Jack Johnson has earned $18 million during his professional hockey career, and that's not including the $5 million the Columbus Blue Jackets will dole out to the defenseman this season. That's not bad pay for a 27-year-old.
But that's before taxes, agent fees, bills, parents using high-interest loans against future earnings as their personal bank, etc. etc. etc. It turns out, Jack Johnson filed for bankruptcy two days before the Jackets opened their 2014 season.
From Aaron Portzline of The Columbus Dispatch:
“I’d say I picked the wrong people who led me down the wrong path,” Johnson, a 27-year-old defenseman, told The Dispatch last week. “I’ve got people in place who are going to fix everything now. It’s something I should have done a long time ago.”
But sources close to Johnson have told The Dispatch that his own parents — Jack Sr. and Tina Johnson — are among the “wrong people” who led him astray financially.
Oh, but it gets better:
The tangled web is one that The Dispatch has been investigating since the spring, and — according to court documents, NHL sources and sources with knowledge of the situation — involves a U.S. congressman from Iowa, the son of an oil baron in Texas and a former University of Michigan basketball star.
Johnson got in trouble by allowing his representatives to "monetize" his contract, a.k.a. taking out high-interest loans from "non-traditional lenders" against guaranteed future earnings. It doesn't take a forensic accountant to guess what happened next.
Tip of the cap to The Dispatch's Aaron Portzline, however. Bang-up reporting job; the article is recommended in full.
