Everyone in the world today has their struggles with the delicate balance between their families and work. It is much more difficult for the life of a professional athlete. It is hard enough for someone with just a 9-5 job for 40 hours a week, much less professional athletes that is away from their families and homes more than ten hours a day and are on the road half of the time as well. Although, it still doesn’t compare with families whose spouses and parents are away serving their duty.

It makes it even more difficult when the team that the player works for expects the team to come above the family. The media does not help in this matter either. New England Patriot quarterback Tom Brady, who one day after his wife gave birth to their son, was at practice.  A story in the Boston Herald story said Brady “showed his commitment’’ to the team by showing up for practice. I am sure that Brady has dedication to his family, but couldn’t he have missed a day of practice to be with his wife and their new baby?

I remember one time when one of my sons, who was six months old, almost died, and was  placed in intensive care while we were out of town. His father, my husband, jumped on the next flight to be with us, but was fined $1500 from his team for not getting approval beforehand. I couldn’t believe it! Another time, I was having surgery and the team called the hospital to “check” if I was really admitted for surgery before releasing him from training camp for two days. Unbelievable! Nevertheless, it set a bad tone for our time with that particular organization.

Family life is extremely important in a person’s life, especially in a pro-athletes life. That time is far and few between, with practices, games, along with promotional appearances such as news conferences and filming commercials. It is also difficult because professional sports leagues have no qualms about scheduling games on some of the biggest family holidays such as Christmas, New Years, and Thanksgiving. We spent a couple of holidays in a stadium, but it wasn’t bad compared to those who have loved ones serving in the military.

When there is planned family time such as a vacation, a family must share their father or husband with the public. People want autographs, pictures, or small talk. A player doesn’t want to seem rude but, at times they have to say, “I’m sorry I’m with my family right now.” There are some fans that understand and those that don’t. Many feel as if they aren’t asking too much for a quick picture or autograph but they don’t understand one person leads to 5 more and so on.

Many athletes put their families first but they still have to contend with the fact that they are being paid a lot of money and their time is really regulated by the terms of their contract. They also have the underlying pressure of always competing for their position with the next person in line. They must show their commitment to the team.

It is a hard balancing act, but an athlete who has a supportive family, who is willing to sacrifice at times, will be able to compete and also make time for them in the long run.

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Just as with movie stars and rock stars, there are women in the world today that hang around sports celebrities with the sole intent to grab one for their own.

So let’s clarify the term “Groupie.”

This is not a women who meets a professional athlete through friends, family, at church, or at a picnic and they start dating, not because of what he does, or how much money he makes, but because she is attracted to him and they get along. As hard as it is too imagine with all of the news stories about professional athletes and their infidelity these days, there are a lot of athletes who do live normal trusting and fruitful lives with their significant others.

A “groupie” on the other hand is a woman who will sleep with the player, married or not, just because he is who he is, and does what he does.

A “groupie” will look up the player’s salary on the internet or hear it on the news , like in the USA Today article, and use this as a reason to go after them. They will be able to quote the player’s salary,and maybe even his batting average, yards per carry or points per game, but not what he likes off the field or court. Nor will they know their goals after their done playing the game or what he likes to do during downtime.
A “groupie” likes the athlete for his looks and his svelte body and cares nothing about his actual personality.
A “groupie” will go to a game in five inch heels and con her way into the family section in order to get acquainted with an athlete’s friends and family just to get her foot in the door.
A “groupie” knows nothing about the sport itself, but she can name the top ten highest paid players in the game.
A “groupie” will show up to all of the athlete hosted parties, and she will drive over 300 miles in order to get there.

A “groupie” is only interested in the player’s income, good looks, great body, and wants to find a rich man to latch on to in order to become financially secure, or because they want fame by association or both.

Most of these women have displayed no interest in sports what-so-ever.They only want the money and the notoriety of being there. Its a sad thing when you see some of these women who make a career of seeking athletes. I wonder why they lack character and what has caused them to not care about how they are seen by the athletes they seek.

