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Paying Athletes

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Athletes Salaries: Are They Justified?

1. Title of Speech: “Athletes Salaries’. Are They Justified?”

2. Speaker Role/Audience: Student/An Athletic Board

3. Specific Purpose of Speech: To convince my audience that athletes’ salaries are not justified.

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I. Brief Introduction and History of Topic:

$90 million, $80 million. That adds up to a lot of money. Imagine how many mouths you could feed or how many kids could go to college with that money. Unfortunately, $90 million is the contract Nike gave Lebron James before he even touched an NBA basketball. $80 million was his contract extension in 2006 (USA Today).

During the Great Depression of the 1930s, the biggest news in pro sports was Babe Ruth's contract, which paid him $75,000 per year, more than the President of the United States. (Show me the money!) According to the Seattle Times, when confronted about making more than the president, Ruth famously replied “Why Not? I had a better year than him.” Now even the lowest paid pro athletes earn almost as much as the President, who makes $400,000 a year. Later, in 1964, the Saint Louis Cardinals and the New York Jets got in a bidding war over Alabama quarterback, Joe Namath. The Jets came out on top, showing Namath a pretty decent deal. According to Harvey Frommer, sports author, Namath was “signed to a four-year contract at $25,000 per season, plus a $200,000 bonus. Scouting jobs were provided for his three brothers and a brother-in-law at $10,000 a year. A green Lincoln Continental plus other luxury features were included in the deal which totaled approximately $427,000 - a lot of money for that time.”

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II. Primary Argument:

II-a. Claim: I argue that professional athletes are

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