As Buccaneers quarterback Baker Mayfield tries to turn his football career around, he’s dealing with an issue regarding the money that flowed from the salad days of his NFL tenure.
According to KXAN.com, via JoeBucsFan.com, Mayfield and his wife, Emily, filed a petition on Tuesday seeking information regarding the possible misappropriation of $12 million by an Austin, Texas investment firm. Complicating the situation is the fact that family members are involved.
The petition names various defendants: Camwood Capital Management Group, Camwood Ventures, Texas Contract Manufacturing Group, Unitech, Apex Machining, and Lor-Van. It seeks the surrender of financial records and the ability to obtain other information regarding the handling of the money from 2018 through 2023.
From the legal filing: “Petitioners simply do not know if their money has been properly and competently invested, has been stolen or otherwise misappropriated, or something in between.”
All witness contacts listed in the filing are members of Mayfield’s family, according to KXAN.
It’s not a lawsuit, but it’s an obvious precursor to one. Mayfield and his wife smell a rat, and they’re in the process of trying to confirm the existence of said rat.
And $12 million is a lot of money, especially for Mayfield. It’s the take-home amount of roughly $20 million in gross earnings.
Mayfield made $32 million in football income from 2018 through 2021. In 2022, he made roughly $15.5 million — giving up $4.6 million in order to facilitate a trade to the Panthers. He’ll make $4 million this year, with up to $4.5 million in incentives.
He had a couple of national endorsements after early on-field success, including Progressive and Hulu. The earnings from those opportunities aren’t publicly known.
Regardless of how much other money Mayfield might have in the bank, it’s a sad situation, for multiple reasons. Mayfield had a very large pile of money that he hoped would make more money, and he’s now concerned that someone took liberties with it. The fact that family members are caught up in the situation will result in relationships that will likely never be repaired, if Mayfield’s suspicions are proven to be true.
And if it is true, it’s another example of how hard it is for pro athletes to find people they can truly trust. If you can’t trust family, who can you ever trust?