Many wives can spot a groupie from miles away. They are a joke to many wives who look at them with disgust. There are a few who succeed and “snag” a player either by having a baby or having a relationship with a player, but the majority are around for a quick minute and are disposed of when the player gets tired or has gotten what he wants.

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Times have changed in the last few decades when it comes to what college athletes do in order to prepare for the NFL draft.

It used to be, finish up your college season and hope you made a big enough impression on a team for them to draft you in April. This is not the case anymore, and in order to get ahead and make an impression, as soon as the college season is over you have to get to work preparing yourself to make an impression on an NFL team.

First of all comes the Senior Bowl, where seniors get a last chance to make an impression on the field. There is also a college all-star game which allows underclassmen that have opted for the NFL draft can make one last impression as well.

Then comes the NFL scouting combine in Indianapolis in late February and early March. Players that are invited to participate in the combine can make or break where they might be drafted. They are poked and prodded, interviewed to death by teams, and looked at from under a microscope.

They are timed in the 40 yard dash, passing and receiving drills, offensive and defensive lineman drills, and how much weight they can lift. They also take the Wonderlic test which measures their intelligence under pressure.

Bad times in the drills or a bad Wonderlic test could cost players and agents millions of dollars in salary and bonus money.

For some athletes, who do not participate in the scouting combine, their schools have “Pro days,” where their athletes get a chance to perform in front of NFL coaches, scouts, and general managers in order to impress them before the draft.

Agents and athletes, looking to climb up team’s draft boards have created a mini-industry for athletic trainers. There are training centers all over the country and every agent has to send a player to one of these centers prior to the combine and the draft.

There is a lot at stake too, not just for the players, but their families and their agents too, who get a percentage of the player’s earnings.

It is big business and it is not cheap either as it can cost anywhere from $5,000 to $15,000 to train for two months prior to the combine and pro days. Athletes put in three to five hours a day, three to six days a week for up to two months. However, in the end it could be worth millions in their bank accounts.

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If you are a professional athlete, or you are married to one, going on a vacation can be a stressful time because of the notoriety of the athlete. Fans are everywhere, and autograph seekers, people who want pictures and the starring eyes in restaurants can be quite unsettling, even in cities away from where the athlete plays.

With that in mind, here are a few vacation ideas that could be very helpful in keeping the fanatics out of your vacation lives.

The first idea would be to vacation in a different country then the athlete plays and lives.

For example, if the United States is the country the athlete plays in, go to Europe for your vacation. There may be only a few, if any, times where someone would recognize the athlete. There are also numerous places in Europe for both summer and winter vacations.

If you enjoy vacations in a summer environment, the Caribbean, the Bahamas, or even Costa Rica are places where beaches, golf courses, and other summer activities for the whole family can be found without constant American sports fans getting in the way of your vacation activities, shopping and dining.

If you prefer to stay in the states, but still need that special “get away from it all” location, there are plenty of beautiful places in the country where you could purchase or rent a nice summer or even winter cottage which would be nestled away from the hustle and bustle of the normal city or vacation spots.

You would be able to dine out, go to the beach, play a round of golf, and even go shopping without being bothered constantly by fans. You would be in a beautiful and picturesque small town somewhere, and most likely be treated just like anyone else.

There are many high end vacation spots that cater to the rich and famous. They know how to create the perfect environment for fun and relaxation.

The world’s most expensive hotel room seems to be either the Penthouse suite at the Hotel Martinez in Cannes, France or the Bridge Suite at the Atlantis resort in Paradise Island, the Bahamas.

Two different web sites list two vastly different prices – $37,200 a night and $18,000 a night for the Penthouse Suite at the Hotel Martinez.. Regardless, the price includes four luxuriously furnished bedrooms and a private terrace. Considering you could probably comfortably fit 20 of your family members and friends in there with you, it doesn’t seem quite so expensive if you split the cost!

The Bridge Suite at the Atlantis resort costs $25,000 a night and includes a personal bar lounge, entertainment center, kitchen and butler. There are two master bathrooms and the entire suite is built on top of a bridge that connects two towers. It supposedly offers spectacular views over the Atlantis resort and marina – I would settle for nothing less than a spectacular view if I were paying that much money to sleep there.

