Halal Money Matters Podcast

Episode 27 - Football and Finances with Husain Abdullah

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Narrator:
The thoughts and opinions expressed on Halal Money Matters do not necessarily reflect the views of Saturna Capital, Amana Mutual Funds, or their affiliates.

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Scott St. Clair:
Welcome to Halal Money Matters, sponsored by Saturna Capital. I'm Scott St. Clair.

Monem Salam:
And I'm Monem Salam. You know, Scott, I always talk about the fact that there are special guests that we have on the show, but this time it's actually, I really mean it, because I'm a big football fan. And so we actually have on the show Husain Abdullah. After graduating from WSU, which is Washington State and not too far away from Bellingham, he actually played for the Vikings, took a year off to go for hajj then came back and it started his career again and played for the Kansas City Chiefs. And so what I really want to learn more about is, you know, when athletes, you know, what they go through when they're in college, but then at a young age, they come into a lot of money. And so how did they learn to like, you know, manage that money or do they not manage and just blow it, you know, those type of things? I think it'll be good because for a lot of people, you know, whether it be through inheritance or maybe through an IPO of a company, they might be faced with a similar situation. So let's get into it.

Scott St. Clair:
Let's do it.

Monem Salam:
So as-salamu alaikum, Brother Husain thank you very much for being here on the show. It's an honor to have you.

Husain Abdullah:
Thank you for having me. I really appreciate it. And wa alaikum as-salam.

Monem Salam:
Where are you based at right now?

Husain Abdullah:
I'm here in Frisco, Texas, in the greater DFW area.

Monem Salam:
My parents live in Plano, so I'm very familiar with, it used to be grassland when I lived there. So.

Husain Abdullah:
Yep, it's boomin', it's boomin'.

Monem Salam:
So I want to start off with those people that might not be familiar, very few and far between, I'm sure. But just a little bit about your background, where you're from, you know how you got into to football, NFL, you know,
just those type of things.

Husain Abdullah:
Yep. So I'm from a family of 12. I mean, really more from a blended family. Eight boys and four girls. Southern California, Pomona, California.

Monem Salam:
Nice.

Husain Abdullah:
Really played the game of football because my pops said he wanted to raise tough boys. So he threw us in there and we played. We had fun, we liked it. And then I found out that I can go to college for free playing football.

Monem Salam:
All eight of you play football or was it just a few of you?

Husain Abdullah:
Yeah. No, we all played football. My brother Hamza and I, we were the ones who reached the highest level. Hamza went to Washington State University in 2000 and that was such a big deal, it's like whoa, Hamza was going to college for free and then like whoa, I'm watching Hamza play on TV. And I was like, man, I want to do that too. You know, the grind becomes different, right, to become any elite athlete. And so ultimately I get a scholarship. I go up to Washington State in 2003.

Monem Salam:
So what's the age difference between you, it's about four years or so, you think?

Husain Abdullah:
It's two years. But because we're home schooled, Hamza was advanced a little bit. So in school years, Hamza's three years older than me. But he's really only two years older than me. Yeah. So Hamza got drafted in the NFL in 2005 and then it's like, wow, Hamza got drafted, he's playing in the NFL, it's like, well I want to play in the NFL. And so then that grind becomes different, right? And so ultimately I went to the NFL undrafted. So really tough road. I played for the Minnesota Vikings from 2008 to 2011. And then 2012 was a year where I called a time out to get my life in order and I went for hajj, my brother and I. And then 2013 to 2015, I played for the Chiefs and I retired from the NFL in early 2016.

Monem Salam:
Hamdullah. It's an amazing, amazing journey. Just a couple of things on that. So you talked about, you know, kind of looking up to your brother and saying, wow, he was able to get a scholarship. So, you know, maybe I can do the same thing. We've had other shows on here talking about scholarships and how to successfully navigate university life without getting into debt and those type of things. So, I mean, how tough is it to be able to go from, I'm assuming you didn't play for high school, but you did travel football since you're homeschooled?

Husain Abdullah:
No, the structure is different now. Youth sports is a crazy business. They're lying to a lot of kids thinking that they're going to get a scholarship if they just pay more money and it's not the case. The case is, depending upon what you're doing, your game film, that's what's going to stand out. And so there was no travel ball when I was coming up. There was good old fashioned high school football and you had to stand out. We were home schooled, fourth grade, fifth grade, sixth grade, part of seventh grade. We were homeschooled, homeschooled and went to an Islamic school for about a year and a half. And then Hamza actually begged my parents to go back to high school with the promise of, I'm going to get a scholarship. That was the promise. Because, you know, during that time, Pomona, the area in Pomona High School was really bad. And they were concerned, of course, they didn't want to get in any trouble. There were people joining gangs, people turning into drug addicts, alcoholics, some people being shot and killed. Right. And so our parents were like, no, we got to make sure we protect you from that and we have to make sure you keep Islam number one, so no public school. And Hamza was like, I can do it. I can do it. Please put me back in public school. And so that was the promise. And you know Hamza actually only played one year of varsity football and he got a scholarship. So it was extremely impressive how he was able to do it. And so, yeah, so from there I was like, if he can do it in one year, I should be able to do it in three. And so Hamdallah I was able to play really well and get recruited.

