Professional Athletes Are Overpaid

Athletes are talented human beings but are they worth the millions that they are paid? Male athletes are among the most highly paid people in the world. Especially in basketball and football, every player is enormously paid. Though economics is the key to understanding why these athletes earn such tremendous salaries, still, it fails to explain why they actually do deserve it. Giving athlete’s high wages does not only distort them, but also bring downfall to clubs and the country’s economy. The growth and the development of a sport maybe reflected from the wages of the athletes and that is all it does.In conclusion, Team owners pay more to keep athletes on the team to be a winning streak, but whether the drive to win is justifiable remains in doubt. Giving these athletes high wages does not only distort the players, but it also bring downfall to clubs, the country’s economy, and even to the game itself. A normal, typical professional basketball player makes more money playing for only fifteen minutes of a game than a professor can make in the whole year. In addition, that player may perform badly and his only discipline is less playing time.He still receives the same amount of money despite how much he plays, while people Who have the â€Å"real† jobs has to perform well or else they will be dismissed from their place of work. This spoils some athletes and makes them believe that they are special and are above the law. An example of a â€Å"spoiled† athlete is Patrick Ewing, a basketball player who is making millions of dollars per year. He once makes a very absurd comment that said, â€Å"With the money I’m making now, I can’t afford to support my family. † In addition to spoiling the athlete, high wages also cripple the football club itself.For example, the Italian football league, with millions of watchers and viewers, used to be called, â€Å"the greatest league on the planet. † However, they ar e suffering from giving players too much money than they deserved. Up to this date, the clubs in the league face numerous and countless amounts of debts. Many clubs have gone bankrupt and forced to be sold out. In addition, many clubs have quickly gone from thrilling and successful to boring and troubled. Moreover, the football game itself has been disturbed. The pressure to win at any cost means the absence of coaches and ways for new ones.Few coaches are allowed to stick with a club long enough to build a solid, unified team. Many coaches are forced to play a defensive style because playing an open game with risks of losing is not as important as playing for a tie and a job security. The result is hideous and tedious football. In Italy does this not only happen, but also even to the most successful league today, the English premier league. In the summer of the year 2003, a Russian oil-tycoon, Mr. Roman Abramovich, bought an English football club, Chelsea, for one hundred million p ounds.In addition, three hundred million pounds were paid on clearing debts, another one hundred-eleven million pounds for buying new players for the club and of course, outrageous wages for players. Take into consideration that the price of winning the premiership is a measly 15 million pounds, so is it worth buying a club for mil In today's society, many will argue whether or not professional athletes are overpaid. In the present time, athletes are being paid phenomenally large amounts of money for their entertainment.It is my claim that all professional athletes are overpaid because they do not offer society an essential function that improves or enhances our world in comparison to other professionals such as medical doctors, lawyers, and teachers. Society does not value entertainment enough to warrant such high salaries such as those of many professional athletes. There is no reason that these athletes should demand these tremendous amounts of money. This is why you have to put into question their reasoning for demanding such high salaries.When addressing the value of entertainment, there is without a doubt, that we as a society value entertainment highly. Nevertheless, there is no reason that these athletes, who are here merely to entertain us, are paid higher wages than those that save our lives and teach us such as medical doctors and teachers. I find it ridiculous that players make millions of dollars a year, and yet demand more. The entertainment that these athletes provide is solely entertainment; it is not essential to the function or productivity of society.If I were to become a professional football player, I would not complain about my salary for many reasons. I am playing the sport that I love and being paid for it. The minimum wage for football is well over $100,000 a year, as is for many professional sports. These reasons by their lonesome are enough to warrant that the salary professional athletes are paid is suffice. Athletes are paid large amounts of money. It can also be argued whether or not these large sums of money have somewhat â€Å"spoiled† these athletes into settling for nothing less then what they think is a sufficient contract.In an article from the New York Times Patrick Ewing quotes â€Å"with the money I'm making now I can't afford to support my family. † (E13). This comment is ridiculous; there is no way that a multi-millionaire should have a problem supporting their family. These athletes have to set their priorities logically and realistically, a person does not â€Å"need† a multi-million dollar estate they just want one; this is what angers me. Another aspect that can be touched upon is whether they respect the people who provide their paychecks; those being their fans.Athletes argue that they are role models for children and endorse products. This is true, but it is what goes along with the job. I would be prodding if I knew that billions and billions of young impressionable ch ildren wanted to be just like me. You should not have to be paid to be a role model, there is no reason that one should be negative, commit crimes, and do