- I never really had a job for say like a job, job,
I was in my house so I had a lot of jobs.
And if I wasn't on time, and it wasn't done
when my dad wanted me to get it done, I was in big trouble.
What's up, what's up, it's your boy LeSean Shady McCoy,
and this how the hell I saved and spent
my first million dollars.
[upbeat music]
I grew up in a small city, Harrisburg, Pennsylvania.
It was tough there, but one thing I had had my family,
and my brother, my mom and dad and they raised us well.
I started playing football about five years old.
I would go to the games to watch my brother play
and I started liking it,
so my parents they signed me up.
When I got to high school, I blew up as a sophomore,
and that's when I knew that, okay,
I got a future in this game.
- [Interviewer] How did it feel to be drafted
in the second round?
- On draft night, it was amazing,
and it was just tears of joy,
and I was just so excited man to be drafted.
And I instantly thought of, wow,
now it's my turn to support my family
the same way they supported me, before I got to this level.
- [Interviewer] Do you remember how much
your rookie deal was?
- I do remember making about 340,000, almost 400,000 a year,
my sign-up bonus was 1.6.
I was like, wait, hold on, they're gonna give me 1.6 ?
[laughs] I couldn't believe it, like damn.
So, I didn't know nothing about taxes
so I'm like, dang bet, I'm rich.
[camera clicks]
[upbeat music]
Then when everything unfolded, it was like 800,000,
that was a lot, like dang where my money go?
[camera clicks]
[upbeat music]
[camera clicks]
I didn't take care of myself first,
I took care of my family.
That way it still made me hungry,
and wanted me to go out there and grind,
to take care of myself.
So then on the second deal,
it was time to take care of myself.
And then just small things that you don't even think about,
like life insurance.
[upbeat music]
[camera clicks]
- [Interviewer] How much have you saved percentage-wise
and how much have you spent?
- Just when I started becoming a really, really good player,
I started getting a lot more endorsement deals.
So you're getting all these different small checks,
you do appearances, you walk in there for an hour
you get $20,000 , 25,000,
so I didn't have to cut into my plan money as much.
Never touching the guaranteed money,
your salary is something that is permanent.
My advisor has that, right, let's put away.
So that way I'm not really taking all my money
and spending it, and moving around.
Now we talked about how the hell I saved them money,
let's get to the good stuff.
Let's talk about how the hell I spent that money.
[upbeat music]
I threw my draft party, and that cost some money,
so about 50 grand I mean.
Before I even get to the NFL, 50,000 on my draft party.
[loud thud]
[whooshing]
- [Interviewer] What added up to the 50k?
- I had DJ Drama, he's a [chuckles] very famous DJ,
and I had him come out.
Pay DJ Drama, I had to pay for the venue,
we had to pay for the alcohol, like the props,
we rented a car, I think I pulled up in a Maybach,
the cameraman he gotta get paid, the flyer people,
people to get the flyers, we paid for the radio.
I'm talking to about my friends,
"Like man, you guys don't think it's a lot of money
for a party?"
"Oh no, listen, to have a party like this,
you gotta do it big.
How many people from Harrisburg
have ever made it from here?"
I said, "Okay, all right,"
and that's how it went.
It probably tallied up to about $50,000.
Twenty years old what did I know?
I just felt like being at home with all my friends, family,
the people that really loved me and cared about me,
I wanted to do a big party there for them.
[camera clicks]
[upbeat music]
The next big purchase that I made,
I got a big ol' NFL chain, alright, Shady and the NFL logo.
Nobody knew I played NFL,
I don't know why I did it, but I did it.
It was a big, long chain, came up to my stomach,
I spent 35,000 on that.
And then I had a Breitling watch, about 20,000 on my watch.
35 on the chain, dang I can remember this stuff
to the [speaks faintly] .
[loud thud]
[sighs] Shaking my head.
Jewelry, 60,000.
- [Interviewer] Do you still have the Breitling watch
and the chain?
- The chain that I loved so much, my first chain,
believe it or not, it got stolen.
My second year in the NFL, I was so happy to go to Miami,
my first time going.
Partying in Philadelphia and Atlantic city
is a lot different from partying in Miami.
We went in the club at 11 o'clock, we stayed till 5:00 AM,
when I got back home, dang another party,
so we partied in there.
So it was all type of people there,
and then at the end of the night, I couldn't find my chain.
I woke up looking for my chain and it was gone.
Welcome to Miami.
[upbeat music]
So my next great purchase, I bought a Mercedes-Benz S500.
Oh, and the good thing is I still have that car.
That's my favorite car, and I still have it.
It's been some time [speaks faintly] 2000 and what nine?
But, about a 100,000.
I've always been a fan of Mercedes-Benz,
so to have a chance to buy it, I got it quick.
I mean, I'm gonna to call my finance advisor,
"Hey, can I get a Benz?"
And he told me I can get it.
He said, "You can get it, you can get a car, only one."
Of course I didn't listen,
so I got a Benz and I got a Hummer.
Now the Hummer made me feel powerful,
I'm just [mimics revving engine], it's a Hummer
they gon' watch out.
So, those are my two cars I got.
I should have only got one car,
I should have listened but...
[money thuds] [upbeat music]
Alright.
