When last year's NFL lockout began, there was concern that players -- far from team supervision -- would encounter unprecedented financial and legal troubles.
In the end, the lockout came and went without much noise on that front, but Bryant McKinnie is on the hook for one mammoth error in judgment.
The Baltimore Ravens offensive lineman stands to lose roughly $4.3 million in a lawsuit filed by Pro Player Funding, a New York-based sports lending agency. The company alleges McKinnie failed to pay back an expensive loan taken out as insurance against the lockout.
When McKinnie was still with the Minnesota Vikings, he took out an original loan from the company for approximately $4.2 million in February 2011, along with an additional $229,000 in July.
Here's where it went south for McKinnie. When he was cut by the Vikings in August, he allegedly missed that month's payment on the loan, according to the Baltimore Business Journal.
TMZ.com cited court documents in describing the loans as "very high risk, with high interest rates and a clause that allowed (Pro Player Funding) to call in the entire amount due if Bryant missed one payment."
Court documents reveal the Ravens plan to work with McKinnie to pull from his wages, but there's some dispute over when those payments will be furnished to Pro Player Funding. The Ravens are expected to keep McKinnie on the roster after paying his $500,000 roster bonus. The 10-year veteran is set to earn $3.2 million in 2012.
One of the uglier narratives emerging from last year's lockout and a lesson for McKinnie's NFL peers.
