Former NFL offensive lineman Russell Okung took a big risk when he made a special request for how his salary should be paid when he signed with the Carolina Panthers, but it worked out wonders for him.
Okung is a Super Bowl champion with the Seattle Seahawks and two-time Pro Bowler who was a widely heralded prospect coming out of Oklahoma State University in 2009.
The Seahawks selected him sixth overall and he quickly became one of the best players in the league at his position.
But toward the end of his career, after stops with the Denver Broncos and Los Angeles Chargers, Okung made a special request for his final contract when he signed with the Carolina Panthers after a trade.
Okung revealed that he had asked the team to pay him half of his $13 million salary in Bitcoin, and it paid off.
Russell Okung made the decision to collect half of his 2020 salary in Bitcoin, and it worked for him
Okung won a Super Bowl with the Seattle Seahawks, but he’s also a winner off the field.
The team accepted Okung’s request and the current value of his Bitcoin wallet is believed to be worth the equivalent of around $20 million.
Of course, when the currency bubble was going through a rough patch in 2021, no one would have blamed Okung for trying to shut it down.
But she stayed strong, posting on her Twitter account: “They won’t laugh, but they will cry later.”
‘Money is more than currency; it is power,” Okung told CNBC in 2020. “How money is handled from creation to dissemination is part of that power.
“Getting paid in bitcoins is the first step in opting out of the corrupt and manipulated economy we all live in.”
“When we all get paid in bitcoin, no one will be able to tell us what to do with the value we create… In a post-fiat world, you won’t have to worry about your work and time being stolen.”
Okung spends a lot of time on social media trying to convince other athletes to follow him.
Okung retired from the NFL in 2023 after not having played a snap since the 2020 season.
Nowadays, he spends his time on social media promoting Bitcoin and trying to encourage other athletes to follow in his footsteps.
“It’s strange how the NFL spent millions teaching us how not to go broke, but the billionaire owners never shared how to build wealth.” The only thing I did was buy bitcoins, now we are making history,’ the former lineman posted on X, formerly Twitter, on Monday.
It’s unclear if Okung ever plans to convert some of his coins into cash, but for now, it looks like the lineman hopes to ride the Bitcoin train all the way.