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Before he went to the Columbus Blue Jackets as part of the deal that brought Jeff Carter and eventually two Stanley Cups to the Los Angeles Kings, Jack Johnson broke into the NHL with the Kings. It was also in L.A. where the former Michigan Wolverine signed his first big contract, a seven-year deal worth over $30 million in 2011. Four years later Johnson has been on the receiving end of two financial swindles, with his parents being the perpetrators in one and former NFL defensive back Will Allen robbing Johnson blind via Ponzi scheme in the other. At age 28 after making several million dollars, Johnson is essentially penniless and seeing almost all of his $5 million salary go towards paying off loan sharks and helping claw his way out of debt.
It was during his contract negotiations with the Kings in 2010-11 that the red flags should have first gone up regarding Johnson and monetary IQ. Prior to the start of negotiations with the Kings, Johnson fired his agent, Pat Brisson, who is among the most respected and reputable in the game of hockey and gave control of his money to his parents — bad idea.
To my knowledge, neither of Johnson’s parents have a background in the financial world and signing one’s finances over, even to family members, just opens a Pandora’s box of things that can go wrong. Ironically, once in control of his finances, Johnson’s parents spent his money like pair of teenagers with their parents’ credit card and ran up millions in debt, mostly through high interest loans and god awful investments, all in Johnson’s name.
The bottom line is someone with the Kings, whether in the front office or on the team, should have redirected Johnson when he showed Brisson the door. Maybe that happened and he didn’t heed their caution; likewise, it isn’t the team or his teammates’ job to babysit Johnson and ensure a grown man is being smart with money. Having said that, this debacle could have easily been avoided if a number of things had gone differently — not the least in which includes Johnson’s parents not preying on their child and robbing him blind while showing zero remorse in doing so. Going a step further, after getting taken to the cleaners by his parents, Johnson should have been a little more cautious than to throw money into Allen’s scheme.
I’m curious to see what other athletes were in Allen’s pyramid scheme as surely Johnson can’t be the only one. After watching the way Allen robbed the Miami Dolphins in his last few years in the league, it goes without saying he’s quite adept at taking money from people without providing anything in return.
