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The podcast by NFL players for NFL players. Each week, we break down the biggest events in football and how they directly impact a player's career and money.
Join Former NFL Veterans Sam Acho (Bills, Bucs, Bears & Cardinals), Zach Miller (Seahawks & Raiders), Jeff Locke (Vikings, Colts, Lions, 49ers), and college coach, Riccardo Stewart, for a raw and unfiltered conversation about the game, the business, and how players can achieve generational wealth.
Riccardo Stewart: Hey, I am gonna
welcome you guys back to another
episode of the A-W-M-N-F-L Podcast.
My name is Ricardo Stewart, and I'm
your host and I'm joined with my friend
Sam Acho, Zach Miller and Jeff Locke.
Fellas, it is that time of the year.
Where it's, uh, I don't know, it's a time
of year for me, it's like, what is it?
Today is the day before Thanksgiving as we
record that, it, it's just time to think
about all the things you're thankful for.
And so I'm gonna start first with telling
you, Zach, I'm thankful for you, Sam.
I'm thankful for you and Jeff.
I'm thankful for you.
Zach Miller: Right back at
Jeff Locke: I,
Sam Acho: I was right back at you, coach.
Riccardo Stewart: gonna say,
you Hey guys, I threw that lob.
I was gonna, I was waiting and so,
but I think about, I think about
this time of the year because
I think about Christmas movies.
Okay, Sam, I'm gonna ask
you a quick question.
What's your favorite Christmas movie?
Sam Acho: I think it's gotta
be one of the home alones.
You know, I remember being a
little kid and watching the
Home Alone movies and just.
Being scared with McCall Culkin
and trying to figure out like,
are these bad guys gonna come in?
So one of those home alone was
probably one of my favorites.
I don't remember which one.
Riccardo Stewart: Yeah.
I, I, uh, I would say for me it's
definitely home alone one, my
favorite Christmas movie and the
idea of, like you said, the bad guys
scoping the house, trying to come in
and take what's that's not theirs.
And I think that's my, my segue
into what I wanna talk about today,
and that is the idea of privacy
and primarily digital privacy.
Because when that movie was filmed.
There wasn't Facebook, Twitter, there
wasn't just the digital presence that,
that people have now, and all three of
you guys played in, played in the NFL.
You guys are, are famous people,
Sam, you're still on TV and, and
people can figure out where you're
at and where you purchase things and
where you live and things like that.
That it is very, very important for
NFL players to be able to have privacy.
We've looked in the news and we've
seen several players have had the home
alone experience, you know, sadly.
And so I want to be able to talk about
that and primarily from, from a financial
side, is like, why in the world would the
financial team be be thinking about this?
And so, Sam, how important
is privacy for NFL athletes?
Sam Acho: Yeah.
Privacy is often overlooked by NFL
athletes because so much of your
focus is either what you're doing on
the field, or it's about maybe your
family or your finances, but what
you don't realize is that privacy is.
Intertwined in all of those conversations.
I have guys who I played with,
played against guys who I even
work with on TV who have had their
homes broken into, either while
they're in studio or as athletes.
Guys like Joe Burrow, Patrick Mahomes,
guys who, uh, Shado Sanders, their
houses are getting broken into because
there's people out there that pay money
to try to find out where you live.
And so there are ways to try and
get that protected, and that's
what a lot of athletes miss.
Riccardo Stewart: Zach, at one point
you were, you know, the highest
paid person in your position.
You played for the Raiders, you
played for the Seahawks, like
you knew the name Zach Miller.
Did anybody ever approach you
about making sure that you were
protected from a privacy standpoint?
And, and, and if they did, did
it come from your financial team?
Zach Miller: They never did.
Uh, no one said anything about it.
No one helped me out.
My financial advisor never, never told me.
It might be something I.
Should do, or, you know, give
me, somebody help me out here.