Monem Salam:
How difficult would you say is it to go from, you know, high school football and then actually get into getting a scholarship and actually playing ball in college? Because I just I want to make sure that we're setting expectations properly, right? So, like, not everybody can do it, obviously. So what is that kind of look like for you or for other people?

Husain Abdullah:
From all the kids who dare to put on pads and go out there and play high school football, only 1% make it to the division one level. So you have millions of kids around America now, probably international too, playing high school football and only 1% actually go to the next level. So it's not something that's a walk in the park. University, they're not going to pay your way through school unless you're giving them something back. You got to be special a little bit. And nowadays they actually can get paid too, which is awesome. We couldn't get paid back in my day, but only 1% of people who dare to try make the jump.

Monem Salam:
I'm proud to say I'm part of the 99%. By the way, just FYI. I played a little ball, but it was…

Husain Abdullah:
Nice. What position?

Monem Salam:
I played wide receiver.

Husain Abdullah:
There you go.

Monem Salam:
My sophomore year. I made J.V., so I was able to play JV. But then after that I, my parents said, you can't play anymore. So like, you either do band or nothing. That's the only way you're going to show up on the field. So it's like joining a marching band. So I did that for my high school career. It was fun. It was it was a great experience. So now we're talking about college and, you know, like you just kind of alluded to, the game has actually changed from a compensation perspective. Before, it used to be that the only thing you could get was scholarships and that was it. But now they've actually recently, I think in the last couple of years, just implemented something where you can actually get paid for playing. So let's start with where you were, right? I mean, you hear the stories about, you know, how they try and woo you into coming to a certain university and then those type of things. And I'm sure that's more Hollywood than reality. So the reality is basically what happens? I mean, I remember watching the Kaepernick movie on Netflix and he was just basically getting letters in the mail. Right. That's how he was able to make it. So is that pretty much how that works out? You send in a video and then to all the different schools?

Husain Abdullah:
Yeah, well, that's how it goes. You know, back then you just you play. One, you got to be good first and then the scouts will look whether they look in the area paper or the city paper, you know the state to see rankings. They'll just look for people who are standing out and then, depending upon your coaches, your coaches have different connects and they contact different schools. Hey we got a guy, come check them out. Or maybe a school is they're looking at Joe Football Player from this team over here and you just happen to be playing against Joe Football Player and you give Joe Football Player the business and they're like okay, well, we want to recruit this guy, now. That's kind of the way it went. And so then it's phone calls, letters in the mail, it's visits down to your school, visits into your home, visits to the college campus. It is amazing. It's a recruiting trip. And they do roll out the red carpet. It's even more so now because you have social media involved in all kind of hype videos and they do all kind of stuff because they want to attract the best talent so they can win. Because we know winning brings a whole lot of dollars, media, merch, student enrollment, just lifts the entire university. And in America, football is king. I mean, it's just kind of what we do. So it really does lift the university. And so yeah, so that was kind of the process and, and Hamza's situation was actually really special. We had a all-American safety that people were coming from Florida State, Nebraska, you know, the Michigans of the world, like everybody was coming in to watch a guy by the name of Jimmy Verdon, jersey was number seven. They would watch the film and it was like, man, that number five really put on a great performance. And they were like, no, no, no, no, no. Jimmy's number seven. They were like who the hell is number five? Yeah, no, that's Hamza Abdullah. I mean, after that, you know, the phone calls and the letters really started flooding for him. So that's kind of how Hamza got scouted.

Monem Salam:
And then from your perspective, is this the time when you basically are getting into this area of, like finding an agent?

Husain Abdullah:
No, this is just, you know, now people talk to agents because they're trying to get deals for their name, image and likeness. That's the new rule. You can get brand deals, you can get marketing deals now. Before, if you take a penny, you know your eligibility was gone so you couldn't touch nothing. So none of those people existed until it was time to get ready to go to the NFL. So at this point, it's just parents, coaches, and you're just trying to figure out what's the best decision for your playing career, for your academic future. And that's really it. I mean, that's kind of what you decide it based off of.

Monem Salam:
And you ended up going to WSU because of your brother?

Husain Abdullah:
Yep. I went up there because of my brother and it was it was the best offer, you know, all the way through. I had Washington State that was really on me. Arizona State, Kansas University. I had a lot of other schools too. It came down to those three, and when I really looked at the three, I really liked Washington State because they had been winning, right, they had been winning, and my brother was up there, when I went on my recruiting trip up there, it just felt like a family. And so I really enjoyed it. That's why I committed up there.

