How Mecole Hardman Spent His First $1M in the NFL | My First Million

Another thing I spent a lot of money on was shoes.

Yo, Butler.

Thank you, sir.

[electronic music]

What's good ZQ? It's Mecole Hardman.

This is how I made, saved,

and spent my first million dollars.

[electronic music]

I am from Bowman, Georgia, born and raised,

and it is like a country town.

Growing up in Bowman, Georgia,

it's fun, it's small.

Not everybody around.

Everybody know everybody.

My time in Georgia really went by fairly quickly, honestly,

but my hometown was 30 minutes away.

Literally like a straight shot.

Take a left turn, you there.

If I needed to go home and do anything,

I could go home, go see my mom.

See my pops, see anybody of that nature.

And so it was good.

And when family wanna come to the game,

it was easy for them to get to the game.

It wasn't far away.

Declaring for the draft was, I don't say it was hard.

I always told myself

like I wanna do three years in college and go.

Kind of knew that I was gonna go second round.

So kind of get everybody together,

had like a little get together.

That's when I got the phone call from Veach,

you know, and he told me what it was and, you know,

just enjoyment from there.

Signing the contract that change your life is crazy

to think about

'cause come where I'm from, you know,

financially being stable and everything

really wasn't a thing.

Paycheck to paycheck

you know, or, you know, we gonna be able to do this

or are we gonna be able to pay this.

You know, I'm not saying that, you know,

growing up that way was like hard,

but it was, you know, at time difficult and frustrating.

So whenever you get a chance to, you know,

kind of like change your life overnight,

it was a great feeling to sign that paper,

and knowing like, you know, things gonna be different

from here on out.

Very, very emotional moment.

You can see the details of my rookie contract here.

So we talked about how I made my first million dollars.

Let's talk about how I spent my first million dollars.

[electronic music]

First thing I did was I bought my mama a house.

300 K, house for my mom.

They gave me everything, you know,

just giving us something different,

being able to do that,

I know she felt great about it.

I mean, my dad too though, you know,

my mom and my dad still together.

So I know they both, you know, equally just loved it.

I bought it in a good neighborhood,

good place to be.

So I know I definitely was excited.

She cried.

So obviously, you know, did something right.

[ding]

[electronic music]

Next purchase.

So I got my dad a scat pack Challenger.

I think like 60,000 with some extra work into it.

Then I got my mama since, you know,

she got grandkids and stuff.

I got her like a Durango,

it was like around what?

40, like another 40?

40,000?

Somewhere around there.

Paid for those.

And then myself, I got me a red eye Hellcat

which was a hundred thousand

with additional work put in,

which is like another 30,000.

And then I do have a Jeep, 25,000,

but I put an extra 10 on it,

customization and everything on that.

So that's kind of like the cars that I got.

The interior, all yellow, yellow interior, red stitching.

Got my name and logo on the side of it.

I did that.

Neon lights all around, neon lights in the car,

stars in the ceiling.

To my Jeep, changed the fenders on it, changed the bumpers,

lifted it up like four and a half inches, you know,

22, 22 inches, you know?

Well, my wheels 22? 24? Maybe 24.

Cars.

[ding]

[electronic music]

Another thing I spent a lot of money on was shoes.

Yo, Butler.

Thank you, sir.

Absolutely.

So I always never said I spend a thousand dollars

on shoes, like just a pair of shoes.

I never do that.

So now I probably have 20 pair of shoes

that's probably over a thousand dollars, honestly.

So if that is the case it's like what,

20,000 for shoes,

for those expensive shoes.

And now I have like,

maybe another hundred pair, 200 pair of like

just ones alone.

If you are calculating like all the ones together

like another 10,000 on those.

No, no, no, no.

Probably like another 20,000 on those.

Probably spent about like a total of 40 to 50,000 on shoes.

And I got a lot of shoes.

[ding]

[electronic music]

Couple vacations.

I took a vacation to L.A.

So I got this big old crib, like in Beverly Hills,

like it was like freaking 6,000 a night

or something like that.

It just on some crazy thing.

And I always wanted to go to L.A.

and just go to Beverly Hills and do whatever.

So I was there for like maybe a week.

I spent maybe like 20,000 on the trip, maybe,

just like staying there.

Don't know, don't know why.

20,000 staying there.

And then I went to a couple clubs,

but I think I ended up spending like,

maybe a total of 15, 20,000 in the club one night,

another 20,000, the other night.

It kind of was like just a splurge trip right there.

I think I ended up spending another 10,000 on the chef

that was cooking the whole week.

I had like a lot of people with me.

Then another vacation I went to Mexico.

I think I paid for all exclusive.

Trip was like maybe like 10 people.

So that was like 20,000.

At the time there, going places,

I think I spent like another 10,000.

It wasn't that much, like 10,000.

And that's a couple vacations that I took.

So yeah.

Ooh.

[ding]

[electronic music]

So the rest of this million, I did one dabble,

but most majority I saved a little bit, you know.

When you spend some, gotta save some,

just, you know, for the long run.

[ding]

For guys entering the league,

when you make money, look,

I know it's gonna be overwhelming.

Like you feel like you get anything in the world,

but just know, it don't last long.

And the more you spend, the more you just see it,

you know, it goes down fast.

So I think you,

the best thing you is to get you a financial advisor

that you trust,

budget very well,

and you'll be just fine.

Appreciate all y'all for watching this.

Thank y'all for tuning in.

Gonna catch y'all next time.