So when I bought my house here in Arizona,
obviously didn't know any of the things
I know now some of the things, uh, Jeff
will talk about of, of having your home
address out there, the local newspaper.
Just puts out that my wife and I
buy a house in Paradise Valley List
price, uh, address everything just for
the whole internet to have forever.
And so you don't know what you don't, you
know, you don't, you, you make mistakes
when you don't have the right team.
Riccardo Stewart: Yeah.
Yeah.
That is, uh, that is definitely the truth.
And so, Jeff, Zach just talked about
it in terms of you talking about this
privacy part, like when and what are,
what are the common ways that you see that
NFL athletes are exposed as it relates
to just the digital side of things?
Jeff Locke: Yeah, so the first
way NF officers are exposed is
just how everybody's exposed.
So like.
a question for you, for you guys.
When you download an app, right?
What's the first thing that pops up on
the app before you're able to use the app?
Is there like a little
checkbox that says something?
You gotta check?
What does it say?
Anyone?
Sam Acho: capture, like, hey, making
sure you're a real person and not a
Jeff Locke: No, no, no.
Behind the bot, right?
There's one that says probably
user agreement, right?
How many of you guys actually read it?
Zach Miller: No, no one reads user
Jeff Locke: No one.
No one reads it.
I don't even read it.
And I'm the guy that reads the fine print.
Right, but in that user agreement is
a clause that pretty much says we can
sell your data to third parties, right?
On almost any app, right?
That's how a lot of companies
make money, is by selling it
or sharing it with other apps.
So everyone has their data
online, no matter what.
Right?
Happens to regular people,
happens to athletes.
It goes to these data broker sites online.
There's hundreds of them
that have addresses.
Socials, right?
There's data breaches that then link leak,
really sensitive stuff, social security
numbers, date of births, stuff like that.
So it's out there for everyone.
Athlete data is just way more
valuable than the average person.
People go and seek it.
People go and pay for that data
because they wanna do athlete's harm,
whether it's stealing credit card info.
Whether it's, um, impersonating
you to try and get a loan or to try
and do something financially, or
it's what we've talked about, try
to find out where you live, right?
To do a robbery or, or even worse.
So it's all out there.
It's really hard to stop it.
There's ways, but athletes are just
more sought after in the world.
Riccardo Stewart: It's, it's interesting,
interesting because a lot of times you
hear people when it comes to our world.
Talk about asset preservation
and so forth, but they don't
really get this information.
As you said, Zach, they don't really
get guidance from their financial team
to say, Hey, here's something you need
to be thinking about in terms of how
to put your house in a way where people
can't find you, or how to put yourself
on the internet in a way where it's hard
to find you and you know, Sam, is that
something you see that the financial
team should be helping these athletes?
I.
Sam Acho: I, I, I do, I believe that.
When you think about you, you and
your family, you're not just thinking
about, okay, how much money can I
make from an investment perspective?
You're also thinking
of, is my family safe?
Like, is my family going to be okay
when I'm traveling and going to
go announce this game or when I'm
gonna go and play, play this game?
Am I sure my family is safe?
And sure you can get security
cameras and things like that.
But I think that if you're a financial
advisor, financial team, the people
who are your trusted, most trusted
people should be thinking about your
family in the same or similar way
that you are thinking about your
family when it comes to protecting
them, both online and also in person.
Riccardo Stewart: And then just a
follow up to that question, do, do
you believe it's worth the cost?
Sam Acho: Absolutely.
Uh, I was talking with one of our clients
in the baseball world, and this is before
I knew much about some of the digital
security, and I'd heard about some of
the break-ins and I was at a workout
facility here in Dallas and he went
on and on and on and raving about man.
He's like, dude, thank y'all so much.
I said, why?
He's like, because I had my house broken
into years ago, and then I heard about
some of the privacy stuff that you all do,
and I said, Hey, I need that right now.
And since then, I, now I leave home.
This guy's a World series
champion multiple times.
He's like, now I leave
home with peace of mind.
