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Former NFL Star Bennie Blades Pays over $1 Million in Child Support, Yet Is Jailed for Being a ‘Deadbeat Dad’

2007-09-11
By

“Nobody who knows me well can ever say I wasn’t a father to these kids.”–former NFL Star Bennie Blades

“They couldn’t be any closer”–the mother of one of Blades’ children, describing the boy’s relationship with Bennie Blades, his father



How can a man pay $1.3 million after-tax dollars in child support and then be arrested for being a “deadbeat dad”? It happened to former NFL star Bennie Blades in 2005.

Blades was working as a substitute teacher in Broward County, Florida when he was arrested. His football career was cut short by a painful injury, and even his NFL retirement pension was taken from him for child support. Blades was by all accounts a dedicated father, who was even publicly praised by his exes after his arrest.

Blades certainly made mistakes. However, the child support system and family law system often milks high-earners with transitory incomes, such as professional athletes and entertainers, leaving them with little after their careers are over. During Blades career he was apparently paying half his after-tax income in child support.

As Detroit Free Press columnist Michael Rosenberg explains in his column below, Blades has a strong relationship with his children. His mistreatment at the hands of Michigan Attorney General Mike Cox is outrageous, and symbolizes much of what’s wrong with the child support system.

In the eyes of the state, Bennie Blades is a deadbeat dad
Detroit Free Press, 4/29/05

DETROIT _ On Feb. 17, at the behest of the State of Michigan, police arrested a substitute teacher at Piper High School in Sunrise, Fla.

The substitute teacher spent a week in Broward County Jail in Florida. Then he was shipped off to Michigan _ almost two weeks on a bus, stopping only to eat fast food or bologna sandwiches at jails along the way.

He was not allowed to bathe or brush his teeth. As the bus transported accused criminals throughout the Eastern states, he was forced to sit all day and night, which was extremely painful because the substitute teacher has chipped vertebrae in his neck, an injury he suffered when he played safety in the NFL.

“I’m like, `This is very humiliating,’” recalled Bennie Blades, a Detroit Lions star from 1988-96. “You had to eat with your hands shackled basically down to your lap.”

When he arrived in Michigan on March 8 _ 19 days after his arrest _ Blades was still wearing the same Old Navy blue jeans, printed blue shirt and white Pumas he was wearing when he was arrested.

Now Blades, who has been released on bail, faces two charges. The first is felony non-support for his daughter Ashley, who lives with her mother, Yolande Healey, in Southfield, Mich. At one point, Blades owed nearly $400,000 in child support for Ashley. She is one of his six children with six women.

The other charge is for failing to appear at a Jan. 7 court hearing in the case.

Mix those ingredients together: Former NFL star. Nine million dollars in career earnings. Six kids with six women. Hundreds of thousands of dollars in child support.

And a state attorney general who has made deadbeat dads a top priority.

And one mother who wants Blades to pay up.

And three other mothers who say he doesn’t have the money.

Oh, and don’t forget those six kids. Please don’t forget them.

They all had something at stake that February day when the cops showed up at Piper High. And as Bennie Blades was whisked out of the school parking lot, he didn’t bother asking what he should do with his car, a 1994 Honda Accord with more than 135,000 miles on it.

“We just left it there,” Blades said with a laugh. “I don’t think anybody is going to steal that.”

When Blades was first arrested for this case, in November 2003, Michigan Attorney General Mike Cox received a rousing standing ovation from himself.

“Once again let me send this message: Deadbeats that shirk their parental responsibilities risk incarceration,” Cox said in a press release. “Whether that parent works in construction or played safety for the Detroit Lions, failure to pay child support will have consequences.”

It is easy to paint Blades as a villain.

That is, if you’re looking for villains.

But what if you are more worried about Bianca Blades, Bennie’s 11-year-old daughter, who sees her dad regularly?

Read the full article here.

[Families Against Confiscatory Child Support is the national voice for fair and reasonable child support. To learn more, go to www.faccsonline.org or contact them at contact@faccsonline.org.]

Help for Los Angeles/Ventura County Dads
Peter M. Walzer, Certified Family Law Specialist
www.California-Divorce.com
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  • mruffolo

    Caligirl wrote “…these children need to eat…”

    “The percentage of overweight children in the United States is growing at an alarming rate.”

    http://www.kidshealth.org/parent/nutrition_fit/nutrition/overweight_obesity.html

    American children need a father, not more money for food.

  • donnieboy57

    if a man and women have consensual sex, there should be no child support at all, unless he volunteers to pay such. if he is wrong, so is she. i say abort the unborn unless one of the parents (or relatives) want to raise the child…. again with no involuntary financial help from either parent.

    if a man rapes a women and a pregnancy results……again abort the child unless the mother chooses to keep it in which case the man must pay all of his assests to the mother……then go to jail for life.

  • fourthwire

    “I am still trying to understand why this original post is one of sympathy…these children need to eat…despite the fact of dad’s foolishness.”

    Caligirl, in your little estrogen-centered world, you correctly understand that “these children need to eat”. What has apparently failed to lodge in the space between your ears concerns the fact that those women who chose to become pregnant were displaying EQUAL foolishness to Blades’ foolishness.

    Of course Blades was not given the same reproductive choices that the mothers of his children have… but like most women you likely don’t give a rat’s ass about MEN’S reproductive rights – only your own.

    And then of course there’s the little issue that you apparently don’t understand basic mathematics when you compare how much money Blades was forced to pay by the Family Court scumbags with generally accepted cost of living figures.

    Frankly, if you managed to pass high school math, your parents deserve a tax refund.

