We often think of sports as an escape: an escape from our problems, an escape from the normal, an escape to the past, and an escape to our dreams. Sports gives us many things like hope and courage and inspiration, and many people use it for a main source of their joy. Likewise, sports is also an escape from boredom and a major contributor in the entertainment industry. It is the latter that makes the sports world vastly different from the rest of the world. As many sports figures and commissioners have openly stated, the professional sports leagues are first and foremost a source of entertainment. It is the reason there are rule changes in baseball to quicken the games and amendments to NFL rules like moving the extra point back to make it more enticing for fans to watch. It is because of these changes and the focus on entertaining the general public that the sports world is bursting at the seams with cash.

The four big professional sports leagues, for example, have generated an unparalleled amount of revenue and income that leaves many fans in bewilderment. In a classic case that seems to be becoming more and more popular every season, Dallas Cowboys’ wide receiver Dez Bryant was faced with negotiating a new, long-term contract or being franchise tagged for the upcoming season. Bryant openly expressed his disinterest in being franchise-tagged, which would have paid him $12.823 million for the entire season. He was so displeased with the lack of progress on his new deal and the fact that he may be franchise-tagged that he told the Cowboys and the media that he would sit out regular season games until his deal got done.

Bryant is a vital part of the Cowboys’ offense, so sitting out games would definitely hurt the Dallas ball club, but it would come with a loss for Bryant as well. For every game that Bryant would’ve missed under his franchise-tagged deal, he would’ve missed out on $754,000. Bryant was actually willing to forego $754,000 per game, reportedly, in order to make a statement and gain leverage in the contract negotiations. Although he was negotiating for the value he has brought to the team and trying to find some security in his contract just in case he got injured this season, he was willing to give up millions of dollars. No worries though, Bryant and the Cowboys agreed to a five-year deal worth $70 million, of which $45 million is guaranteed.

In another eye-opening story, Dallas Mavericks’ owner Mark Cuban was fined during the NBA’s free agency moratorium for publicly discussing the looming contract specifics on Deandre Jordan’s move to the Mavs. As we all know now, Jordan decided to go back on his word and spurn the Mavs for his previous team, the Los Angeles Clippers, making this fine sting a little more. The fine for Cuban was $25,000 for his actions, which will total approximately $2 million that Cuban has been fined by the NBA since he bought the Mavericks.

Although $25,000 may sound steep to most, it’s barely anything to Cuban. By calculating what $25,000 means to Cuban and his net worth of $3 billion according to Forbes, I was able to find out the equivalent dollar amount to the average 56-year-old American (Cuban’s age). By using the source USNews, I was able to find that the 50th percentile net worth for an American between the ages of 55 to 64 was $144,200, meaning it would be a fine of $1.20. This brings up the question of not knowing which is worse: the fact that Cuban was fined over 17 percent of an average 56-year-old American’s net worth for telling the world that Deandre Jordan was going to be paid $80 million or that $25,000 means nothing to him.

Now, I know he is an owner and that money does not directly tie to his ownership with the Mavs, it is a league-sanctioned fine and money that the NBA will receive. Giancarlo Stanton of the Miami Marlins, on the other hand, has made his money through his career in Major League Baseball. Last year, the Marlins and Stanton agreed on a record-breaking deal that will pay Stanton $325 million over the next 13 years. This is a staggering number and it shocks everyone when they first see it or hear it, but it is when you break down what $325 million really means until you get the full effect of how lucrative this contract truly is.

Stanton will make $68,449 per day for the next 13 years. The national average wage index in the year 2013 was $44,888, meaning Stanton is making a considerable amount more per day than the average American is per year. Broken down by Sportsnaut, Stanton will make $17,147 per inning if he plays all 162 games and all nine innings of each game for the next 13 years (an inning in baseball usually takes less than 20 minutes). Similarly, based on Stanton’s passed at-bats, Sportsnaut was able to project an estimate of 7,600 at-bats over the next 13 years for Stanton, meaning that he will make $42,673 per at-bat. Probably just as alarming is that this contract outweighs the GDP for multiple countries including Tuvalu, Kiribati, and a few more.

I could write about many more instances where the money in sports is in a league of its own, like how being a practice squad player in the NFL makes a minimum of $6,300 a week while the President of the United States makes approximately $7,692.30 a week. Our country’s commander-in-chief makes a little more per week than men that never see the field, or even a jersey, which speaks volumes that I had to go to the salary of a practice squad player to find a somewhat close comparison to the President of the United States.

With everything that I have already mentioned and the many more circumstances that support this idea that professional sports may be using monopoly money to pay these athletes, I will leave you with one final thought. For many of these top-paid athletes, their big contracts and salaries acts as their secondary income as they get paid extremely well to do endorsements. Rob Gronkowski, tight end for the New England Patriots, made a statement earlier in the summer that he hasn’t touched the money he has earned with the Patriots. All the money he has spent has come from the endorsements he has done. Gronk has made a little more than $16.3 million in the five years he has played in the NFL.