â€Å"bad† things regardless of you being an athlete or not. It should be an honour to be praised and loved by billions; this is why I feel the reasoning of the professional athletes that demand higher wages are illegitimate. .Although sports are a major contribution to our society’s source of entertainment, it is not essential. Medical doctors and teachers, who are essential to the development of our society, do not demand outrageous pay; they can be described as underpaid people. The fans of these athletes are the means of which their paycheck is provided. Some of these overpaid athletes do not respect their fans, so why should they demand higher pay when they do not respect the provider of their 0paycheck. Athletes are role models, this is true, but there are many other societal figures that are role models.I feel that every person should try to be a role model, and inspire the younger generation to be successful. Professional athletes also endorse items such as sneakers, clothing, etcetera; but they chose to do so, it is not forced upon them. The athletes that do endorsements make money from the products they endorse, thus adding to their income. These athletes cry poverty, meanwhile they have various sources of income, and it is just ridiculous. Athletes do have to endure injuries, but that is the risk they have to take when they decide to play a professional sport.They should have acquired other skills that will enable them to enter another profession if they are injured while participating in a professional sport. Athletes have higher standards of living by choice; if for example, a single parent can raise three children on an inadequate salary, there is no reason an individual cannot survive on well over 100,000 dollars a year. I am not saying these athletes should lower their standards to be equal with the level of an indigent, but they should be realistic when saying they cannot survive on several millions of dollars per year. In conclusion, my proposal to this problem is arbitration.Not all of the professional athletes demand outrageous contracts. In many sports, there are already salary caps, which will help remedy this. The athletes have to agree to settle for less and in compensation a possible retirement plan or some form of benefits should be assembled. The only athletes that I truly disagree with are the ones that cannot differentiate between â€Å"needs† and â€Å"wants†. Luxuries are wants, and necessities are needs; if they could settle for less (yet still reasonable) money they would avoid lockouts and holdouts, and continue to entertain our society, which is their whole purpose.The American lifestyle is one in which one is encouraged to obtain as much success as they are willing to pursue. Athletes for example, are earning millions of d ollars a year to perform what many people consider being hobbies or leisure activity. Gone are the days where one played for the â€Å"love of the sport. † Instead, athletes are constantly searching for a new outlet to earn a profit whether it is deserved or not. These individuals are earning nine figure salaries, yet such a contract has become a common procedure and the public has accepted this as reasonable.Unfortunately, the salaries of athletes have become outrageous and beyond the point of just enough to live comfortably. Hitting a baseball three hundred feet does not justify owning ten million dollar mansions on each coast of the United States. Therefore, there should be a system implemented in which professional athletes are limited to a specific salary depending on their performance. Their salary cap can then be adjusted to earn more or less, if one’s production has increased or declined. While the probability of this occurring is uncertain, there is at least o ne certainty.Athletes are some of the most overpaid individuals today in modern society. If athletes truly deserve the money, they make, then why are other professions helping the lives of others and yet make only a small fraction of these gifted men and women. Doctors, police officers, and teachers spend their careers saving lives or educating future generations who will â€Å"hopefully† accomplish great things themselves. Yet, they earn measly paychecks and have few benefits or days off. Athletes would not be half of their potential without a coach or teacher to educate them towards peak performance.An athlete is being paid for entertainment and audience turnout. This has no benefit to others, besides a few hours of reality escape. Somehow, that legitimizes a Nike contract worth ninety million dollars in the sports industry†¦. Every young child who has ever been involved in athletics has dreamed of being a Professional in sports. Why do you think that everyone wants to be a professional athlete? Sure, it is because they get to play for a living. In addition, 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 police officer or firefighter. 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 signs 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 instantly changed from blue collar hard workers To overpaid millionaires. The players might not have changed at all, but everyone’s Perception of them has. They are now expected to make every tackle, get a ba se hit every time and make every jump shot. No one can do this no matter how much money they are Being 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 I cannot get this big money. How greedy are These players when they ask for more money when they are already getting paid 2 million Dollars a year. Ninety percent of the people in this world would give anything to be paid two Million dollars a year. Many people seem to forget that these athletes are doing work That is a game that people played for recreation when they were younger.Sure anyone Admires a man who can hit a baseball 500 feet or can throw a football 75 yards with Incredible accuracy, but should t hese people be getting paid millions of dollars for this. Here is an example of how much some players are being 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 professional sports and to this day still have the Dream of one day playing them, but lets be serious these guys are drastically overpaid In addition, some of the 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 G ame.The richest of the rich in our country are not the hardworking businesspersons anymore, but rather our professional athletes. The salaries of these athletes have grown considerably over the last 20 years who now make obscene amounts for playing a sport. Professional sports athletes should not be paid as much as they now earn. Right now, the President of the United States makes around $200,000 a year. In 1997, in Major League Baseball, the average salary was $1. 