Scott St. Clair:
Yeah. I was going to ask what being a student athlete was like in college because I was a student and that was it. And that was hard enough on its own. I can't imagine trying to play sports as well.

Husain Abdullah:
Yep, it was terrible until I adjusted to it. I remember my red shirt year, man. I used to get in so much trouble because 5:30 weights I could never make it. So we're supposed to be there for 5:30 weights. And I'm always working out with the 6:15 group. And they're looking at me and like aren't you a red shirt? Aren't you supposed to be here earlier and just, you know, just getting out of bed and walking across campus because the majority of the athletes, they stayed in these coed dorms right across from the athletic facility. I stayed on the other side of campus in this all boys dorm because I was late to fill out everything. And so I had a long trek. And so it sucked for me because typically you have a buddy system. But my roommate, he played as a true freshman, so he got to go into the 7:15 weights. So I had nobody to help wake me up. So man, I used to be late so you know with being late comes extra sprints, up downs in the snow. There's just all kind of crazy punishment stuff. So I'm just getting disciplined left and right. And so, you know, I had to adjust to these long days to where you're waking up super early. You have to go in there, you have to work out. You have to you try to give it your all because you want to get better. And then right after that, shower up and then you have to go to class. You go to class, and then after you get done with class, you go back to the facility, you get to get yourself ready, you got to practice, you got to have film, you got to have meeting. And then when you're done with that, you shower up and then now you're going into the ARC, the Athletic Resource Center. And then I got to do my study hall hours, and it was like, man, I'm burnt, I'm like, this is too much. And so that red shirt year really was a good adjustment year. On top of that, being homesick. My family's in California. You know, I had only left the state once or twice visiting my uncle in Phoenix. So this, I was a long way away from home, so it was just a lot of adjusting. You have no time whatsoever, for the most part. You'd always feel like your body is being beat on and you got to recover super quick. But when you embrace the lifestyle, then that's when you can start to grow. So at some point I just submitted to the grind and said, okay, this is what it is, it's what I signed up for. I got to do it.

Monem Salam:
And you mentioned a little bit about the fact that this was the first time you were on your own away from home, which I can totally get the idea of the homesickness part. I felt very similar when I was in college as well, but at the same time, now you're in college, you're in your red shirt year, you're basically you're completely like hundred percent scholarship. Right? And that's probably maybe I'm going to assume for a lot of people it's the first time they've really been kind of, quote unquote, pampered.

Husain Abdullah:
Pampered, yes and no. Definitely, again, we didn't have to worry about tuition. And I've seen the headache it caused in other people. We got like two meals. You got a check, but really after you paid off all of your bills, you were living below the poverty line. And while other kids can go and get some kind of a job, we had no time for a job. So on one hand, you're getting everything. On the other hand, everybody's broke as a joke, right? For us, we were penny pinching our financial aid check and just trying to make it and you know, we used to be like, man, if I buy this video game, I'm not going be able to eat for this long.  Should I do it right? And for me, you know, the blessing to have Hamza as an older brother, because the second the money came in, he was like, you're going to pay off your rent for the semester. You're going to frontload your light bills. Your this, your that. So then we can see what you're really working with, right? Whereas other people, they're like, oh, look, I got all this money because they used to, I don't know why, they give it to us all upfront and people will go blow it waiting for the next check. And there was no next check. And then you have student athletes sleeping inside on someone's couch, sleeping out of someone's car because they didn't know how to manage the money that we had. So yeah, so on one end they rolled out the red carpet, the other man, it was it was a struggle, but we weren't in the SCC getting handshake deals and stuff under the table. I mean now you know a lot of those guys they're open about it because now you know what can you do, but you know our school really was like strict strict by the book nobody got any extra benefits. And so if you were available for financial aid, that's all you got. Some people who didn't make it they used to call home right, now, Mom, can you please just send me… so…

Monem Salam:
You never were taught about how to budget or how to how to do anything like that, where you were like, right before you came in?

Husain Abdullah:
No, I mean, from what my parents teach me, right? Yeah. Just kind of make sure you got a roof over your head, lights on, right? Just like the bare basics. And that's kind of all the financial literacy at that point that any of us really had. And some people didn't even have that. I remember a story. In the summertime, they gave us one check and it's supposed to take care of everything for the three months. And literally, like by the time you spent everything, you may have had $150 left, right, for three months. And I remember this guy, he goes out and he buys this motorized helicopter. Like, the hell are you doing, right? He buys this helicopter, he's like, ooh, look, I got a helicopter. He's flying it around the apartment complex and showing everybody. And everybody was like, you know, we don't get no more money for the rest of the summer, right? Like you, you need to take that back. And this guy, he blew his money, and after that, he was a sleeping on couch to couch until people got tired of him, until just trying to make it to the fall semester when the tuition kicked in and the stipend and, you know, the financial aid kicked in. And so, yeah, man, if you didn't even understand the basics of pay rent first, you had it really bad.