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The NBA has dealt with this image issue for many years. No surprises here, granted the league is made up mostly of Black players. Beyond sports, blacks are sometimes called lazy, violent, unintelligent, or a combination of the three.

If there’s one issue in regards to the latest incident with Arenas that bothers me most, it’s that it reinforces the idiotic stereotype that the NBA is a league of “thugs” who don’t value the game.

Still, what people need to realize is that the NBA is not a league made up of gangsters. Google “NBA Cares.” Going back to 2005, the foundation has raised close to $115 million for several causes. Players have logged one million hours of community work, and that number will only continue to increase.

Those numbers are undeniably extensive. For example, Shaquille O’Neal recently gave money for a North Carolina girl’s funeral. In 2007, Lebron James paid for Thanksgiving dinner for 800 people in Cleveland. Last year, Dwayne Wade helped buy a new house for a displaced family in South Florida. More NBA stars are just as active in the community.

The NBA is nearly the same as the rest of society. There are some bad apples. There is no doubt that Gilbert Arenas was wrong to bring weapons into a locker room. No one will ever forget about the image with Ron Artest charging into the stands. I am sure there are positive things about Arenas and Artest that the public does not hear about.
We can’t allow these types of isolated incidents to cloud the image of an amazing league.

The majority of these guys play hard each and every game. Many of them seem like fundamentally decent people, and that’s the reason it bothers me many people look down on the NBA as being a league of “thugs”.

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It is a fact of life among professional athletes that the possibility of getting traded or signing to a new team as a free agent in a different city could happen at any time.  The bottom line, as a professional athlete in any team sport, suggests that the chances of a professional athlete staying in one city throughout the course of their careers are very slim.

There are many factors involved in sports relocation and a move can be complicated by the demands of the career of a professional athlete. An athlete has an intense career, time frames are tight, and the pressure to perform constantly is  on a daily basis, much less having to worry about moving your family across the country.

As a professional athlete, taking a few weeks off from their jobs in order to relocate their families to a new city is just not possible. There is a lot involved in moving a family from one city to another, especially when it happens unexpectedly as when the athlete gets traded.

A mid-season trade can be a stressful and daunting experience on both the athlete and their family, and there is very little time to make the move and get situated. All in all, the athlete and his family have to sell their home, locate a new home, finance the new home, move and settle into the new city.

The home has to be cleaned up and prepared to be put on the market, and professionally marketed in order to sell it as quickly as possible and sell the home for what it is worth. Someone has to research the advantages and disadvantages of specific neighborhoods in the new city and look into current and accurate information about the local real estate markets to make the best financial decisions.

Someone has to sit down with an agent and spend hours upon hours sifting through real estate listings, checking out local school reports and activities in the new city for their children.

And this all has to be done without the actual athlete there to assist his family throughout the whole process. It takes a toll on the spouse and the children involved in the move.

Of course there are many service providers in business to assist the families with all of this, however finding one that would suit all of their personal needs takes time and a lot of work as well.

The ProWife Relocation team is here to assist you with all of your needs from A to Z. Contact us today @ www.TheProWife.com

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Former NBA star Jayson Williams choked on his words with his tears dripping onto the statement he was attempting to read in a New Jersey courtroom on Tuesday morning. He had just been sentenced to five years in prison for shooting limousine driver Costas Christofi with a 12-gauge shotgun and killing him after a night of heavy drinking.

Typically, it took the legal system in America a long time to put closure on this case, eight years to be exact. In 2004, Williams, although acquitted of manslaughter, was convicted of apparently changing the crime scene in order to make the death look like a suicide.

Williams has spent the majority of his life in trouble with the law, as his arrest record includes several assaults and DWI charges.

Former Chicago Bear and Dallas Cowboy Tank Williams, served 2 months in jail for violation of probation when his home was raided by police and dozens of illegal weapons were found. In addition, shortly after being released from jail, he was arrested for speeding and DWI.

Former Cleveland Brown’s receiver Donte Stallworth killed a pedestrian in a DUI crash and served 30 days in jail, plus 1,000 hours of community service, and will have 2 years of house arrest, and 8 years probation.

