Proffessional Athletes Are Overpaid Essay Research Paper

Matt Kelley

Rhetoric

Speech #2

Professional Athletes are Overpaid

Every young child who has ever been involved in athletics has dreamed of being a professional in that sport. Why do you think that everyone wants to be a pro athlete. Sure it is because they get to play for a living. But also they get the big bucks. Why would a person not want to get paid millions and millions of dollars just to play a sport. Many professional athletes are highly overpaid though. When they sign these 20 and 30 million dollar contracts they are getting paid hundreds of times more than a school teacher or even a policeman or fireman. This is ridiculous. They are giving us nothing but entertainment. They are giving us nothing that could help us in the future. When a player sign s a big multi million dollar contract, it seems that it always has a downfall to it. When this happens there is an incredible amount of pressure put on the athlete. Once they are paid the big bucks they are intantly changed from blue collar hard workers to overpaid millionaires. The players might not have changed at all, but everyones perception of them has. They are now expected to make every tackle, get a basehit every time and make every jump shot. No one can do this no matter how much money rhey are getting paid. If players were not being paid so much money then organizations would not have to charge such incredibly high prices for tickets to the games and for concessions. This can also cause turmoil on the team. If a player is making the millions of dollars and not performing the way that he should be, then the player next to him who is performing at a higher level is thinking why can I not get this big money. How greddy are these players when they ask for more money when they are already getting paid 2 million dollars a year. 90 percent of the people in this world would give anything to be paid 2 million dollars a year. Many people seem to forget that these athletes are doing work that Is a game that people played for recreaion when they were younger. Sure anyone admires a man who can hit a baseball 500 feet or can throw a foot ball 75 yards with incredible accuracy, but should these people be getting paid millions of dollars for this. Here is an example of how much some players are getting paid these days. Michael Jordan will make up to $300,000 a game and $10,000 dollars a minute assuming he plays 30 minutes a game. He will also make $52,000 every night he sleeps for 7 hours. Also consider the $40 million dollars that he makes in endorsements per year. He will be making $170,000 a day. That is a little absurd don’t you think. Professional sports have become no more than a human auction where men are bought and sold like inanimate objects. Don’t get me wrong I love wrong I love professional sports and to this day still have the dream of one day playing them, but lets be serious these guys are drastically overpaid and some of the there money should be going to the hardworking every day people. Not to say that these guys have not worked there entire life for where they are now and they should be commended for it, but not by paying them millions of dollars for playing a game.