Professional Athletes and Seasonal Custody Schedules
For professional athletes, your life does not follow a standard calendar. Half the year may be spent training, traveling for games, or living in another city during the season. The other half may finally bring you back home with more flexible time. That rhythm is part of your career, but it also brings unique challenges when it comes to raising children. If you are going through a divorce, paternity matter, or otherwise establishing parenting rights or a time-sharing schedule, you need a process that respects your schedule, your privacy, and your children’s well-being.
Why Florida’s Standard Parenting Plans Often Fail for Professional Athletes
Typical custody schedules assume both parents live in the same area with relatively predictable routines. They rarely account for long stretches where one parent is away for work. For athletes, sticking to a week-on, week-off plan is impossible when games, travel, and training dominate half the year. Further, generic parenting plans don’t take into account what happens if you are traded or when you retire from professional sports. Without flexibility and anticipation of future changes, you risk missing meaningful parenting time and leaving your children caught in the middle of scheduling conflicts.
The Collaborative Family Law Advantage
Collaborative Family Law gives you the opportunity to create a parenting schedule that fits your actual life rather than forcing you into a court’s cookie-cutter plan. Instead of letting a judge who doesn’t understand your world decide, you and the other parent work with a team of professionals—including separate attorneys trained in collaboration, a neutral facilitator to manage communication and create a tailored parenting plan, and, when appropriate, a financial expert.
This team approach helps you and your co-parent design a seasonal custody schedule that adapts to the realities of your profession. For example:
- During your season, you may have limited in-person time but more opportunities for virtual contact.
- During the off-season, you may enjoy extended periods of daily parenting time.
- Travel schedules can be accounted for in advance, reducing last-minute conflicts.
The Collaborative process keeps the focus on what works best for your children while respecting the unique demands of your career.
Protecting Privacy and Reputation
As an athlete, your name can attract attention—and the last thing you want is the details of your personal life splashed across court filings that are open to the public. Traditional litigation creates a paper trail of accusations, financial exhibits, and parenting disputes that anyone can access, including the media.
Collaborative Family Law cases are different. The process is private. Sensitive financial and personal details are handled in confidential meetings, not a public courtroom. This helps you protect your reputation, your family, and your children from unnecessary exposure. At the end of the day, a judge will still need to grant parenting rights or a divorce, but what gets filed is greatly minimized, and it can be done in a county far away from your home or team.
Experience That Understands Complex Lives
Attorney Adam B. Cordover has guided many professionals, executives, and public figures through the Collaborative Process. He understands the complexities of high-profile and high-asset cases, including the special demands faced by professional athletes. With years of leadership in the field, he has helped shape Florida’s Collaborative practice standards and regularly trains other attorneys, financial experts, and mental health professionals across the United States and abroad.
When your parenting plan needs to adapt to a professional sports schedule, experience matters.
A Better Way Forward
Whether you are facing divorce, paternity, or otherwise establishing parenting rights, you deserve a process that respects your career, protects your privacy, and prioritizes your children. Collaborative Family Law offers that path. Further, as we have a virtual law practice, we accept clients in every county in the State of Florida.
If you are a professional athlete navigating these challenges, we invite you to access our calendar and schedule a consultation or contact Family Diplomacy: A Collaborative Law Firm by clicking the button below.
You are not alone. We can help.
Adam B. Cordover is an American Bar Association author and recipient of the Florida Academy of Collaborative Professionals’ inaugural Visionary Award for establishing the FACP’s Leadership Institute. Adam is a former Board member of the International Academy of Collaborative Professionals and internationally recognized leader in Collaborative Family Law.