My brand new Mercedes, S-Class 500, 100,000.
So for the Hummer, about 40,000.
[upbeat music]
[camera clicks]
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In 2009, I was so happy to play with guys like
Donovan McNabb, Brian Westbrook.
So that was the cool part,
but they didn't tell me the part that I would hate,
the rookie dinner.
We went to Atlantic city,
[bell dings]
we went the Ruth Chris.
I didn't even eat too much,
I had an appetizer, and I had a steak.
And, at this time I never had a drink,
an alcohol beverage until my second year,
and I had to pay for bottles of liquor, champagne,
I had all these big 300 pound linemen.
Before the dinner, we talked about it,
they hyped it up, "Yeah, we're gon' get you rook,"
but I'm thinking at the most, $2,000 , 1,000 at the most,
and when I got the bill at the end, it was $10,000.
They laughing, "Oh rook, get your things rook,
thanks so much.
"I'ma take this plate for the wife,
I'ma take this plate for the kids."
So I fed my teammates and their families.
Just for a little rookie dinner, $10,000, shaking my head.
[bell dings]
[upbeat music]
[camera clicks]
[upbeat music]
I wanted to buy my parents a house which I did,
but my dad would always tell me, "Hey son, I mean,
I love the house but I gotta drive out to get there."
So, I bought my dad a brand new Escalade truck.
My pops was great to me,
so I got him a new Escalade truck, $80,000.
[loud thud] [bell dings]
You're welcome pops.
[upbeat music]
[camera clicks]
It was like my first time in NFL, everything was cool,
and then my birthday came, and all my friends came up,
and we all took a trip to Vegas, and so we had to ball.
And that trip ran me about $20,000.
I'm not really a big gambler,
I maybe learned a little bit how to gamble,
but most it was just flights, food, partying,
partying, and partying.
- [Interviewer] Which one's the better party scene,
Vegas or Miami?
- Vegas is a lot of fun,
because they had some going on during the day,
they had some going on at night.
There's boxing matches, entertainment,
there's might be concerts.
You can take the family to Vegas,
and then you can leave your family at home,
and then you can go out with the boys.
So I would say Vegas is probably a better place
to fully party.
So, trip to Vegas with my boys for my birthday, 20 K.
[bell dings]
[upbeat music]
[camera clicks]
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I didn't really have a lot of nice clothes growing up.
I was average, right, so once I got money, I mean,
anything that was name brand I had.
$2,000 shoes, to Louis Vuitton shirts, Louis Vuitton hats,
Gucci bandanas or Gucci headbands, I mean, you name it.
And not only for myself, if I'm looking like $5,000,
and my homeboy that I grew up with is my main guy,
I gotta make him look good too.
So I say, "Yo man, get what you want."
And they get what they want.
So we all look good.
When I think about the clothes, I had events,
they have NFL ceremonies,
you might get a nice outfit for $8,000.
Alright, you might have a date, she gotta look nice.
Five, $6,000 outfit for her.
Might take your boys out.
When we go on these trips to Vegas, to Miami,
when I would go shopping for myself,
I would shop for my homeboys.
Well, this the term we use, we all look like a bag of money.
So I probably spent about over 100,000
probably from clothing from year one to four, for sure.
For the first couple of years, probably for my clothing,
my wardrobe, me and my homeboys looking good,
looking fresh, 100,000.
[loud thud]
[bell dings]
[camera clicks]
[upbeat music]
Alright, for this next purchase, I gotta get a lot of money
for this one.
This a special one though, even though it might've hurt
my pockets a little bit, it was worth it.
[upbeat music]
For my mom and dad, 400,000 for the house.
So, knowing my mom, she hates surprises,
and I didn't wanna surprise her with this type of gift
and do it the wrong way.
So I said, "You know what mom and dad,
I'll let you build your own house.
However you wanna build it, you can do it yourself,
just let me know how much it costs."
When I told them they were all happy.
And they moved out to the suburbs of Harrisburg,
20 minutes from the city.
[upbeat music]
But to get to a million, let's add one more thing,
and that one more thing, man, I live like a king.
I had a condo on top of the water, I had Mike Vick upstairs,
I had Bernard Hopkins downstairs,
a lot of big time players in there.
So, I spent about a 150 on a condo, real nice.
All this money leaving baby, all this money leaving.
Condo in Philadelphia, 140,000.
[bell dings]
[camera clicks]
[upbeat music]
[camera clicks]
So for my first contract,
this how the hell I spent my million dollars.
[camera clicks]
I didn't do too bad, but I ain't do too good.
As I look at all this money,
this million dollars that I spent in my first years,
it's tough to look at, it really is.
Just the up and downs, the good decisions,
the bad decisions, but ultimately I learned a lesson,
and the lesson helped me for now in my career.
Now that I'm older in my 12th year,
over four contracts, I've learned how to save money.
So it was a hard lesson [chuckles] to learn,
was a good lesson to learn.
I got two lessons for rookies coming into the NFL,
getting these nice contracts.
One is, try to save as much money as possible.
And two, when you find a supervisor,
or people you meet in business, or everybody has these ideas
if it sounds too good to be true, don't believe it.
And, on the flip side of that,
if it's too hard to understand, don't deal with it.
Those things right there can help you out.
[upbeat music]