Monem Salam:
I remember even when I was in college, that was the first time I, you know, had a bank account. The first time I was writing my own bills. We actually had time to do the stuff. You don't have time to do pretty much anything else but study and work out and go to the games. And then there's travel and everything along those lines as well. So it becomes a little more complicated. You've been playing for four years in college and now maybe you're in your final year and you said you were undrafted. So you basically had to kind of just push your own way into the league, basically. But I think you said Hamza was drafted straight out of a college. So what does that process look like from a perspective of the offers that you're getting or those type of things? Is that just as it was from high school to college, or was completely different story?

Husain Abdullah:
You know, it's different, now as you're playing, after your sophomore year, you can become draft eligible. So a team can draft the rights to said player. The elite people can go after they hit 21. So about their sophomore year. Another elite people leave after their junior year. But the majority of people it's you play out your senior year and then now you're draft eligible but there's only 300 some odd spots in the draft for people to get drafted. And so Hamza was, I think he was in like that last ten to get drafted. He was drafted in the seventh round by Tampa Bay, went down there, did really well, but then they cut him and then they brought him back later. They cut him for, I think it was for like a month or so. They brought him back and then he ultimately signed with Denver. And then that's where his career really kicked off. For me, on the other hand, you go through like you train, you have the biggest job interview of your life, which is called the NFL Combine. You go down there, you everybody has on underwear, t-shirts and underwear. You run, you jump, you try to look pretty. Show off with your muscles a little bit, say, hey, look, I could play in the NFL and they evaluate every little thing. I really don't like it. It makes your skin crawl a little bit. But this is their evaluation system along with your game film. And so then they rank people and then they pick. Come draft day, seven rounds came and went by. My name was not called, but shortly after that the Minnesota Vikings called and they said, hey, we want you to sign with us as an undrafted free agent and you have an opportunity to come play and try out and make our team. That's what I did. And Hamdullah I was able to not only make the team, but I never went on the practice squad. And that's a huge feat for an undrafted guy because most people, if you're undrafted, they'll bring you on and if you're good, they'll put you on the practice squad, which means you're good enough to practice but you're not good enough to play in the games. I was able to go straight into being on the active roster, which is also from a money perspective, your check looks different and you get a credited year for being active and so someone can be on the practice squad for two years and have no credited seasons towards a pension or retirement or anything like that. So by me being on the active roster, I was able to get those credited years and get that full check.

Monem Salam:
You know, I'm talking about generally speaking, people coming through high school, going to college. And again, as you were talking about with the scholarships and everything, you're pretty much living paycheck to paycheck. Let's supposing you do get drafted or you get picked and you have that credit year and all of a sudden you have this influx of money coming in, right? Without any training of what to do with that money, whatever that amount is for a 22, 23, 24 year old. That's a lot of money. So what happens in those situations? Like how did you end up managing, you know, those type of things? How did other people do it?

Husain Abdullah:
Yeah, man, it's a huge fitna to go from not having to all of a sudden having. Right? I think for me I was just…

Monem Salam:
Let's be clear, it's not having for a lot of people it's like more money than they're ever seen in their life combined.

Husain Abdullah:
Yeah it's you know it's excess. It's more than probably your whole family has pooled in their lifetime for some people. Right. And so for me, I was very, very blessed to not only have my brother who had gone before me, but a lot of those guys who I said we were family at Washington State. We had one or two guys going to the NFL every year from the secondary. So from my position. So I was able to contact them and ask different questions. So I knew that I didn't know enough, which is really good. And because I came in undrafted, the way the NFL contract works and this is why it's so important when you see a guy that has guaranteed money and this is why your favorite player doesn't want to play unless he has guaranteed money, because let's say my contract, and my rookie contract was $305,000, which was a ton of money coming out of college. Right? $10,000 signing bonus, $295,000 for the season. But the way it works is at that time, the NFL was 17 seasons. So if you play week one, you get 1/17 of 295. If you get cut the next week, that's it. All right. You know, so for me, knowing and understanding that I knew that it was really week to week. It wasn't a year contract or I say I played four years in Minnesota, but it was week to week for four years. Right. So for me, my mindset is completely different. My mindset is, hey, I got to stash away as many acorns as possible because I have no idea when they going to shut me out, right, out of the blue. It could be something that maybe I'm not performing and you get cut. I've seen people get cut just because of numbers. Somebody played safety. This team has four safeties. Two offensive tackles go get hurt, they got to sign an offensive tackle, goodbye safety you got to go. And so sometimes you can do everything right and still get released. So for me, knowing that, I was very conservative in my approach to spending, so my first two years, I kind of still lived like I was in college, like really tight budgeting, not really opening up the pocketbook that much, whereas it's different from somebody who comes in first or second round. Like I said, my signing bonus, $10,000. Imagine the guy who comes in and his signing bonus is 5 million, 3 million, 2 million dollars. Well, he's coming in and he's buying everything he ever dreamed of. And everybody in his family wants everything that they ever dreamed of. And people think that you're set for life and that because you have all this, there's no way that you can go broke because now we can buy this and this is who cares? You just signed for $2 million, $3 million. And so you see a lot of those guys sometimes who come in top heavy have the roughest time. But the guy who comes in, you know, the bottom guy on the roster like me, who had to, you know, they didn't know if they were going to be here tomorrow or not, they're more conservative and you see sometimes over a time span, they do better with their money.