  • mphzguy

    Caligirl,

    It doesn’t suprise me that you are quickly jumping up to defend the woman’s point of view. You simply wish to ignore the basic facts that this may was paying way MORE then is required to raise a child. Who care’s that he was injured and can’t continue on the same financial gravy train these women saw when they got with him.
    Getting child support lowered is not an easy task, it takes lots of money and time. While you try to do that you fall behind. There is no question the system is biased against men, yet you shrug that off because, oh .. well apparently because you said so.
    This isn’t about ex professional athletes and them ‘getting away’ with their actions because of who they are, this is about a man who is being brutalized by a system that spits men out like trash, usually, as in this case, so some politician can make himself look good.
    That’s why the point of view is what it is, and should be.

    Your post is simply a trolling post in itself and yet you question the validity of the author, one I might point out is actually able to get himself published without coattailling off the comments section.

  • Thomas

    There is one sinlge crynig shame in this – it’s been more than a year since this happened and no changes, no outrage, no reform, barely a meniton of these attrocities anywhere.

    This includes Bennie Blades – where is he???

  • Caligirl

    I am still trying to understand why this original post is one of sympathy…these children need to eat…despite the fact of dad’s foolishness. I often wonder if these posts are made to stir the pot or if there is truly that much bias against women and the law???

    Additionally…if this male Bernie is a substitute teacher…it means he has a college education. It is hard pressed to believe that being a sub teacher is the best employment he could find. I love to write…although I could not write in the park everyday and allow my daughter to go hungry….I had to get the best job I could to feed her. WE also overlook the fact that this missed his court date…did he ever lower his support obligations.

    Upon retirement the first thing agents do is go into court and lower these professional athletes support obligations. NOT the players standard of living just his obligation to his children. CHARMING isn’t it?

    You have been made painfully aware of how these professional athletes with more connections than you can shake a stick at during and after they retire…are coddled by the system and allowed repeated chances more than any other sect of society. I think to try and paint them as being victimized after making millions and spending their funds, not looking out for their children’s future, and living a life of complete irresponsibility is totally misguided. I cannot disagree with you any stronger here.

    Let’s see child support for child number 1…should have made him think. Then he had time to ponder between child number 2, 3, 4, & 5 before escalating to 6! In the world of sports…having these children are viewed to some as notches on their belts. But yet, we want to paint Bernie as the victim??? Come on let’s have some rationale. He paid more because he made more!

    Also, if Blades relationship was so stellar with his children…the mother’s could have removed his name from the system. These agencies do not just go after these guys on their own. Come on we all know better…there are too many holes in the manner in which this story was reported that does not speak of reality.

    He should be held accountable he broke the law. I would suggest his story being personally hand delivered to every professional sports team and player. None of them ever believe they will be held accountable for their lives during and after the sport has bid them farewell…but their children will still have to eat.

    The fact of the matter is if Bernie did not make provisions for his children, does not feed, clothe and educate his children…he is a deadbeat dad.

    Instead of trying to make him a victim…if we truly stand for right…perhaps we need to look at what is right…not what is ripe for trying to take these guys obvious foolishness and make it into a case of bias. There is no bias here…just a lot of wasted potential for Bernie and his children.

  • mruffolo

    20% per child per mother times six mother is 120% of his income for child support. Excludes insurance and daycare and other expenses ordered by court.

    The government ought to do a better job of warning men about child support laws.

    The government does a great job of educating its citizens about DUI laws, hate law crimes, pet crimes, seat belt laws and no smoking laws.

    Most single men do not know the consequence of the mixture of mother and family court. They ought to be warned in sex education class in high school. Maybe devote one chapter of the sex text book to family court. Instead of inprisoning divorced dads may be the men can perform sommunity service as a class speaker.

  • amfortas

    While I have every sympathy for struggling fathers who are arrested and incarcerated, the mention of a man who has six children with six women reminds me of women who have six children with six fathers. Both can be criticised. In both scenarios, the children are deprived of a milieu of fidelity.

  • fourthwire

    Cases like Blades’ should be taught to every boy by puberty so that they understand fully just how much misandry they will face if they do anything rash…… such as to procreate, marry, or even cohabitate.

    The child support scumbags and the family court vermin are American men’s worst enemies. Hell, who needs al-Qaeda to combat when our nation’s government has turned on its own men?!?

  • Robert Stevens

    I don’t call it the govemment sponsored kidnapping and extortion racket for nothing.(GiSKERS) Child support is nothing more than a shake down racket, it is totally unlawful and wrong. By common law ie “REAL LAW” the state has no lawful right to ” judicially kidnap” children then by extortionist threat, extort money from the pockets of the parent it stole the kids from! That is by definition kidnapping ,extortion and fraud. The women and the “government terrorist” who engage in this activety should be charged arrested, and if convicted sentenced to long prison terms. When we start punishing people for violating real law and hold everyone to the same standard, then this bull shit will stop.
    There are those that say we can have a fair system, but they are kidding themselve. Money and power corrupt, and these people are totally corrupt.
    The solution is simple , make joint physical/legal custody the law, make them share the kids. Once this is done, you will see a sharp drop in the divorce rate and a sharp drop in the number of “accidental pregnancies”. Soon the welfare mom will become a thing of the past, the child support terrorist will out of a job( personally these bastards need to tried for high treason and punished severly) and the societal decay will slow.

  • daveinga

    what a pathetic creature that attorney general is. hating men so much must be a terrible thing, especially if you claim to be one. not much msm coverage i’ll bet, as usual. poor guy. can’t even get a passport to escape these leeches. all in the name of the children. and i’ll bet the farm this guy cox sits on the front row pew. probably passes the plate for the priestess. like my great aunt used to say “go on fool, hell ain’t crowded”.







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