A year ago, one of the big stories in sports was professional athletes electing to take part of their salary in Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies. NFL stars like Trevor Lawrence were considered “cutting edge” and trendsetters. Well, the fancy titles didn’t mean much when crypto tanked, and now the NFL players who lost a collective $42 million just want their money.
The NFL Players Association is leading the charge to recoup that large amount of dough. The union filed a report with the U.S. Department of Labor that showcases the $41.8 million in accounts receivable through OneTeam Partners — a group working closely with NFLPA, and other pro-athlete unions.
The Athletic reported that the paid funds are associated with declining activity surrounding NFTs, with Dapper Labs and DraftKings being singled out. Both companies have sought to renegotiate licensing deals with the NFLPA.
The crypto craze sucked in many intelligent people in the sports world, most notably the Miami Heat. They were so star-struck by the charms of FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried that they agreed to take millions to officially change their arena’s name. That backfired in November of 2022 when FTX was proven to be a fraudulent house of cards.
Odell Beckham Jr. was another big-name athlete who agreed to take his entire salary two seasons ago with the Rams in Bitcoin. In January of 2022, Darren Rovell reported that Beckham’s $750k salary was only worth $413,000 because Bitcoin’s value tanked.
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