With the rise of name, image and likeness in college sports across the last five years, athletes’ financial decisions are even more important than ever.

On Wednesday, JPMorganChase announced the creation of a new Athlete Council, which will focus on helping athletes navigate financial decisions early in their careers.

The council consists of numerous big-name athletes across various sports — future Pro Football Hall-of-Famer Tom Brady, NBA Hall-of-Famer Dwyane Wade, former U.S. women’s soccer national team players Megan Rapinoe and Alex Morgan, past and present WNBA stars Sue Bird and A’ja Wilson, Giants edge rusher Kayvon Thibodeaux, Knicks guard Jalen Brunson and Peloton vice president Ally Love.

JPMorganChase held a press conference Wednesday, where Brady, Wade, Wilson, Rapinoe, Love and Kristin Lemkau, J.P. Morgan Wealth Management’s CEO, talked about the vision behind the council.

“We put this together because we feel like young people in general, but in particular, young athletes are not getting the same kinds of advice that they need around their money,” Lemkau said in her opening statement. “We believe with our banking, lending and investing capabilities, we think there’s an important role for us to play to be able to help bridge that gap.”

“As athletes, the only way we really learned was making mistakes,” Brady added. “When you made a lot of mistakes, you go, ‘OK, I’m not going to do that again.’ With finances, you don’t really want to make many mistakes. It’s way too hard to earn it, and it’s pretty easy to lose it.”

A press release from JPMorganChase said that the firm will further support athletes by designing curriculums at universities tailored to them and creating an online educational content hub that will include guides to financial success at each point in their careers.

Love added that the council will look to roll out “layers of content” to promote the initiative and offer athletes a network of connections, like a financial advisor.

The press release also cited the numbers behind this decision.

It revealed that nearly 65 percent of athletes never had a financial education in school, while about 1-in-6 NFL players declare bankruptcy within 12 years of retirement.

In addition, there have been over 21,000 NIL deals worth $166.5 million since June 11, 2025, when NILGo launched after the House settlement approval, per the College Sports Commission’s newest report. Since the NCAA allowed college athletes to monetize their NIL in 2021, college athletics has turned into the Wild West, with star players making several millions of dollars and others jumping from school to school in the transfer portal in search of more and more cash.

Wilson said the council hopes to help athletes navigate the chaos, especially since they didn’t have that support when they were in college.

“We didn’t experience NIL, but yet, we’re still trying to help these young kids that are coming to a lot of money at a young age,” Wilson said. “I’m appreciative to be on this council because it allows the youth to see their role models teach them things that we’re like ‘Hey, I wish we would have done this different.’”

Each athlete cited their reasons for participating in the council, many of which boiled down to mistakes early in their careers — mistakes that could’ve been avoided with more financial guidance.

“We want to get them early, when they first start earning, and start talking about the things that can help them not make a lot of mistakes that I know I made, and just the importance of a lot of things when it comes to your financial portfolio,” Wade, the council’s chair, said.

“​​I think we all deeply care about the next generation of athletes and leveling up what our experience was,” Rapinoe added. “We have information, we have experience, we want to share that with them.”

Brady explained that he looked up to numerous different athletes when he was younger. But many of them “didn’t have a lifestyle” when they grew older because they failed to take care of their money.

They told him they didn’t want others going down the same rabbit hole, especially with the recent influx of NIL deals.

“They always say, ‘Tom, you’ve been very fortunate. You’ve got to pay it forward. Go look for the next generation of people that have opportunities to make a difference in the world and try to help them before they may know that they need help.’”