brian Cuban

Not long ago I began using a free service call TrueTwit. It is a free captcha validation service than is supposed to prevent automated spam bots from following you.  Pretty simple and straightforward.  It has its limitations.  If the spammer is a real person and enters the captcha code, he’s in until you get rid of him manually.   That being said, there has been a noticeable reduction in “I’m so horny” and “make 300 dollars the hard way” bots.

The other day I received a Direct Message from @tweetuptexas. A quick look at the twitter page confirms that the person is trying to brand him/herself as one of many Twitter services that help organize and broadcast local tweet-ups. Nothing unique or even remotely appealing as an already done- spun and re-spun twitter model.

While the DM’s messages seemed to have disappeared this person basically tweeted me what a jerk and sad pathetic individual I was for asking people to validate that they are not spam bots. Here are a couple of the public tweets around the interaction for context.

Here is the novel and brilliant @tweetuptexas branding strategy:

When you are new to twitter trying to start a Texas Tweetup business, find the most active tweeters in your own back yard.  Find the ones who have been doing this for a while and have large followings. Then send them all insulting uninformed douchebag messages about what sad pathetic losers they are for doing something different than you do.

Interesting business strategy. I am curious to see how that was outlined and factored in the ROI in the @tweetuptexas business plan.

Nothing is certain in business or in the twitter universe. There is however one thing I am relatively sure of.  More legitimate, respected tweeters will read this blog than will ever follow @texastweetup. Maybe they should try making 300 dollars the hard way.

The Michael Jackson death mystery continues to crescendo towards the expected announcement of his cause of death.  The announcement will have an impact on numerous level the most obvious is being any criminal liability. The announcement will also have an effect on both insurance coverage and civil liability arising out of his death.

It is being reported that concert promoter AEG spent well over $20 million in preparation for Michael Jackson’s 50-date run to have started July 13 at O2 Arena in London. The promoter sold about $85 million in tickets for Jackson’s comeback stand against an expected profit of approximately 115 million.

AEG chief exec Randy Phillips  has stated that AEG may  break even or make a profit regardless of the failed concert series. They have offered Jackson ticket buyers the choice of a refund or to receive the actual concert tickets as souvenirs in lieu of the full refunds. 

Insuring Jackson was not an easy task in itself.  With Jackson’s history of canceling concerts, AEG reportedly had trouble finding suitable insurance.  They were allegedly able to finally secure coverage for the first 23 million.

In order to get a better understanding of these issues I contacted one of the countries top producers of special events insurance.

James Chippendale is the President of  CSI Insurance Group.  They are the leading hospitality and entertainment insurance specialist in the country, placing coverage for some of the country’s top recording artists, live music venues, concert promoters, special events, nightclubs, bars and restaurants. This includes artists such as Ludacris, Busta Rhymes,Better Than Ezra, the Nation’s largest events such as Lollapalooza,Austin City Limits Music Festival and even President Obama’s Victory Party Inauguration.

What will be the primary liability and coverage issues with regards to the failed Michael Jackson concert series?

“Whether AEG had Key Man Insurance in place will be of prime importance.  AEG’s insurance carrier is no doubt anxiously awaiting the results of the toxicology report from the autopsy. The  ”key man’ insurance policy should cover accidental death. On the other hand, recovery of insurance proceeds is often prohibited  where  intentional, willful acts are involved.”

What is Key Man Insurance?

“Key man insurance is a sub-type of life insurance pout in place where one person’s skills and abilities can make an enormous financial difference”

Who Needs It?

“Key man insurance is meant to cover the company’s losses in the event of the death of a key employee or in the case of a concert the star performer or band member whose inability to perform would prevent the event from going forward.”

What Is It?

“Key man insurance is generally a term life insurance policy, with the length term being the time until that employee retires. The company pays the premiums on the policy and receives the death benefits if the key performer, Jackson in this case, unexpectedly dies.”

Will there be underwriting Issues?

“This again will ride on the results of the toxicology report.  The Insurer or insurers will no doubt be closely scrutinizing the AEG application for insurance.  They will be looking closely at all disclosed pre-existing medical conditions and drugs Jackson disclosed he was taking at the time of application.”

If the AEG insurance carrier believes there could be reason to deny coverage, what steps will they take?

“The first thing they will do and what they have probably already done is to issue what is known as a Reservation of Rights to AEG.”

What Is A Reservation Of Rights?

‘Reservation of Rights are common in the insurance industry.  It is basically a letter that would be sent from the insurer to AEG  putting them on notice that for a one or several reasons there may be no coverage for a particular claim under the insurance policy covering Jackson or other aspects of the concert.”

We have heard a  lot about AEG allegedly having coverage with “LLOYDS”.   Can you explain what Lloyds is and how it works as an insurer?

“A broker would place the risk with LLOYD’S.  In the case of the Jackson concert I believe it was Robertson Taylor.  The broker commission would be 20-25 percent”

“LLOYD’s is a network of syndicates  ( individual companies ) they each take part of the risk. An  example would be a company that needed 100,000,000 in coverage for a specialized risk that he could not obtain coverage for elsewhere.”

“Company A may take on the “lead syndicate” at 60 percent of the risk or 60k.  There could be dozens of companies below each taken on a small percentage of the risk.”

Why do companies go to LLOYD’s and not standard carriers for such coverage?

“There are only about 5 insurers in the United States that write this type of coverage. No mainstream also know as “standard market” insurer  would take this kind of risk. LLOYD’s  is the market of global choice for high risk events such as this”

Who would have insisted on a personal doctor for Michael Jackson?

“Either the insurance carrier, AEG or both”

My thoughts:

There also the looming issue of whether Michael Jackson died as a result of medical negligence.  More specifically, if he died as a result of the negligence of Dr. Conrad Murray who was allegedly hired by concert promoter AEG to monitor Jackson’s health.  This in itself will raise various insurance issues. If there was medical negligence, we will certainly see a malpractice/wrongful death suits against Dr. Conrad as well as other doctors involved.  We should also expect a suit AEG for negligence in the selection of and monitoring of  Dr. Conrad if the toxicology results so warrant.

My opinion? I am always leery of a “negligence by enabling” type  claim.  They always smell of an abrogation of personal responsibility.   When, however, you have licensed medical professionals involved the buck is supposed to stop there.  In my humble opinion, it is a treating doctor’s  ethical responsibility to put a stop to the prior medical enabling.  It was Dr. Conrad’s responsibility.  If he failed in that responsibility he should be held to the applicable standard, criminal, civil or both.

In the meantime, long after the  memory is gone the lawyers will continue to churn on….