Former Detroit Lions receiver Charles Rogers was jailed for violating probation in March of 2009. He was arrested again in September of 2009 for DUI and then in January of this year he was sentenced to 93 days in jail for contempt of court after apparently drinking too much and passing out at a Mexican restaurant.

And of course, there is Michael Vick, the once promising star quarterback of the Atlanta Falcons, who served a multiple year jail sentence for running an illegal dog fighting ring and animal cruelty. He has since apologized and spoke as to why he didn’t use good judgment.

Why do so many athletes feel they are above the law? Just because they have the money and fame that many of the general public do not, does not jusify their irresponsible behaviors.

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Evander Holyfield and his wife Candi met with Dr. Phil McGrawat at his Beverly Hills home on Saturday. The couple is now pulling out from appearing on his Dr. Phil’s show to discuss their troubled marriage.

The former boxing champion confirmed that he canceled a scheduled appearance on the talk show guru’s television show after a dinner date at Dr. Phil’s mansion turned into a disaster.

“Candi and I initially reached out to seek Dr .Phil’s counsel and we are so glad we did,” said Holyfield. “Dr. Phil was gracious to open his home to us. He was a consummate professional and generous with his time. But we have decided that this is not the time for our marital problems to be played out on the national stage.”

While the boxer sounds polite and thankful, the truth is that Holyfield did not like Dr. Phil and his proposal, and that there was a big clash of personalities. The bottom line is simply that Holyfield did not want to do it.

The couple has been dealing with marital problems since Candi, Holyfield’s third wife, asked for a temporary protective order following an alleged domestic violence dispute. She claims Holyfieldhit her in the face during an argument in their Georgia home on February 1, and that it wasnot the first time it has happened.

“In 2008 he choked me in front of our daughter and housekeeper,” Candi stated in the protective order request. “In 2009 he has hit me in front of the children. He has grabbed me in front of the children. A couple of weeks ago he threw a bottle of water at me.”

I hope that for the benefit of their family, especially their children, they two of them seek professional counseling and maybe some time apart. When you are in the midst of a chaotic situation it is very hard to see how dysfunctional it is. I am sure Candi is feeling very torn at this time. Not only is she going through a marital crisis that involves physical abuse, she is also having to deal with it in a public forum.

I wish that they seek counseling  separately as well. There are obviously issues on both sides. Why a man thinks it is okay to hit, grab, or demean his wife is clearly a problem. Why a woman has stayed and continued to forgive a man that has done these things to her obviously is suffering from a lack of self esteem. Yes, we can forgive; but to continuously take this behavior and permit your children to see you be treated this way is dysfunctional. I hope that Candi has a good support system in place.

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On Friday at Taj Mahal in Atlantic City, Sixers legend Julius Erving, also known as “Dr. J.”
was surprised when friends threw him a 60th birthday party. The party continued on Saturday night with a black-tie dinner. The “Doctor’s” actual birthday was on Monday.

Dr. J., the “Doctor” who was given the nickname back in high school because he was a surgeon who operated with unmatched precision and professionalism on a basketball court, was joined at the party by his current wife Dorys, his daughter, tennis pro Alexandra Stevenson, who’s mother is sportswriter Samantha Stevenson, and his son Julius Erving III.

Friends at the party included Philadelphia Sixers executive advisor Sonny Hill, NBA veterans such as Bill Russell, Charles Oakley, John Starks, Alonzo Mourning, and Charles Smith, who heads the NBA Retired Players Association, andSean McKinney, president of the Mitchell & Ness apparel company who was one of the sponsors of the event.

Other guests included former NFL players Jerome Bettis, Ricky Watters,and Richard Dent, along with actor/comedian Anthony Anderson, former Women’s NBA player, Ann Myers-Drysdale, and Olympic Gold Medalist Sanya Richards. Hundreds of friends and family members came to celebrate the 60^th birthday of one of the most spectacular players in the history of the game of basketball.

All the guests in attendance were asked to change into Converse sneakers, in honor of Dr. J’s sneaker of choice on the basketball court, and also one of the event sponsors.

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