Essay --

Josh Roller Period 6 11/23/13 Professional Athletes are Paid Too Much When the average American envisions a professional athlete, they imagine that athlete to be in a massive mansion, with a garage full of expensive and exotic cars, relaxing in designer clothes and spending the day pondering what they could spend their money on. Their lives are great and even after they retire they remain in the country’s spotlight and stay wealthy beyond all belief. Why do professional athletes lead such a good life if they do not fulfill any necessary functions within society? Professional athletes make too much money in comparison to hard working professionals who are employed with jobs that are more essential and important for the general population’s survival and effectiveness. These professional athletes are making huge amounts of money that they do not deserve and something needs to be changed to remove this. Athletes make incredibly ridiculous amounts of money, Forbes Magazine lists Tiger Woods, a professional golf player, as the highest paid athlete in the entire world in 2013 (Forbes). Tiger Woods currently has a net worth of over $500 million, on track to be the first billionaire athlete of all time, and he brings in $78 million annually. The vast majority of the money that Tiger Woods receives is not from winning competitions or as a salary, but rather from endorsements. Tiger Woods is an incredibly marketable athlete and has received numerous contracts with many large companies including General Motors, General Mills, American Express and Nike, Inc. Tiger Woods has only been a professional golfer since August of 1996, creating an astronomical fortune in such a short amount of time. Second to Tiger Woods in yearly earnings i... ...ysical toll they put on their bodies in an attempt to be the best. While this may be a compelling argument, no one needs $500 million to live comfortably for an entire lifetime. Not only are these people overcompensated for the time they spend actually competing in their sports, they can easily take jobs after their short career in sports. Nothing stops these athletes from making a living off of another job after their athletic career is over. These athletes have no true reason to the necessity of them earning so much money. While much of the world loves to watch their favorite sport, they do not approve of how much that they have to pay to do so. These people have demanding and important jobs, but receive no where near as much money as the athletes they watch do. Professional athletes should not get as much money as they currently are in this flawed system.