Ex-NFL star eyes bankruptcy over $5m debts

Clinton Portis. Photo / Getty Images.

A former National Football League running back in the United States has filed for bankruptcy after racking up debts totalling $4,857,659.

Clinton Portis, 34, who played for the Denver Broncos and the Washington Redskins over nine seasons, owes more than $1 million in mortgage payments, $500,000 to his mother and $500,000 to Entertainment Tonight reporter Nischelle Turner, according to documents posted online by the sports news website Deadspin.

He also owes lesser amounts to a host of other creditors, including $390,000 in back taxes, hundreds of thousands owed to casinos and domestic support payments to four different women.

Deadspin reports that the documents also put Portis' income at $3500 a month from the NFL in disability payments and $1000 a month for freelance sidelines.

It was not immediately clear why Portis would owe Turner, who has also worked from NFL sidelines during her career, half a million dollars.

The pair have a Twitter rapport with each other, discussing football and Portis' college, University of Miami.

The player was drafted in the second round of the 2002 NFL Draft, being voted the Rookie of the Year and finding success with the Denver Broncos before being traded to Washington.

He became popular among fans for his outspoken personality and tradition of dressing up like different characters he invented, but ultimately quit the NFL after a concussion in 2009 and groin injury in 2010.

During his time in the NFL, he was handsomely rewarded, including a 2004 contract for $50.5 million over eight years that made him the highest-paid running back in the history of the NFL.

Spotrac.com estimates that he took home $43.1 million in his career.

USA Today reported that Portis said he had only $150 in his cheque account.

Lawyer Curtis Elmore is representing Portis in the foreclosure case on the $1 million royal purple house he built for his mother north of Gainesville, Florida.

He told the Gainesville Sun that his client had been swindled by those who took advantage of him.

"Mr Portis placed his trust in certain people for financial guidance and he's been betrayed, so it's not been due to his negligence or ineffective financial planning. It's just been swindlers and the ripple effects that their actions are causing," he said.

Portis was also among a group of NFL stars who invested in an Alabama bingo casino that lost the 35 players a combined $40 million when it shut in 2010.

As part of his reported $13.29 million in assets, Portis included an $8 million claim against Pro Sports Financial, which was involved in the casino, as well as a $2 million claim against Jade Private Wealth Management.

The running back's current debts include $412,000 owed to the four women for domestic support, as well as $80,000 to law offices.

He owes more than $287,000 to the MGM Grand in Las Vegas as well as $170,000 to the Borgata Hotel, Casino and Spa in Atlantic City, New Jersey.

Other missed payments include thousands to banks and financial services companies, as well as roughly $65,000 owed for a repossessed BMW, $59,000 to Audi, $50,000 for a Dodge Ram truck and $899 owed to Verizon Wireless.