How Can You “Probably” Sign Loan Paperwork?

“All I know is I probably could have signed some of them.”
–Vince Young

My wife is a HUGE Texas Longhorns fan. For years and years and years, Texas failed to live up to the expectations that go along with being the biggest state (in their minds) in the country, and probably the world. So, back in 2005, when Vince Young quarterbacked the national championship football (not the proper football, mind you) team (sorry to all of you Reggie Bush and Matt Leinart fans), my wife’s dreams were finally fulfilled.

In her eyes, Vince Young could do no wrong.

If you’re blind to the rest of the things that people do, then this could still be the story, but apparently, according to some people who lent Young $1.9 million dollars, he has done a lot wrong.

The story tells of a loan that Young took out during the NFL lockout of 2011, which he is now disputing.

Holy cow. There are so many ways that this went wrong. Let me enumerate just some of them:

• He didn’t read paperwork. Here was a person about to take out a $1.9 million dollar loan, and he just signed on the dotted line. Sure, contracts are complex and full of legalese, and even my 1L Contracts class didn’t prepare me for some of them, but you have to read your contracts when it’s that amount! If there’s something you don’t understand, ask and ask and ask again until you understand what it means! Bring a tape recorder or record it on your phone so that you have documentation of what was said.
• He didn’t ask why $1 million of his salary didn’t go to him. He just let it go to Pro Player Funding, LLC, whoever they are, without a question.
• He tried to delegate responsibility as well as authority. He signed over powers of attorney to advisers and didn’t even know what it meant.
  

  If they do anything on your behalf, I thought they had to make sure it goes by you and I’m signing for it,” he testified. “I didn’t know that … if they have a power of attorney, they can go do anything with your signature.”

  He said that he just trusted his attorney and accountant to figure everything out and let him know what was going on. Even if you engage the help of professionals, you still are responsible for your actions and for knowing what they’re doing. You can’t just abrogate responsibility for your life, even if you’re using professionals to help you out!

• He didn’t use a financial adviser with fiduciary responsibility. According to Young’s video deposition, he went to sign a high interest rate $1.9 million loan on the advice of his financial advisor. I don’t know of any fiduciarily responsible financial advisor who would advise a client to take out an enormous, high interest loan in Young’s circumstances. They were just letting him run on the hedonic treadmill and probably hoping to get a cut of the action.
• He used debt as the answer. He may have gotten himself into a pickle during the lockout, but he should have had an emergency fund already saved up, particularly with as much money as he was making. If he didn’t have any money, he could have easily run some training camps and picked up some extra dosh to pay the bills, not to mention sell off a bunch of crap that he’d probably already accumulated.

I am stumped at how people can treat money so cavalierly. If you read the article, did this story get your hackles up too? Tell us about it in the comments below!