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Sports are an extremely important part of many people's lives, this writer's included. Many people plan their days, nights and weekends around the big games, fights, or matches. There is a huge market for professional sports in America today and in the world for that matter. Basketball has grown by leaps in bounds in Europe and South America over the last decade and with the recent influx to Major League Baseball of players from the Japanese League, Cuba and the Dominican Republic, it is obvious to see that baseball has made a place for itself in the world market. Professional athletes are earning more and more with each passing year and doing less and less to earn it.

Of all the league minimums, league minimum being the least amount a player can make in a year, the National Football League is the lowest being $285,000 per year. The MLB, NBA and NHL round out the major four north American sports at a minimum of $390,000, $427,163 and $450,000 respectively. Keep in mind this is the minimum, these are the players that rarely play and if they do it is at a point in a game where the outcome is already known. Essentially what this means is that a third string quarterback in the NFL who might not throw a single pass in a season during a game will make more than a fire fighter, a teacher and a police officer combined.
When you begin to look at some of the other numbers that these professional athletes earn in a year, it begins to get ridiculous. The average salary for a player in the NBA is an astounding $5,356,000 per year. Assuming this "average" player plays every game, which is very rare, that is $65,317 per game during an 82 game season. The NFL is the most modest in terms of an average salary coming in at a paltry $770,000 per year, this averages out to $48,125 per game, assuming that the player plays every game. Again these figures are mere averages; these are not the most shocking numbers of all.
The elite players, the ones who put people in the stands, the MVP's and the all-stars are where the numbers get out of hand. In 2007, Dwight Freeney of the Indianapolis Colts made $30,750,000. In all fairness, this is not his average annual salary, he signed a contract for 6 years and $72M, but due to bonuses his salary for the '07 season was more than usual. Nonetheless, this is an exorbitant amount of money. Freeney played in only nine games due to an injury earning $341,666 per game played at his salary for the year. Alex Rodriguez of the New York Yankees tops the charts in baseball at $28M each year, Kevin Garnett of the Boston Celtics leads the way in the NBA at $22M, and in the NHL it's a threesome of players at the top spot at $10M per year.
Regardless of the reason for their salaries the bottom line is this; professional athletes make too much money. This article was aimed mainly at presenting the reader with enough information to make that decision on their own. Unfortunately it is not likely to make one bit of difference in terms of solving this problem, but hopefully it has at least made a few more people aware of the issue.


Sources:
www.espn.com
www.usatoday.com

Learn more about this author, Nathan Halfpenny.
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