Monem Salam:
One thing that comes to mind is that show Ballers. Where it talks about the football life outside of the actual game itself. I mean, one of the interesting things that I found with that show is that, you know, you basically end up having friends and family that you didn't know you had or there's a crew that's always going along with you.
And is that for real? Does that really happen? And how do you manage that?

Husain Abdullah:
You have to learn how to say no. We all have a problem that a couple more bucks will solve. Right? Like every single one of us, man, if I just had another $100, $200, $500, $1,000, $10,000, we all have a problem that we just feel if we just had a little bit more capital, it would solve this problem. And so just imagine if all of a sudden your brother just had more money than he needs, right. What's going to stop you from picking up the phone and say, hey, bro, can you let me borrow 250? I have this going on and I'm in a tight, tight spot. Can you help me out? Imagine everybody you interacted with picking up the phone and making that same phone call.
Right? This is what the difficulty is of people who go through this scenario. And people say yes. Right. And especially, you know, I think it's over 75% of the NFL is black Americans. And black Americans we definitely have a culture of not selling out and wanting to make sure we take care of everybody. And sometimes it works against us in these situations because now you're trying to take care of everybody, but people just bleeding you and sucking you dry. Obviously, it's been well-documented. The ESPN 30 for 30 Broke did an amazing job displaying that. And there's tons of articles written of how athletes just get kind of sucked dry and then people scatter the second there is no more. There's a scene, they tell you when you get in it, you're going to have to learn how to say no. And it's tough. And people will come with every type of issue. But you realize, sometimes you do give and you give and give and you realize, money is not the problem. This person's lifestyle is the problem or this person's financial spending behavior is the problem. Or this person needs more education here. They need to get a job there. Whatever it may be. But you realize that money is typically not the problem, but it's a lifestyle.

Monem Salam:
The one thing is to do with athletes, but also this happens in corporate America as well, where you might end up having a windfall from an initial public offering and those type of things. What I find different, however, is probably in an athlete's case, it's literally you're getting that upfront bonus of cash, whereas a lot of times in corporate America, you're getting it in shares which you can't sell. So, you know, even though your net worth might be a lot of money, it's on paper because you're not able to cash out on it. And let's talk a little bit about the intersection right. And Islamically. Right. There's a hadith that says the left hand should not know what the right hand is giving. Okay. So now let's take Husain Abdullah. And so now Husain Abdullah, Hamdullah, your family was okay. But let's supposing that a lot of friends who came to you and said, hey, you know, can I borrow this or can I do this? How do you think about that context of being able to freely give? Because charity doesn't reduce wealth as the prophet sallalahu alayhi sallam said. So how do you balance the two together?

Husain Abdullah:
Yeah, so we know the hadith where actions are by their intentions. So what are you doing it for? Are you doing it so they say, oh, Husain is not a sellout, or are you doing it for the sake of Allah? Right. And so if you're doing it for the sake of Allah, then you approach it differently. So now what are we talking about, right? What is it that you need money for? And especially we know that the best charity starts right there at home. Those people closest around you. And so you just kind of ask and maybe someone is saying they need $1,000, but really they only need about 150. Give them 150. Right? Definitely give in charity because charity, you'll never go broke giving charity, right, with the right intention you never go broke giving charity. And that's you know, paraphrasing the hadith of the Prophet As-Salam. But we definitely should give and Allah blesses those people who do give. But at the same time, we're not supposed to just give and give, and give to the point where somebody becomes a bill, you know what I mean? So, again, just using a little bit of discernment in terms of when am I going to give, how am I going to give, or how much am I going to give, who am I going to give to? Someone says, oh, I need help with my lights, my lights are going to get cut off, I'm going to get put out. But and then you say, okay, let me see your debit card statement and you see Netflix and you see them eating out, you see, no, you don't need my money. I can help you with some with some discipline. That's what you need. Right. And so just a little bit of just a little bit of discernment in terms of family matters. If somebody from the outside is reaching out, you've got to be mindful of who and what you give to. And just again, make sure you're doing it with the purest of intention, with the cleanest of hearts. And then when you give it, just let it go. Just give it for the sake of Allah and don't even think about it, just instantly forget about it and just move on about your day.

