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Ravens' John Urschel: Big Player, Tiny Car

The second-year guard certainly lives within his means.

By Nathan Beaucage

We've previously covered how awesome John Urschel is here at the Beatdown. Some would call him a mathematician first, and football player second. He's published peer-reviewed papers in math journals, is an avid chess player, and was "very dissapointed" when he only scored a 43 out of 50 on the Wonderlic. His Twitter feed may be one of the best in the league too.

He also drives a very modest car.

The second-year guard is living very humbly, but it's the dream to him.

"I don't think you understand that I'm living the dream," Urschel said to ESPN's Jamison Hensley. "I'm driving my dream car."

The used Nissan Versa hatchback was Urschel's gift to himself after being selected by the Ravens in the fifth round of last year's draft. The poor 'hot hatch' is overwhelmingly small compared to the Ford and Dodge pickup truck behemoths parked beside it. Center Jeremy Zuttah has taken note of the car's small size, and while he understands Urschel's frugality, he's also concerned for his safety. Zuttah even went as far as to look up safety ratings on the Versa. Talk about having your teammate's back.

Urschel certainly isn't concerned about his safety, and loves his sweet ride. He sings praises of his Versa whenever he can.

"It's great on gas. It's surprisingly spacious," Urschel said. "And you know what the best feeling is? You're driving into a parking deck, it's near full and you're on the first level and there is that space that everyone has passed because they said, 'No, we can't park in there.' And I take my Versa and I just go right in there. I'm on the first level, parking lot full and everyone else is parking on the upper deck where the car is getting hot. I'm not even taking the stairs."

If this whole math thing somehow doesn't work out for him, he may have a career as a Nissan salesman after the NFL.

Urschel, who says he lives off of less than $25k per year, was of course very frugal in purchasing his 'dream car'. The purchase cost him a whopping $9k, and the car had only 30k miles on it. Keep in mind that his rookie deal is worth $2.364 million, and he received a signing bonus of $144k. The car purchase amounts to 6 percent of his signing bonus.

Urschel says he's not trying to be frugal, or "accumulate $10 million in the bank," he actually says he has more money than he knows what to do with. Rather, "it’s because the things I love the most in this world (reading math, doing research, playing chess) are very, very inexpensive."

It's very great to see an NFL player differing from the usual stereotypical lifestyle of a NFL player by living within his means. It's quite the anomaly.

As for NFL players' rides, Alfred Morris' 1991 Mazda 626 nicknamed "Bentley" may have Urschel beat for most modest car.

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