When an athlete leaves their collegiate environment and enters the professional level of their game, they typically end up with a rather large payday pretty quickly. Before the days of Name, Image, Likeness (NIL) deals, most players had no idea what to do with so much money. Things are a little different now, but it's still always interesting to hear what players spend their money on when they land a big payday. In the NFL, players often purchase homes or cars; sometimes they make donations to charities or invest a portion of their funds. Since the implementation of NIL, athletes have a better understanding of how to manage large sums of money, and often already have someone who manages their money, so we're seeing players do different things with those funds. Tennessee Titans wide receiver Carnell Tate didn't buy a flashy car, and while he did purchase a house in his hometown of Chicago, Illinois, that's not the first thing he bought. ESPN's NFL Nation compiled an article detailing several rookies' first purchases, and Tate was included.
Tate bought a Star Wars Lego Ultimate Collector Series set. He is an avid Lego collector and is currently working on the Titanic. He also said he purchased a house in Chicago, his hometown.
Tate's obsession with the interconnecting blocks has been well documented since his days at Ohio State, so it's not a huge surprise that this was his first purchase. Even with an NIL deal, a college student generally cannot afford to spend thousands of dollars on Legos, so he jumped at the opportunity to add to his collection when he signed his rookie contract. This article originally appeared on Titans Wire: What was Titans WR Carnell Tate's first purchase after rookie deal?