Monem Salam:
Yeah, there's also extravagance in sadaqah. I mean, there's there's a point where you don't give too much that you're going to be asking for money tomorrow, right? And there has to be that balance as well. So you really have to look at it from a perspective of, yes, I want to give it in such a way that you're not asking me tomorrow for more money. Right. So now you're in the NFL, you're making money. But, you know, you have a very, very short life in the NFL itself, right? Because you're what, one injury away from never playing again. But that's one part of it. And so for you, it was like, okay, 1/17 is what you're basically getting as far as salary. But there's also after you leave the NFL, there's like a pension as well, correct? Like after you've retired and then those type of things. Is that for life?

Husain Abdullah:
I call it old man money. So that stuff doesn't kick in until like 55, right? So for the majority of people, you know, you're going to be a former athlete longer than you're an athlete. I don't care if you have a ten, 12 year career, which would be long in the NFL. I had a seven year career. That's long. They say the average is three and a half. But I've seen people not last two days. Even if a guy has, you know, take me, for example, I had a seven year career. I retire at 30, but what the heck are you going to do from 30 to 55 right? Before the old man money kicks in, the pension, the 401(k)'s and all that good stuff. So annuities. It's way out there, right? And so you really do have to be smart with your money. In today's day and age, man, there's too much information out there for someone to not educate themself on learning about finance, learning about investing. I was scared of the stock market. Nobody I knew had touched the stock market. The people who did touch the stock market crashed and burned because we had the whole 2008 stuff. People who'd touched real estate crashed and burned. So I remember I had a financial advisor. I said, hey man, I just want to make sure my money doesn't go anywhere. Just like, help me budget. I just want to make sure that I have a really tight budget and I just want to make sure my money is there. So I was more savings focused, right? And so for me, I don't know. You get one check and you're getting like $15,000 after taxes or something like that. So instantly for me, I'm like, ooh, if I get cut tomorrow, that's about four months of living. This is my mindset. I got you know, I got like a four month cushion before I have to go find another job. I get another check, ooh, that's about seven months. I get another check. And now that was my mindset. Like, I just wanted to make sure I had enough to provide for myself and my family. And so it wasn't until later then it's like, okay, now I have some money sitting there, and my financial guy was like Husain we can grow this. I said, ah! I don't know if I can do it. It might be haram money. I don't want to touch it. I don't want to make God angry. So this is good kind of sitting right where it was. But and then, you know, I had to start educating myself and learning about investing and all the different things and it took me longer. I wish I would have read more about it when I was younger. But again, looking back on it for where I was coming from, I did the right thing for that time frame and just, you know, my general education.

Monem Salam:
Now, this idea of just the pension or that gap period between the time you retire and when the pension kicks in, at what point did you realize that, hey, man, I need to figure out what I'm going to do for this period of time and I'm not going to have any money coming in.

Husain Abdullah:
You know, I think one of the beautiful things about being a Muslim is every day we prepare for the afterlife right? Every day, every time we line up for prayer, we're thinking about the hereafter. Every time we're praying, we're praying for our hereafter first and then for this life. In everything that we do, for the most part, there's an afterlife, right? After high school. What are you going to do after that? Either you'll go to college or not. You're going to choose the path, one of the two. Okay, you go to college. Okay. As you're in college, it's not going to last for forever. What are you going to do after that? So either I'm going to go and I'm going to make it into the NFL or I'm going to go into the workforce. Right. Okay. Now I'm into the NFL. What are you going to after that? For me, it was always knowing that everything is kind of temporary. Everything kind of happens in 3 to 5 year stretches. That's kind of the way our American cycle, your middle school, three years, you go to high school for four years, college some people do it in 3 to 5 years undergrad and then grad school people are kind of like 2 to 4 years or whatever. But there's like these periods and then it's like, well, what next? What next? What next? I never looked at football as the end all for me. I always look at it as a nest egg. It's going to give me a leg up. All my counterparts who are 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, because now while they're trying to pay down student loans, I went to school for free. So now I'm cash positive. While they're paying a mortgage, I can pay mine off because look at this influx that I got. And so that's always the way I looked at it. I never looked at it as, okay, I'm going to do this and I'm going to retire from life when I walk away from football. No, I'm still going to work. You know, I don't know what field, but I knew that there was going to be an afterlife for football. So I was always preparing for that.

