Professional athletes put in blood, sweat, and tears to finally “make it” and become successful. They provide entertainment for their fans, and many people genuinely enjoy attending sporting events. However, all athletes’ purpose in society is to entertain their viewers; they do not do much more than that. Athletes get paid unreasonable amounts of money from their contracts. Some even get hooked onto playing their sport due to the amount of money they receive, not because of their passion for the game. This greed can contradict the true purpose of sports and being an athlete. Professional athletes should still be paid, but their salaries should be reduced to a sensible amount.
Although athletes do deserve to be paid for their arduous training and dedication to their sport, their salaries should be reduced. To put the salaries of athletes’ into perspective, Stephen Curry signed a five-year contract worth a whopping $201.2 million (Gaines, 2018). Reality check: athletes do not need that much money to live comfortably. Many families in America live paycheck to paycheck. It is not fair that they may be working harder than athletes on a day-to-day basis and are barely getting by. The 2017 median household income in America was $61,372 (Kurt, 2018). If people in society can manage to get by earning under a million dollars annually, so can athletes.
Some players will get caught up in the money they earn, and this can lead to their performance worsening since they are not as driven anymore. In 2009, former football player Albert Haynesworth signed a contract with the Washington Redskins worth $100 million. His contract is considered to be one of the worst blunders in NFL history. His contract was a blunder because he played “…his worst season ever…” after signing the contract (De Piccioto, 2019). In a letter Haynesworth wrote to himself, he mentioned that playing for the Redskins made him “…lose [his] ‘passion for football'” (Brinson, 2015, para. 2). This supports the notion that some athletes get too caught up with how much they are earning and might begin to lose focus of why they wanted to play in the first place. Money is not everything, and being money-hungry can be harmful in the long run.
Professional athletes are incredibly talented in what they do. Although many of them earn a fortune, being an athlete is not all about the money gained by signing contracts and brand deals. Money can provide stability, but at the end of the day, being content with what you have and having companions who support you and who you trust is also essential. Life is what you make it, and if athletes’ paychecks make them satisfied, so be it. Still, the salary that players earn should be reduced to reflect their value and overall significance to society.
Sources:
Brinson, W. (2015). Albert Haynesworth: Redskins made him lose his’ passion for football’.
Retrieved from https://www.cbssports.com
De Piccioto, E. (2019). Do Professional Athletes Deserve Their Inflated Salaries? Retrieved from
https://www.theperspective.com
Gaines, C. (2018). The 24 highest-paid players in the NBA for the 2018-19 season. Retrieved
from https://www.businessinsider.com
Kurt, D. (2018). What Is the Average Income in the U.S.? Retrieved from
https://www.investopedia.com
I agree that sports players should be payed less. They would lead charmed lives even without the bloated paycheck they receive. Also, I believe that celebrities should be payed much less for the same reason.