Why Are Professional Athletes Overpaid

Ava Kraft

Mrs. Conn & Mrs. Ehlen

English Language Arts

April 4th, 2017

Are Professional Athletes Overpaid? Alex Rodriguez, also known as A-rod, is one of the highest paid players out there. He makes 275 million dollars over the course of 10 years. What can one person do with all this cash? Do athletes deserve their pay? It seems society values sports more than health care. Think about it this way, if someone had a doctor’s appointment today and tickets to a game today, which one would they go to? They most likely would go to the sports game because it is more enjoyable. What would most people do?

In today’s world, there is still a debate as to if professional athletes are overpaid or not. Each person has a stance on the topic. Although

When people go to professional sporting events they are paying a portion of athlete’s salaries between the food, the ticket, and betting on their team. Douglas points out that athletes can’t be paid their millions of dollars if we do not watch them so then the case is brought up: we as a community put value on sports and that is why they get paid millions of dollars a year. Fans continue to show up to games and the athletes make money. “As long as those fans continue to show up or tune in,… the players deserve every penny they get” (Anastasia). If no one showed up to the games athletes would not deserve their pay. Clearly, the society puts value on sports, this is where their supersized salaries come

It depends. The average household income in 2015 was $55,775 while Michal Jordan one of the greatest players of all time was paid 33,000,000 dollars. That is a 32,944,225-dollar difference. 32,944,225 dollars is an impeccable amount of money to be paid for one season. The best paid athlete is still a question, but the highest is no question at all. Whoever is the highest paid will most of the time be topped, and there is no doubt about it. “The Major-League Baseball team recently gave slugger Giancarlo Stanton the largest contract in North American sports history: $325 million over 13 years” (Anastasia). On the other hand, many retired athletes are incapable of doing many things because of their sport. “In fact, many retired athletes have chronic health problems because of the strain put on their bodies. Retired New York Jets wide receiver Wesley Walker told Newsday that he suffered so much nerve damage and muscle loss as a result of playing football that today he can barely open a water bottle” (Carro). With many other athletes, Wesley Walker is incapable of doing things we take for granted daily. Athletes are underpaid because of the damage done to their bodies also because of the lifelong health problems caused by their