The legendary player learned the hard way that 'it's not about how much you make, it's about how much you preserve'

Derrick Brooks, a legendarily unflappable player who played 14 seasons at linebacker for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, started out like a lot of young men and young athletes: grateful for having money, knowing nothing about it, and worried about whom to trust.

He paid the price early: in his rookie year with the Bucs, fresh out of Florida State, a friend asked him to invest in a T-shirt company. "I wrote a guy a check for $35,000 for an investment and I never saw one penny of it," Brooks says. "I thank God it cost me $35,000; it probably saved me millions [later]."



Brooks, known for never missing a game in his career, devoted his free time to learning about managing his own money and defying the stereotype of the high-rolling, money-wasting pro athlete. He hired a financial adviser before he hired an agent, and started attending financial seminars. Now he hosts financial literacy education classes at Brooks-DeBartolo Collegiate School, a Tampa Bay charter school he helped found that has a 100% graduation rate and has sent students to Harvard and MIT.

Brooks also promotes Financial Football, a partnership between the NFL and Visa that promotes financial education to disadvantaged kids by embedding financial quizzes in the form of football games. He says he considers financial education a lifelong process, often telling kids, "I'm not proclaiming that I know everything, and I'm learning these things I'm teaching you through my own mistakes."

Brooks, who was set to make $12m at the height of his career, left the Buccaneers in 2009 and retired from football in 2010. Now 40, he is co-owner and president of the Tampa Bay Storm of the Arena Football League. This week, he made the professional football Hall of Fame in his first year of eligibility.



We talked to Brooks about his interest in financial literacy and his own experience in learning about money. An edited transcript of our conversation is below.

What do you tell kids when you talk to them about financial literacy?



The more financially responsible we can make them, the better the future they will have. The first thing I talk to them about is that I can relate. I give them my story. I didn't know what a checking account was. I didn't know how to write a check. I tell them that at their age they're going to be smarter than me. I tell them: you can't grasp all this information in a class, but if you grab one concept, one theme, then you are already educated. You just put that one fact to work in your life.



What was your early experience with money?



I'll just say this: financial literacy wasn't discussed in my household. I just grew up not exposed to it. My parents paid bills as best they could, but I just wasn't exposed it. I told the students how I got a check for a Pell Grant in college [at Florida State], and held in my pocket and my bookbag. I didn't take it to the bank because I didn't know what to do with it. Someone told me to take it to the bank or else I would lose it. The ladies at the bank taught me what to do with it and opened a checking account for me.



When I got to the NFL, I just increased that empowerment. I guess the fear of losing [money] drove me to go to financial seminars, and I quickly educated myself along with my financial adviser. I think at [about] 21-years-old I had an opportunity to be exposed to this world, and I want to get as many kids exposed to this as possible.



I tell them: a dollar is not just four quarters, it is not 10 dimes, it is not a hundred pennies. It's about the person who picks it up and holds it. I just get them to try to understand it.



Facebook Twitter Pinterest Brooks won a Super Bowl with the Bucs in 2003, against the Oakland Raiders. Photograph: Stephen Dunn/Getty Images



What was your reaction when you got your first NFL paycheck?



I was grateful to receive it – and I knew this time to put it in the bank. I did not spend money outside of basic needs, because I wanted to be an educated person spending that dollar. After my first signing bonus, I got a ton of advice: you should invest in this, you should invest in that. It was the mid-90s and the market was soaring. I didn't invest in anything. Some people said I lost out. I tell them: if I invest and I'm uneducated, then I'm losing.



One thing I tell other athletes is that I paid my own bills. I didn't depend on a wealth advisers to pay my bills. If you are using your time, your workouts, your resources to get this money, and you're blessed to be in this league, how can you not take an hour and sit down and pay those bills? When you see that number go down every month, you're going to see the effect of your own spending habits. Everything we do in our lives, from workouts to coaching, it takes discipline – so why not do that with your earning power? Some people say it's easy to talk about and hard to do. It's not hard to do. How can you not spare an hour?



When you talk to kids who didn't grow up with money, whose parents didn't talk about it, how do you make these ideas resonate for them?



I wasn't exposed to paying bills, to saving, to checking accounts, so I tell them: that's your parents. That's not you. The kids I talk to have different backgrounds. My job is to get one fact over to them to help them. I try to get the facts to them about a checking account, because all of them can be exposed to that at least.



When did you first start making money and what did you spend it on?



It was in high school. I cut lawns. I saved up to buy myself clothes, to buy my girlfriend a present. I even tried to help out on the bills around the house.



What have you learned from the financial seminars you've taken?



Financial discipline. Everything they talk about – stocks bonds, savings – all those add up to financial discipline. It's not up to how much I make, it's how much I preserve and save. Being rich is not being wealthy. Being wealthy is wealthy. Being rich is superficial, here today, gone tomorrow. Being wealthy is spiritual.

I'd just repeat: it's not about how much you make, it's about how much you save, how much you preserve.



I actually had my financial adviser before I had my agent. I hired my financial adviser coming out of college, then I hired my agent. I still have the same financial adviser going on 18 years. When I hired him, I told him, "Your job is to educate me to the point where I do not need you." If he's not a teacher, then why would I hire him? He's not only helping me manage my money, he's helping me manage my life.



How would you measure the success of your efforts in financial literacy? What would signal accomplishment?



It would be to reach one kid in the room, change one attitude towards his finances.

Any parting thoughts?



What stands out to me is this: make sure you give your time to a charitable cause. It's not all about getting money. If you give your time to a cause or another person, that's another form of discipline, because time is your most valuable asset.