Monem Salam:
You had a really great mentor you were mentioning with your brother and other players and that type of thing. Like, I know there's a bunch of Muslim football players in the NFL right now. I would say maybe two handfuls, maybe ten or 20 or so. Is there like a group that you put together to kind of help along the way to be able to say, this is, you know, you got to go realize these things before you know, before you do anything else. Something like that?

Husain Abdullah:
No, in 2015 and 2016, my brother and I was building, was building an organization for Muslim athletes and Muslim entertainers so we can do just that. So, number one, help people maintain their Islam because we know the sports entertainment industry, that culture is wild, man and, you know, talk about gripping a hot coal. It's you really playing with that thing. It's tough. And so we really wanted to be able to build something that brings people together, that educates people, that creates opportunity and really just kind of like mentorship and guidance. And so we were working on it 2015, 2016, but then we hit a wall in 2017 to where we couldn't make it a sustainable model, right? And this is from my lack of business understanding. So I'll take the full blame for that because I was spearheading this effort. You know, now I do want to get back to that, now that I do know a little bit more about business after running the company and investing in companies. And just we need something like that to be able to help each other out. But at the moment, no, we don't.

Monem Salam:
How much awareness do you have, oh I need to make sure that I'm investing Islamically or what was going through your mind is this or is it just, you know what, let me just sock it away until I retire and then I'll figure it out after that?

Husain Abdullah:
So for me, probably 2010, 2011, my brother and I, we started talking more business and seeing more business opportunities. We started meeting more people and so people would just start throwing these different ideas and pitches, right, these business pitches, and we were just kind of pushing them aside again. I know too many people who had got burned in the real estate and stock markets, I still was kind of pushing back on that.
But then it got to a point to where I was like, okay, I want to learn. I know that I don't know, right? So I need to learn. So I started asking questions. Friends with a lot of the imams down here in Dallas, so I moved down here in Dallas, and they're also my teachers and I'll just ask them questions. And if they say, oh, we can't touch this, why? Why? It says this in the Quran. I'll go read it. I'll say, are you sure it says this? What is this? How does this function? As Muslims, someone says this is halal or this is haram, and then we just go, and we're not supposed to do that because, you know, Allah says in the Quran about the people who came before us that they took their priests and their rabbis as lords, right, because they told them to do something and they never investigated. Is this what the good book says? Right. So we're supposed to do what the good book says. And so I would read in the Quran, and I'll say, okay, there are certain things that we can do and there's certain things that we can't do. So let me go try to look for which one falls into what bucket. And so I think that opened up my eyes to investing, that opened up my eyes to different types of businesses. And then just again, just meeting different people. What kind of business are you in and what kind of business? I didn't even know you can make money doing it. And just again, just staying curious and inquisitive.

Scott St. Clair:
I'm actually really curious how hajj affected both your career just as an athlete, but also your budgeting, because that was the year you took off from the NFL. You talked about how you're getting like 1/17 every game. I imagine just not getting paid for that year either, right?

Husain Abdullah:
Yeah. Yeah. No money at all. It was it was something to where, and I wrote an article in the Players Tribune just about like the things I dealt with with the concussions and the mental health and all those different issues, really, I just needed to turn to Allah. I really didn't care about nothing else. I knew that if I turned to Allah and I fully focused on Allah, the rest would play itself out. Allah was going to take care of me. So I just wanted to make sure I realigned my purpose because again, you can get into the sports and entertainment industry and things could be moving so fast that you could lose yourself. For me, year one was slow, year two was slow. But it's like when I became a starter on the Vikings in year three, my God, everything just stared like, it just started going crazy, right? Because I go from, you know, making 300,000 or I don't know what my second year was, 350, 370. I don't know. To all of a sudden I'm making 600 to almost $2 million. And then it just starts speeding up, right? Everything just goes fast and then all of a sudden again, people coming around and all kind of weird stuff starts happening. So really just needed to recenter or refocus, especially after the gift and the blessing of those injuries really, like Allah knocked me on my head so I make sure I focus on the main thing. That year of 2012 athletically for Hamza that actually ended his career, that he did not play in the NFL after that. He actually had a very difficult transition to go along with it out of the game. And for me, it was a tough year because I really wanted to play, but I really wanted to be right with Allah first. For me, my fourth year in the NFL, I made a nice chunk of change and so I wasn't overly concerned about going a year with income because remember I told you guys from my first year, I was like, oh, if I don't get a check, that's three months, six months, nine months right? So I knew that I had a runway, right? I didn't buy anything stupid. I don't need anything to be flashy or anything like that. So I knew that we were going to be just fine from a financial standpoint. But then athletically, I started training again because, you know, just the just the desire to compete, continue to live out the dream, talk to some different imams. And they said, hey, you'll do more for the Muslim ummah inside the locker room than you would outside the locker room. So I wanted to go back on the team. And then also there are some people who wrote different things they were like, oh, they're not leaving the NFL. They couldn't cut it. It's kind of like I got to prove these people wrong now, too. You know what I mean? So yeah, but it was nice going through 2012, a very spiritually cleansing year and refocusing and then being able to be signed by the Chiefs in 2013. That was a huge blessing.