4 per year, though that is only the average. Barry Bonds, one of the highest paid in the league, earned $11. in a two-year contract made in 1998. Once again, the President of the United States makes $200,000 a year†¦. not $5. 75 million. Professional athletes create an entire market of supply and demand in the sports obsessed world of some Americans. Teachers, fire fighters and police officers and are jobs that earn salaries of less than $50,000 a year. An athlete is running around playing a simple game, and winning the adoration of fans everywhere while teachers, the most important job above all, receive no respect and barely enough money to live on.Even secondary athletes, not the starters, but the ones you see warming the bench, earn close to what the primary athletes earn, for doing nothing. While the President of the United States is protecting our country, working hard so that we Americans are safe, he is earning a mere $200,000 a year. Is our country worth a meagre $200,000 while our football games are worth $1. 5 million? The athletes’ salaries do not end at their on-field work, but rather with the continuous flow of advertisement and endorsement deals. Spectators have done this to themselves.As they live for sports and create the supply, the demand will always be there for more money. The economy in the sports world is like a never-ending black hole that sucks up everything in its path. As the demand for sports is ever increasing, so will the prices of athletes and sports entert ainment. This high price of talent from athletes causes prices of tickets to rise as well because the sports managers need to bring in more money to feed the greed. At this rate, the only spectators at sporting events will be their fellow athletes. Professional athletes are not overworked and underpaid, but rather under-worked and overpaid.The President of the United States is an example of someone who is overworked and underpaid, not someone who does what they love all day and grosses up to 10 times that of the leader of our country, who defends our liberties so that we are able to have sports at all. Sports will continue to dominate and professional athletes will rule. Spectators create the addiction to sports, and in turn, there will be games to watch and teams to root for. With Thanksgiving football coming near, just remember: is Drew Bledsoe really worth $10. 3 million dollars a year?When our country is in need of millions of dollars, why not take some from the sports-entertain ment business; it seems they have money to burn. Sports athletes are paid outrageous amounts of money to produce the simple entertainment of a game, while the most respected positions in society are robbed of the money that they deserve. Running a country seems to be a lesser duty than kicking a field goal, but if the public wants it, you can watch it. The supply and demand factor will continue as long as the demand is there; but when will our society put an end to this obscenity? Some people complain that professional athletes are paid more.They note that they are paid more that lawyers and doctors who often have many years of formal education. Other people point out that there are relatively few professional athletes compared to the number of members that other professions have and that professional athletes have short careers. Thus, in conclusion professional athletes are overpaid. The issue of whether the professional athletes are overpaid is categorically a perplexing question. Nevertheless, if we look deeper into this question, I believe that the professional athletes do not deserve to be overpaid because of number of reasons that are to be delineated in this essay.Yes, professional athletes are overpaid just like any other professionals such as lawyers, doctors and executives even though they do not have many years of formal education like other professionals from other area of study. Professional athletes are being over paid while hard working Americans are being paid a lot less. Athletes don't offer society anything that will help improve our economy, unlike doctors, the military , firefighters, and other jobs that are needed on an everyday basis. Being a professional athlete is just a waste of time and money.Many Americans believe that athletes are not overpaid; they say that their jobs are harder than ours are and we would not be able to survive [pic] Photo credit: Shirley L. , Chino Hills, CA Author's comments about this article: a day in their sho es. Then you ask yourself this, would someone who plays a professional sport be able to survive a day in your shoes? Do they believe that all of our jobs mean nothing and they are harder? No, we work just as much as or harder than they do. Sports players do not spend their day saving people’s lives from burning buildings, or fighting a war across the world people who believes that athletes are not overpaid there only reason is that they are being paid what they are worth, and how much their contract is worth. If your saying they are paid based on their contract then people whose jobs are more important should have been offered some close or more than their salary. There saying that Americans that have jobs that are needed in today’s society are not worth much at all. If we were to get rid of all the professional sports from being a job, we would