Gage Meyers
Mrs. Byers
Comp. 1-4
15 April 2014
Athletes Do Not Deserve What They Are Paid
It would be great to make 31.3 million dollars a year. Adding an additional 47 million dollars in endorsements for simply playing a game that an athlete loves. Michael Jordan, along with several other professional athletes, think getting paid millions of dollars is perfect. In the 1996 season, after playing 3,106 minutes, Michael Jordan made 170,000 dollars a day which is the equivalent of 160.97 dollars a second (Christian Science Monitor). Another unbelievable statistic is Mike Tyson's earnings in his match with Peter McNeeley. In a single second, he made 281,000 dollars (Christian Science Monitor). Alex Rodriguez will be paid $29 million this season, making him the highest paid player in baseball (Newsday). Rodriguez’s salary is $4 million more than the entire 25-man roster of the Houston Astros will make this year (Newsday). Athletes do not deserve all that money. President Obama’s salary is 400,000 dollars. President Obama is the leader of the ‘United States of America, and he is paid less than a professional athlete that sits on the bench in any professional sport. Professional athletes are easily the most over paid job in America.
Professional athletes are overpaid in several professional sports. Professional sports generate massive revenues, and the athletes who play these sports are being paid tremendously high salaries. New York Yankees baseball star, Alex Rodriguez, signed a contract in 2008 that includes him being paid $275 million over the next ten years (Newsday). Many other baseball, football, and basketball superstars have multi-year contracts worth more than $100 million. Because teams within a league must compete with each other to attract the best players, some professional sports leagues started to impose salary caps in the 1990’s. A salary cap is a limit on