Terrell Owens, the former NFL star receiver who has signed to play for and co-own an indoor football team, is friendless and nearly broke, he told GQ magazine. “I’m in hell,” Owens, 38, said he tells people who ask about his well-being.
After the Cincinnati Bengals did not renew his one-year, $2 million contract last year, Owens has been suffering from his financial shortcomings, including ventures gone bad and child support for his four children, he said.
The $80 million or so he had made in his career is almost gone, he said, but not because he lived a lavish lifestyle.
In a profile story in GQ’s February issue, Owens said his financial advisers lured him into risky investments such as an Alabama entertainment complex that cost him $2 million. He later learned the venture was illegal in the state and violated the NFL’s policy of prohibiting players from investing in gambling, he said.
He also owns a slew of properties that he thought he would be able to rent before the housing market tanked, he said. He has a home in Los Angeles that cost him $499,000 and a multimillion-dollar home that is for sale in Atlanta. The home in New Jersey for which he paid $3.9 million was sold in late 2010 for $1.7 million, he said.
Owens also pays $44,600 a month in child support for his four children, ages 5 to 12. Three of the four mothers have sued him.
The football player laments about losing trust in people and friends. When people text and ask where he is, he answers, “I’m in hell.”
“I don’t have no friends,” he told GQ. ”I don’t want no friends. That’s how I feel.”