Monem Salam:
That's great, Hamdullah. What advice would you give somebody you know who's very young and it doesn't have to be an athlete. It could be somebody who's in media or even in corporate America. But you know, they're faced with this idea of A. having a lot of money coming in when they're not used to it. Right. And the second thing is just that fame that comes along with it maybe although all the baggage with that. What advice would you give?

Husain Abdullah:
Just always prepare for the afterlife. Right. So we know on a spiritual journey, the ultimate transition is from life into death. That's the ultimate transition. Life to death, into the afterlife, right? This is the one that we read about. We pray about, trying to get people to believe. We tell other people, hey, there's going to be life after death, right? So that's the number one transition. But in that we have all these different mini transitions that almost mimic the same thing. It's very unique when you pay attention to it. There are times of expansion and times of restriction. And so if you're in a time where Allah is blessing you with more money than you need, kind of like in Surah Yusef, where you know, there's going to be an abundance for seven years and then there's going to be a drought for seven years, right. So instead of, oh, there's abundance, let me just become wasteful, which is a lot of what, you know, if you follow what social media tells you, take 1,000,001 trips, show off your big fancy house, go... I mean, you got people renting cars to take pictures of. You have people renting money to take a picture. It's the stupidest thing in the world, right? Instead of being flashy during that time of expansion, prepare for the afterlife. What happens next, right? Save, give something to charity. Invest some. When that time of restriction comes, you don't get squeezed too tight. You can be able to brace for that. And then we know after hardship come ease, then there's going to be another time of expansion. During that time of expansion again, be smart about it. Think about what's next. Sometimes people get a job and they're like, oh, look how much money I'm making. Not knowing that man, this is just a project. In six months you are gone, they will pay you a lot of money, but the second they can run you off their books, they cut you. This is just what it is. And some people think, oh, look how fast the money's coming in, so now I can afford it. As if it's going to be happening forever. And it's not, right. So again, I'll just say always just be preparing for the afterlife. Learn how to be content, learn how to flatline your expenses. When you do get that increase, if you get an increase in expenses as well, you still going to be broke. Just basic thing I draw up on my whiteboard and I tell my children and even just even some of my employees, I say, if your income is greater than your expenses, this is where we want to be. Now you can get to savings, investing, all that good stuff. I said, if your income is equal to your expenses, now you're broke, right? And if your income is less than your expenses, well, now you're in debt and that's called slavery. So none of us wants to be a financial slave.

Monem Salam:
What are you doing now and what's your plan for the future?

Husain Abdullah:
After I retired from the NFL in 2016, I went and got my masters at Southern Methodist University in Conflict Resolution. And I really like the executive leadership part. I really like the system of design, of conflict resolution. And so I started applying it to business. And so currently for the last five years, we hit five years on October 1st.
I've been running trucks with Amazon. So I own a logistics company and we're delivery service partnered with Amazon and I've been doing that for the last five years. But now same thing. I'm preparing for my afterlife and okay, I've done this, but what next? I know this is not a business that we're going to be there for 20, 30 years just because the way Amazon operates. So I'm looking at other opportunities, as an entrepreneur, you're kind of always kicking the tires on things. Allah says, you know, we should be like the birds, they put their trust in Allah, they leave the nest, they go search for food and they leave with their bellies empty, and they always come back bellies full. So for me, that's kind of the way the entrepreneur is. Every day we get up, we put our trust in Allah, we go work, we don't know where we're going to find it, but we trust in Allah, we know it's going to be there. And so currently I'm looking at some opportunities that are back in sports, looking at some opportunities that, you know, have a purpose to them and make a difference in our society. And wherever Allah takes me. That's why I'm going to be.

Monem Salam:
Very, very good points and really, really appreciate the advice and JazakAllahu Khair (may God reward you with good) for your time. Scott, do you have anything before we kind of wrap up?

Scott St. Clair:
I just thank you for your time. This is excellent.

Husain Abdullah:
Yeah, no, thank you guys.

Monem Salam:
Hello, listeners. Thank you for tuning in to Halal Money Matters. If you're a longtime listener or even if this is just your first time tuning in, we would really appreciate it if you take the time to rate us and leave a comment on your podcast streamer. It really helps us reach a bigger audience and helps others benefit from the show as well. Thank you so much.

Narrator:
The thoughts and opinions expressed on Halal Money Matters do not necessarily reflect the views of Saturna Capital, Amana Mutual Funds, or their affiliates.

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