Such programs are needed because far too many NFL players--and professional athletes in other sports--squander multi-million dollar contracts due to bad investments, profligate spending and divorce.
A March 2009 article in Sports Illustrated stated that 78% of former NFL players go bankrupt or are under financial stress two years after retirement, and that an estimated 60% of former National Basketball Association players are broke within five years of retirement.
The same article also mentioned that major league baseball players aren't immune to dire financial straits, including ten current and former ballplayers whose money was tied up with financier Robert Allen Stanford's $8 billion fraud scheme.