not be at wits end, but if we get rid of the jobs that improve ever day life and kept the professional athletes.Then how woul d they get supplies when they get sick who would help them if there house caught on fire or someone broke in, and who would they send over there to fight the war. Professional athletes would not be able to survive in this world and continue doing their job if there was nobody caring for them. Why is it that some children aspire to be a professional athlete? It might be because you have a fun job, but what about the money? The average professional athlete makes over a million dollars a year. That might be why some children want to be athletes.It is unnecessary for someone who plays a game to make that much money (Hoffman, Greenberg, 3). Most parents plan what they want their child to be, so the child grows up liking that not giving any other professional a solitary thought when children are little and they tell you that they want to be a football player or a basketball player. Do you really think that it is for the money, fame or just because it something they like to do. Most childr en see them playing on television and that is the main thing that interest them. They do not get a chance to see all the other hard workers, because they are not worried about being on television.They are worried about doing what is important, stretching the little money they have each day to make sure that there family is fed and taken care of. Hard workers are living pay check to pay check, while athletes are worried about not making as much money as the next sport is making. People are not recognized enough for the jobs they do they way professional athletes are. You might hear about them in the news for a week about what type of tremendous jobs they did of saving thousands of people’s lives, but you never hear about each person individually like you do when some athlete core an unbelievable touchdown, or a slam dunk. If hard workers were making half as much money as pro athletes were than more people would be willing to work at different places all around the world. We wo uld be able to have more job openings. More people would be interested in starting their own business, making a name for themselves somewhere other than in the sports business. Their name will live on, and not die off when your career is over because; you had an injury that made you unable to play for the rest of your life. Where is all the money coming from?The answer is sports fans like you. We pay for the tickets, T-shirts, and apparel of these teams. They can afford to sign new players when they are charging anywhere from $45 to $55 dollars a seat for football and anywhere from $25 to $12 for a basket ball game (direct essay). By paying this amount of money, you are saying that there is nothing wrong with the amount of money they are paying the athletes even though you are not making nearly as much. Sport fans are contributing to the athlete’s paycheck without even knowing it. They might as well be flushing all of their money down the drain.The bad part about it is that i s if pro sports players get a reduction in pay then they will raise all kinds of no =sense saying that they will quit if they don’t get their money. One other thing is that most athletes only do charitable work because it looks good on their half. Do not get me wrong there are plenty of athletes that do good deeds because they have been through just as much as thoughts people are going through now so, they are trying to reach out and let them know that they are there. Nevertheless, that doesn’t give them a reason to get paid more plenty of people who participate in those activates daily that every day.They are just never recognized for them good they do just like fire fighters and police officers as mentioned before. They money that is made at basket ball games and football and any other pro sports should be given to the people who are in need not who are in want. †¢ Professional athletes are exciting to watch, this is no doubt. However, when it comes time to unde rstand and realize how much it is that they make to play the game, whether it be baseball, football and basketball, our heads have to be swimming. This has to be especially true while the United States, if not the world over is in a terrible economic and financial collapse. pic]Granted, we are beginning to see signs that we are coming out of the recession. This only means that the sports team owners and their players are going to continue to make millions more for what they do for only a certain period of time. Professional athletes are well over-paid for what they do. Take baseball for example. Baseball consists of one hundred and sixty games. These games are played between April and October. Granted, some teams go to the playoffs and then two teams battle it out in what we call The World Series. Talking with some people who somewhat like baseball, say, they find it boring.The games can go on for hours upon hours until one team has at least one more run than the other. Most profess ional baseball players, especially those who sign a contract worth ninety million dollars, say for an eight-year run, only perform with a mediocrity that we cannot stand it. So, what do we fans do? We still pay the exorbitant prices of tickets so that we can go and scream and holler to get them to either play better or hope that the umpires get glasses. Professional athletes have to come to a realization that most do not think about. What happens if they are injured? Oh, forgive this writer.They still are paid. What if they are injured and it is a career ending injury? Most still is paid, some do not. Over the years, we have also seen overpaid professional athletes get way over their heads and get caught doing illegal drugs or end up drinking and getting into car accidents or we hear that they have a domestic disturbance because they just cannot handle the success that they have come upon. There are professions out there, which are much more important than a professional athlete