“Hopefully someone who has been there can come in and relate to you, and give you something that is valuable that you can take with you for the rest of your life,” said Pinkett.

Making the last second shot to win the game, earning first place in a race or scoring the final goal in overtime. An athlete’s financial situation is the last thing on their mind being a student-athlete while in college.

Alan Pinkett didn’t think much of his financial situation either when he was a running back at the University of Notre Dame. Pinkett, and a group of ex-student-athletes, came together to form the Playbook for Life, a program sponsored by The Hartford and the NCAA that aims at teaching student-athletes the right ways to plan their financial future.

“In the planning stages of this, they were just asking my opinion about putting together a group like this,” said Pinkett. “So when they actually asked me to be part of it I jumped at the chance because I felt like I have a message that I can communicate to student-athletes considering some of the mistakes I’ve made, and communicate to them that they don’t have to make the same mistakes I made.”

The Playbook for Life group visited the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee last Monday, giving an informational speech about smart ways to plan for your financial future to the Panther student-athletes. Pinkett and Bill Zimmerman, an ex-student-athlete whose NFL dreams were forfeited due to an ankle injury, spoke to the group of athletes offering them financial advice on how to ensure that they are financially stable when their tenure at UWM is over.

“Hopefully someone who has been there can come in and relate to you, and give you something that is valuable that you can take with you for the rest of your life,” said Pinkett.

During the speech, athletes were asked to fill out informational forms to help the speakers become better at getting their advice. The survey asked 15 questions relating to the information and asked for suggestions on how to improve.

“If I sound like a fool, tell me I sound like a fool,” said Pinkett. “The only way we’re going to make the message more clear and relevant, is if the student-athletes are honest with us.”

“The Playbook” gives numerous suggestions to students on how to keep track of your money and plan for the future. The actual book was given to student-athletes at the end of the speech and is complete with 33 pages of information raging from how to check your credit score to preparing to buy a house, car or other major investments.

“I think that the message is that it is never too soon to start planning for your financial future, and 'The Playbook' is a great place to start, it may sound like a sound bite, but it’s the truth,” said Pinkett.

Pinkett believes that this is a beneficial program for all students, not just student-athletes saying, “We just started with the student-athletes. Student-athletes are the leaders on campus and can pass the word around. We hope to get across to the entire campus eventually.”

Pinkett and Zimmerman have scheduled stops at schools all around the country the rest of the year and have booked speeches into next year. The Hartford has also come out with a playbook for business owners and look to get their advice out to the entire country.

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