Athletes Salaries 13 Essay, Research Paper

It is the Stanley Cup final, the Toronto Maple Leafs are playing against the Buffalo Sabres. With one minute left in regulation time the game is tied at 1-1, the fans are cheering and the anticipation begins to rise as the time on the clock slowly decreases. Steve Thomas of the Toronto Maple Leafs, sees an opportunity and goes for the puck. He skates towards the net of the opposing team yet is slammed into the boards by Satan of the Buffalo Sabres. Steve Thomas slowly skates to the bench and it is evident that he has been injured. The captain of the Toronto Maple Leafs, Mats Sundin steals the puck back from the Sabres. He rapidly skates into the opposing zone and with merely 20 seconds left in the game he shoots and he scores! A sudden burst of screams and cheers emerges and fills the building. The players are overcome with joy as they achieve their lifetime dreams.

Mats Sundin and Steve Thomas are invaluable players to the Toronto Maple Leafs Club. On average they are both getting paid 6.5 million dollars per year. Their skills, determination, and contribution equals their high-paid salaries. In fact, in the past few decades, athletes salaries such as Steve Thomas and Mats Sundin s have escalated and society has started to complain. Yet, only one that is ignorant of professional sports would conclude that these salaries are too high before doing an in-depth analysis of them. Professional athletes should be making millions of dollars due to their public demand, the setbacks of their career, and the hazards that their career poses to their health.

The public s demand for professional athletes is colossal. Professional athletes are paid based on their contribution to fan satisfaction. For example, the owner of the Dallas Cowboys, Mr. Jones profited over $16,000,000 last year, after paying salaries. However, he would have made a much smaller profit without key players such as Emnitt Smith, Troy Aikman, and Michael Erwin due to the fact that they are the major reason why fans enjoy the games (Valasek, 1). The owner understands this and understands the value of his players and pays them accordingly. Fan participation increases the salaries of pro-athletes. The reason athletes are paid so much is because people keep going to the games, watch the games and buy the merchandise they endorse. Without these key players, fewer tickets would be sold, and people would not watch the games on television nor pay attention to the commercials (Felsenfeld, 1). The players know this, and they want to be justly compensated. If one does not want to see athletes get paid millions of dollars then one should stop supporting and participating in the fan endorsements. One is paying athletes exactly what they deserve, and one is paying them exactly what one allows them to earn.

There are many setbacks that come along with the career of a professional athlete. Unlike most careers, the career of a professional athlete is a short one. The average career of a pro-athlete lasts between 10-12 years (Valasek, 1). Since their careers are so short, professional athletes make a lot of money due to the fact that they need to insure their future. The chances of becoming a professional athlete are very slim. It is harder to become a pro-athlete than a brain surgeon or any other highly paid job in today s society (Valasek, 2). For example, while playing basketball Michael Jordan got paid about $90 million dollars per year (Orley, 1). He is the best basketball player in basketball s history and the chances of anyone playing as good as Jordan are almost impossible. Michael Jordan is the best in the world at what he does and any person that is the best in the world at their occupation is making a large amount of money. Since the chances of becoming a professional athlete are so low then it is only logical that a pro-athlete should be getting paid more than a person in any other profession. There are many hardships and disadvantages of becoming a pro-athlete, which contributes to the high salaries that are received.

The career of professional athletes is inherited with danger often having fatal consequences. Athletes put their bodies on the line every time they participate in a game. Most professional sports contain a lot of physical action that can result in serious injury or permanent harm to one s body. In hockey for example, an athlete is tripped, hit against the boards, punched, and slashed with a stick many times throughout a single game (Felsenfeld, 1). Fighting is an element of a hockey game. However these fights can inadvertently lead to serious injuries. Unsafe actions such as those in hockey are also common in many other sports such as basketball, football and baseball. All these sports contain a high risk of injury. Since athletes risk their health in order to play for their team, they are and should be rewarded highly. An athlete s career could end with one accidental or careless act. Even though the typical athlete undergoes many injuries throughout his career, an injury caused by one unintended act could ruin their career. For example, the career of Bryan Berard of the Toronto Maple Leafs, was ruined with the hit to the eye that he accidentally received from the player of the opposing team (Orley, 1). Bryan Berard can no longer play hockey due to the fact that he can hardly see with his left eye. In this type of situation an athlete is left with nothing. The money that he was paid during his career will now have to last him his whole life. The reason why athletes deserve the millions that they get paid and people of other professional do not is because their careers do not contain any hazards that provide them with the need to be insured for the future.

Professional athletes deserve every penny that they make. The effort to please fans put in by athletes is enormous and they should be well compensated for that. Due to the setbacks presented in their career, athletes need the money that they are getting paid to assure them a good life. Athletes should be making millions of dollars because they put their lives and their future at risk for their sport. Athletes are not greedy and love their game. They are smart and realize the consequences of being a pro-athlete. They do not play their sport for money but still deserve the millions of dollars that they receive each year. No amount of money could ever compare to the feeling that the players of a professional team experience when they have reached the ultimate victory that can be achieved in their sport.