Athletes: Playing for Pay

Should professional athletes earn millions of dollars for playing a game? Athletes should not be making millions and millions of dollars while more important jobs earn significantly less. There are doctors who save lives daily and they do not even make a tenth of what some athletes make. It is crazy to believe that someone is really worth hundreds of millions of dollars, and all they have to do is play a sport; a sport that millions of people would play for free if given the chance.

Where does all of this money come from to pay these superstar athletes? It comes from the fans. The same fans that cry when their team loses, celebrates when they win and pay six dollars for a beer and seven dollars for a deluxe hot dog at their team’s game. Ticket prices continue to go up every year. How fair is it for the fans to pay at least $100 to go see a game and watch their favorite player jog out a ground ball or not play their hardest, or a player misses a game because they are “sick or injured.” If a hard working person missed a couple days a month because they were sick or hurt, they would be fired without a doubt. In the case of athletes, they go on a two week paid vacation, otherwise known as the 15-day disabled list.

How much money does someone really need to be able to eat daily, have a house, and provide for their family? All of this can be accomplished with an income between $40,000 and $50,000. The average American household generates roughly $51,000 (Noss). A person has to roughly work thirty years before they can retire, which nets them a career earnings of $1.53 million. Some people might not think that is terrible, but they have not looked at the income of a professional athlete. The average NBA player makes roughly $5.15 milli...

... middle of paper ...

... perfect and commit crimes and things of that nature?

Works Cited

Noss, Amanda. "Household Income: 2012." American Community Survey Briefs. N.p., n.d. Web. 9 Apr 2014.

Doyle, Frank. "Visualizing the Yearly Salary of Professional Athletes." How to Make Money in Pro Sports. Huffington Post. Web. 9 Apr 2014.

Lefebrve, Matt. Professional athletes are overpaid and selfish. Quinnipiac Chronicle, 1 Apr 2006. Web. 9 Apr 2014.

"Physician: Salary." Salary Outlook. U.S. News. Web. 9 Apr 2014.

Staff, ed. "Pro Basketball." LeBron James hits jackpot with endorsement deals. USA Today, 22 May 2003. Web. 9 Apr 2014.

Badenhausen, Kurt. "LeBron James' Endorsements Breakdown: By The Numbers." . Forbes, 01 Jan 2014. Web. 9 Apr 2014.

"2011-2012 Average Starting Teacher Salaries by State." National Education Association . National Education Association , n.d. Web. 9 Apr 2014.