He said, when my house got broken
into, I was there, my wife was
there, we were all upstairs.
I was scared.
She was scared, but it was like, dude,
that the, the, the, the benefit that I
have, the cost can't even be compared to
the benefit of knowing that we're safe.
Riccardo Stewart: Zach,
I'm gonna just come to you.
Just, is there any other ways you think
if you're talking to an F athlete,
athlete and you're saying like, here
are maybe some other ways we haven't
touched that you could be exposed.
Zach Miller: Yeah, I mean we, we hit
on some of the major ones, but as you
make more money, you are more likely
to be a target from either hackers,
people that want to impersonate
you like Jeff mentioned, or even.
Stalkers or fans that, you know, with
the whole NFL gambling world now, like
people are trying to get access to you
and having a kind of wall or shield
up, um, it makes sense for, for NFL
guys that have the kind of net worth.
I mean, that's what money's for is
to, to pay for things that can help,
you know, make you a better player,
protect your family, doing the
most important things money can do.
And so you should have that
kind of resource in place.
It's just part of, it's part of the whole.
Being wealthy as an NFL athlete, uh,
world, you just have to accept it.
Put the best team in place, put the
best resources in place to protect
yourself, and, and you can stop
almost all of the stuff that you kind
of see in the news with other guys.
I.
Riccardo Stewart: Okay.
I want you, Jeff, to land the plane here
and I'm gonna ask you two questions.
The one, the first one is.
Is anything else you would
add to this conversation?
Because on our team you are,
you're, you're the point person.
I mean, and I, I've been in meetings
with you, um, with companies that we've
met with that do this digital security.
And so anything would you add to it?
And then the follow up to that
would be where would you point
someone who's listening to this
podcast going, okay, digital.
I mean like, is this is an app or is
it something far bigger than that?
And, and like, what direction
do I get pointed to?
But starting first with
anything else, would you add.
Jeff Locke: Two.
Two quick things is just when,
whenever you buy a home or sell
a home, that's like one of the
most exposed you're ever gonna be.
That's one thing we help our
clients with all the time, is
making sure those are private.
'cause a home transaction in the United
States, you have to publicly disclose
the transaction on county websites.
And every county in the United
States is different on how they
disclose what happened, but.
Literally data brokers and people
trying to do bad things, sweep
all those transactions and sell
it to bad people all the time.
Protecting that information, right?
And then something as simple as
looking at your phone settings, right?
Most people don't do this
when they get a phone, right?
Apple, all these companies, all these apps
make money by being able to share your
info across to other companies, right?
It's billion.
The dollar industry, you need to
go in there and you need to change
your settings and look that up.
And then in terms of companies that
can help, there's many out there.
There's ones that do kind
of an okay job, right?
They kind of sweep things on
the internet, you know, look for
things every once in a while.
And then there's certain companies
that we work with that we can tell
you more about if you reach out that
do this for C-suite executives, CEOs,
artists, entertainers, and athletes.
And they know the exposure.
They know all the tricks in the book that
these hackers and these bad actors are
coming at you with, and they help stop it.
Riccardo Stewart: Yeah, thanks.
I, I know, uh, those of you listening like
this is not an easy one 'cause like, man,
this one kind of makes me a little afraid.
The point is that you're, you're
protected and it's something that you
think about because likely your financial
advisor is gonna talk about investments.
Right.
You might get someone to
think about insurance.
What happens to my body?
What happens to my family if I'm not here?
But what about when your family's here
now and how do you stay protected?
And it's not running away and
hiding, but it's being made aware
of the dangers that are out there
so that you could be protected.
And so obviously there's some things we'd
love to disclose to you that we couldn't
on the podcast if you want information or.
Who do you get pointed to?
We'd love to be able to show you
the resources that we use, and
so feel free to reach out to us.
You can shoot us a text.
Our number is 6 0 2 9 8 9 5 0 2 2.