is. For instance, there are police officers and firefighters whose lives are on the line each day. They make a mediocre salary.Then there are those who are called soldiers, aviators, sailors, marines and coastguardsmen who put their lives on the line for our freedom and get paid â€Å"peanuts† for doing so. We tend to forget what it is that they do. However, when the ball game comes on television, we cannot wait to make the popcorn, the hotdogs and the apple pie and sit our rear ends down on the couch and again, scream and holler and tell them to go, go, and go. There has to be some kind of overhaul of the professional sports pay plan. If the government can tell us how much we can make when it comes to our salaries, why not tell professional athletes to do the same.Professional athletes are among the most wealthy and well-known people in the United States and around the world. Millions of people for their impressive athletic abilities admire all athletes such as Derek Jeter, Mic hael Jordan, Peyton Manning, and Tiger Woods. Most professional athletes are very talented, dedicated, and very hard workers. However, do they truly deserve all the praise people give them and multimillion dollar contracts simply because they are good at playing sports? Some athletes truly do not, because even while knowing thousands of young boys and girls are looking up to them, they still set bad examples.However, regardless of if they are good role models or not, no one should be paid millions of dollars merely because they are good at playing sports. Most professional athletes worked very hard throughout their lives to end up on the teams they are on today. Then once they make the team, they most likely still work very hard by exercising vigorously in practice and weight rooms, trying their hardest on game days, and doing what they can on a regular basis to improve themselves. Although this takes much commitment and hard, physical work, they do not deserve millions of dollars f or it.This year, the median salary in the NFL is around $770,000 for one season! The Washington Redskins have the highest payroll at $123 million and the New York Giants have the lowest at $76 million. The national average that a teacher makes in one year is $53,000. It is not logical for someone who is playing football, basketball or any other sport to be making hundreds of thousands more a year than a teacher who helps other people on a day-to-day basis. Professional athletes do nothing to improve the lives of others—other than themselves and their teammates when they do their jobs. All they do for other people while on the job is to entertain.Other professions such as a nurse, firefighter, police officer, or teacher help others on a daily basis, possibly risking their own lives, and still do not get as much credit, respect, or money as people who play sports for a living. However, too many Americans, sports and entertainment have a greater priority over these people and th erefore professional athletes are well paid and well known. As a result, professional athletes are treated like celebrities, and unfortunately can get away with doing practically anything. One example was when a NFL player murdered a man and only received an insignificant punishment.In June of 2009, Dante Stall worth of the Cleveland Browns was sentenced to thirty days in jail for manslaughter after making a confidential, financial settlement with the family of the victim. Dante was driving after a night of drinking in Miami Beach and hit Mario Reyes, age 59 while he was on his way to the bus stop after getting off from work. Although this was an accident, it was an accident that was caused by and illegal action by Stall worth. He could have faced up to fifteen years in prison, but because he co-operated and had the money to make a settlement, he was treated differently.Unfortunately, cases like this occur all the time with professional athletes and rich and famous people. It is not fair for people to be treated differently (especially when it comes to the law) only because they are rich and famous. If anyone else in the public, who was not wealthy, had committed the same crime, they would have had to carry out the jail sentence. Something needs to be done to stop these kinds of things from happening because this is not true justice. Also, professional athletes need to be more aware of what they are doing because there are millions of people—including young children—who look up to them.Professional athletes are role models for young boys and girls everywhere and should consider those before they do things they really should not be doing. Several athletes have set bad examples for children by doing drugs, being involved in shootings, taking steroids, and participating in many other illegal activities. One example was when Olympic swimmer Michael Phelps was caught in a photograph of him smoking marijuana. The picture was released three months after he won a record of eight gold medals in the Beijing games and it was broadcasted on the news and online everywhere.Either many young children most likely saw this and were disappointed or it may have encouraged some to try it because they just witnessed their favourite athlete doing it. Although, several professional athletes learn from their mistakes and usually turn them around by correcting their behaviours. Others do not even do anything wrong at all and make great role models for kids. Several professional athletes make great role models by performing well in games, expressing good sportsmanship, donating to charities, and getting involved in their communities.All professional athletes should behave this way because they have such great influences on the lives of other people. Although even if they are great athletes and role models, they still do not deserve to make as much money as they do and they should not be treated differently than the public when it comes to the law. I t is sad that in society today our priorities are so messed up that we give those who play sports for a living, hundreds