Although salaries of today’s professional athletes ought to be enough for them to live on long after they stop playing the game, it has not always been so.

Not content to sit on the sidelines and enjoy retirement, yesterday’s local stars have pursued a number of business ventures after hanging up their cleats, skates, or sneakers.

For many still attached to the game, their next step was a huge leap. The ranks are legion of former pro athletes working in sports broadcasting and as celebrity pitchmen or women. It’s a natural follow-through after a life devoted to athletics and a life that brought public adulation and celebrity cachet.

“They’re comfortable talking about the game,” said Maury Gostfrand, a broadcasting agent with sports management company RLR Associates Ltd. in New York. “Their whole life, since they’ve been a child, has been about, say, basketball.”

Among those who now are paid to talk about what they used to get paid to do are Marcus Allen, Howie Long, Tim McCarver, James Worthy and Barry Melrose.

Broadcasting, coaching and pitching products make up the outer ring of what David Carter, a principal with the marketing firm the Sports Business Group in Redondo Beach, said are the “concentric circles around the industry.”

“The athletes try to stay close to the sport,” Carter said. “So many athletes aren’t academically prepared to take another business on when they retire.”

Inside a television booth or perched in front of a TV camera guzzling a can of soda or extolling the virtues of a car is where the ex-athlete is expected to be. The boardroom, the power lunch or the courtroom, on the other hand, is less expected.

Still, that’s where you might find former USC and L.A. Rams quarterback Pat Haden.

Calling different plays

Haden, a partner in downtown L.A. venture capital firm Riordan, Lewis & Haden, oversees a $100 million investment portfolio.

“I never viewed myself as just a football player,” Haden said. “I wanted to do something productive for a long time.”

Haden is among a host of former local athletes who have found success in other arenas once the final whistle blew.

Others include former USC star and All-Pro defensive back Ronnie Lott, who started investment group Champion Ventures with former teammate Harris Barton. Wayne Gretzky and Mario Lemieux have bought NHL franchises and Earvin “Magic” Johnson has commercial real estate and movie theater interests.

Other local stars who’ve had successful transitions are Fred Dryer, the former defensive end for the New York Giants and L.A. Rams, who ended up on television for several years as hard-nosed cop “Hunter;” Bill Goldberg, who played briefly with the Rams and Atlanta Falcons and is now a popular professional wrestler; USC legend J.K. McKay, who is general manager of the Los Angeles Xtreme of the XFL; and former Angels star Rod Carew, who is the hitting coach for the Milwaukee Brewers.

Others who’ve found life in business after ball are Rams Super Bowl quarterback Vince Ferragamo, a real estate professional in Southern California; and Hall of Fame Angels fireballer and Advil spokesman Nolan Ryan, who lives in Texas where he raises cattle and pushes Nolan Ryan’s Tender Aged Beef to supermarkets.

There was a time when pro athletes had to find something to do during the offseason to supplement their pay. As salaries increased, many still found their sports income was not enough to retire on once their playing days were through. Haden said the most he earned in a year as a pro was $250,000. Hardly chump change, but not enough to retire on after a seven-year career in pro ball, either.

That need for income drove the likes of Haden and former NBA great Len Elmore to law school.

Delegating to others

Elmore a multitasking phenom who has been a partner in a law firm, a television sports analyst, sports agent and now head of new-media company Pivot Productions Inc. said that today’s huge sports salaries do not necessarily mean that fewer athletes will be pursuing business careers after their playing days are over. But it could mean that more pro athletes will be merely investing their money in businesses, and letting others make the decisions.

“I believe you may see more athletes involved in business, but not as the architect or the engineer driving the train,” Elmore said. “My fear is that a lot of guys are going to end up getting taken.”

That’s where a firm like Lott and Barton’s could play a role. The Menlo Park company specializes in investing pro athletes’ money.

Carter, the strategic marketer, said the exploding salaries and increasing celebrity in professional sports will give athletes more clout when they leave the arena.

“As the money in sports has gotten bigger, the opportunities have gotten far more vast,” he said.

Carter said many athletes have found success after athletics, but ex-jocks such as Haden and Elmore are leagues beyond their peers.

That might not be the case if the pay scale during their playing days had been at today’s stratospheric level. Haden said he always knew he was going to have to do something to put food on his table after he called his last play.

“I probably still would have gone to law school,” he said. “Would I have gone and practiced law? I don’t know. I probably would have done something in public policy or more philanthropic.”