Big Money For A Certain Player example essay topic

Athletes are amazing human beings. They have incredible strength and durability. They spend hours of time training and preparing all for the sport they love; or is it for the money? Nowadays, in professional sports all the big time athletes have an agent. An agent deals with negotiating contracts, which ultimately determines how much money the player makes.

There are three types of paid athletes: the ones who get paid way too much, the ones who get paid way too little for the job they do, and the ones that have to earn every dollar they make. There is a question that has plagued old men sitting around the barbershop for years: Do pro athletes get paid too much? Owners of teams all around the U.S. spend big money for a certain player that can jump higher or hit the ball harder or complete more passes. Some teams spend most of their salary cap, a set amount of money they can pay all of their players put together, on one player, leaving the rest of the team to be paid little to nothing compared to other players. Now, the players that are paid a lot of money do make outstanding plays on more than one occasion, but are a few good plays worth millions of dollars? Another reason an owner would pay "the big bucks" to a player is for publicity.

If a team has one player that a lot of fans will pay to come see, total revenue goes up and the owner can then bring in more high caliber players, thus making his team better. But this overpaid player sometimes means all the other players get paid way too little. The underpaid players, such as baseball's bullpen or football's and basketball's second-string players, are just as capable of playing at the pro level and succeeding. An offensive lineman's average yearly salary is often less than a star quarterback's monthly salary or, in some cases, per game salary. Yet, the star quarterback wouldn't be great if he had no line to block for him. These athletes are underpaid for different reasons.

Maybe his agent didn't work hard enough for him to get him 53.2 million over 4 years, or maybe he didn't get as much playing time while he was in college or minor leagues, to where he could get the level of recognition a player needs. Whatever the reason, he is still capable of being successful at the pro level. Look at Kurt Warner, quarterback for the St. Louis Rams. He had a job bagging groceries to support his family just two years before he led his team to the Super Bowl. So, often, an athlete's skill level does not equal his salary. Then you have the athletes who have to earn what they make.

They compete in a sport because they love it, not for the money. Although they sometimes do get paid a lot of money, they have to earn it. These athletes get paid when they perform well. A good example of this kind of athlete is NASCAR drivers. NASCAR drivers get paid according to how well they finish in a race. They also earn money from sponsors who give them quite a bit of money to use their products or put their logo on the side of the car.

But the only way a driver can get sponsors is to finish in the top week in and week out. Boxers, tennis players, and golfers are also athletes who get paid based on performance. These are the real athletes; they play for the love of their sport. Which brings us back to the age-old question: Are some athletes paid too much?

I believe that there should be a set wage for all pro athletes to be paid, and when they perform great in a game or make an outstanding play they would earn a bonus. Now, how much that bonus should be is another question to sit around and talk about for another few decades..