of thousands more a year than other people who make a difference in the world every day.If we lived in a world without professional sports to entertain us, life would be a little more boring, but we would live on. But if we lived in a world without doctors, firefighters, policemen, teachers, or construction workers, life as we know it would cease to exist. Paying professional athletes as much as we do is ethically wrong and we should give other people such as teachers the respect and payroll they deserve, because they make a difference in the lives of others every day. Would not it be great to make nearly $111 million a year simply to play a game?Many professional athletes, such as Tiger Woods, apparently think so; or else they would not be cashing their paychecks. However, do these athletes really deserve all that money? In my view, not. If you ask me, profession al athletes are making far more than they deserve, and in a society where salaries and wages are traditionally based on the value of one’s work, that seems wrong. I believe a person should be paid according to the job’s economic importance and value to society. Take education, for instance. Teaching is one of the most economically important occupations if you really think about it.Our future economies rely on how well we educate our youth, and yet teachers are paid a mere fraction of what a professional athlete receives. If you were to calculate how much Kobe Bryant is paid for every basket he scores, I am sure it earns him the equivalent of the average teacher’s yearly salary. That is simply outrageous. Yet, some would argue that the teacher only provides service to a single classroom, while superstar athletes like Kobe Bryant are entertaining fans all around the world; bringing them both excitement and relaxation with their athletic exploits.Perhaps those maki ng such an argument are not aware that Kobe Bryant’s salary also dwarfs that of the president of the United States, Barrack Obama, who only makes approximately $400,000 a year. Obama’s critical decisions affect the entire world every day, as he is hard at work trying to revive our nation’s economy and protect our nation’s security, and yet the newest unproven rookie in the NBA will earn more than the president this year. Again, simply outrageous when you really think about it. Moreover, teachers aren’t the only ones deserving of higher wages.Police officers, firefighters, and doctors throughout the country both risk their lives and save the lives of others for a fraction of what many sports, stars make. Those in the military leave their families at home for months at a time to defend and protect our country’s freedoms, knowing they may never return, and all for a pittance compared to what even many scrubs in the NBA make. If you ask me, it i s a shameful that these heroes aren’t given the same recognition by society that is afforded Brett Favre, Michael Jordan, or LeBron James.Do not mistake what I am saying for some sense that these athletes have had it easy getting where they are, either. I fully understand that making it to the pros isn’t an easy thing to accomplish. It takes a tremendous amount of dedication and talent on the part of the athlete, not to mention an incredible number of hours of hard work every day just to earn the privilege. However, in the end, all athletes do is entertain. Is that actually worth the price we pay them?I believe it’s not, and that at the very least, that if these athletes want to continue to reap the rewards of their fame, they must begin to prove they can be positive role models for both future athletes to follow, and the children who grow up admiring and practically worshipping them. They must begin to show that they are more deserving of the fortune that (I be lieve) is unfairly bestowed upon them by our society. How often have we heard about an athlete drinking and driving, using drugs, or sexually harassing some woman?If you ask me, there should be a zero tolerance policy in every single sports league for such behaviour, precisely because they are so highly paid. Simply put, if Alex Rodriguez (or any athlete) believes he deserves to make, as much money each year as he does, then he must also recognize that he should be allowed to cheat and take steroids. This is because if we, as a society allow that, then what we are teaching our children is that it’s okay to use illegal substances such as steroids, because in the long run it will pay off.In order for these high-priced athletes to gain more respect, they will need to have a more significant impact on their communities. They will have to become more involved, and willingly give back in terms of time and resources to those who have made it possible for them to live in such luxury. In addition, a system needs to be put into place that prevents players who have never even really proven their value in professional sports from hijacking teams for all they can get.Now, of course the owners themselves are partially to blame, as they just keep on spending and spending, but something must be done. Take the case of JaMarcus Russell for instance. The former No. 1 overall pick in the 2007 NFL Draft, despite being recognized as being one of the biggest busts in NFL history, will still walk away an incredibly wealthy man. That is because the deal he was given by the Raiders when he came into the league (a six-year $68 million contract) included $31 million in guaranteed money.Simply put, this person did nothing for the Raiders whatsoever, and is walking away a multi-millionaire. Again, that is outrageous. In any job in the real world, if you don’t perform to your employer’s expectations, you’re fired, and there’s no guaranteed money (unless of course you’re the CEO of BP or Enron). Finally, it all comes down to the fact the system of paying professional athletes is broken. They are swimming in money, much of it totally undeserved or unearned, and it needs to stop. When asking people whether they think athletes are paid excessively much money, most agree with me. Do you?