NFL Players To Modify Child Support and Alimony Payments Due To Lockout

Antonio Cromartie pictured with wife Terricka (otherwise known as the “Loud One” on E!’s single-season reality show Candy Girls)

The current NFL lockout (and a looming one in the NBA) is causing players to get child support and alimony payments lowered “to reflect what would be reduced incomes should their leagues shut down,” Behind The Grid writer Mohammed Rahman reports.
New York Jets defensive back Antonio Cromartie, also the proud father of nine children with eight women, received an $500,000 advance on his $1.7 million salary last season in order to get his child support obligations in order.
“The money I get from him is definitely important,” says Tina Julian, a San Diego resident with a child with Cromartie. “Something would have to change. It takes money to raise a kid.”

The fallout from NFL and NBA labor trouble is liable to hit players’ ex-wives and children.

NFL and NBA players are lining up to get child support and alimony payments lowered to reflect what would be reduced incomes should their leagues shut down, said attorney Howard Rudolph of Rudolph & Associates in West Palm Beach, Fla.

Rudolph, whose office is decorated with sports memorabilia from his athlete clients, said he’s working on modification requests for NFL players whom he wouldn’t identify. It’s the same move Wall Street executives made when they lost jobs or income during the recession, said Raoul Felder, a divorce lawyer whose clients have included former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani and the ex-wife of basketball player Jason Kidd.

“The NFL is an industry, and if the industry is in trouble, the men can’t meet their obligations,” Felder said. “The only thing to do is file for modification.”

The NBA’s players union has distributed a 56-page lockout survival guide to its more than 400 members that includes money-saving tips such as refinancing mortgages and turning off lights at home. Page 21 is devoted to alimony and child support, issues that affect as much as 80 percent of professional athletes, said Frank Brickowski, 51, a former NBA player and divorced father of one who is now a regional director for the National Basketball Players Association.

Brickowski has urged active players to get prenuptial agreements so that child support and alimony don’t become issues. His campaign has been helped, Brickowski said, by the popularity of Kanye West’s “Gold Digger,” a song about the perils of relationships with women more interested in money than love. (source)

Rewind: Antonio Cromartie Struggles To Remember Kids’ Names