During his 2011 stand up act, Happy Thoughts, comedian and well-known TV personality Daniel Tosh told a joke that went along the lines of, "we got athletes like Randy Moss, and T.O., Terrell Owens. People get upset, you sit on your couch and you say horrible things, 'Oh, hey, buddy why don't you just do your job quit celebrating so much.' His job is to catch a ball; it's really not that serious. I don't care if he gets, in the end, zone and has a 10-minute tea party."
Though this is nothing more than a well thought out joke there is some truth behind it. In their final respective seasons in the NFL, Owens signed a very "affordable" $4 million deal while Moss received a bit less, with only $2.5 million. All of this, mind you while they were 37 and 35 years old. These two men, who are considered old in the world of sports, made a combined $6.5 million in their final seasons to do nothing, but simply catch a ball.
Football, and all other sports for that matter require great physical skill for the possibility of becoming a professional athlete. The fan base and the revenue that these sports bring in is even greater. In 2014, the four biggest professional sports in America -- MLB, NFL, NBA, and the NHL -- brought in over $25 billion in revenue. It is due to this that the athletes of these sports are rewarded so handsomely. In MLB, in particular, the one out of the four main sports that does not set a salary cap for its teams, players are financially rewarded like kings, when in reality they relate much more with a jester. Professional athletes are nothing more than entertainers -- plain and simple. They offer nothing of substance or of actual use to society besides the ability to entertain the masses.
In the 2015 MLB offseason, the examples of just how overpaid these athletes are is being exhibited left and right. Ian Kennedy, a pitcher with a career record of 75-68 and an ERA of 3.98, is average at best, but he just signed a deal on Jan. 16 for five years at $70 million dollars in total. Only a bit earlier in the offseason, Jason Heyward signed an eight-year, $184 million deal with the Chicago Cubs. The most ridiculous of these contracts may have occurred in January of 2014, when the New York Yankees signed Japanese pitcher, Masahiro Tanaka, to an eight-year $155 million deal before he even stepped foot on U.S. soil.
In contrast to these high paid, high profile athletes the median level of household income in the United States in 2013 was $51,939 according to government statistics. The average salary for doctors and physicians, which is a high paying job in our society, is $164,611.The people who work as doctors, physicians and many of the other jobs that factor into the household income ratio perform jobs that benefit society. Whether it be saving lives, being a bank teller, a chef, or even a part of law enforcement, these people are filling roles that help one another and keep the world going with a purpose, these jobs are essential.
The only thing worse than how grossly overpaid these athletes are is how greatly underpaid they seem to think they are. Even though they're bringing in millions of dollars, we see, over and over again, athletes holding out for more money and bigger contracts. Back in September of 2015, when New York pushed minimum wage for fast food workers to $15 an hour, the public responded with backlash and its fair share of criticism. But why is it when an NFL player, who is already making millions, sits out until he gets a pay raise he is praised with the public exclaiming, "give the man his money!"
Before taxes, evenly split up, the three winners of the $1.5 billion PowerBall would each receive $500 million, a number awfully close to that of which athletes are now being paid. The Miami Marlins dished out $3.25 million to Giancarlo Stanton. With that much money, he can afford 4,676 shares of Google, an Airbus A320neo, or even 3.25 million things from Dollar Tree. Heck, the President only makes a salary of $569,000 which includes an expense, travel, and entertainment account.
Imagine if situations were flipped, and the average man made this substantial type of money and athletes were the ones paid the lower salaries. Local doctor signs a six-year, $100 million deal to be with St. Francis hospital for the foreseeable future. Target trades four employees and cash for two young up and coming stock boys from Walmart or Mrs. Johnson signs an extension with Brookville Elementary to stay there for another four years at $500,000 yearly salary.
Perhaps, this is the problem with the economy and the world we live in. We look up to and reward -- significantly, at that -- those who contribute the least. In the world we live in we undoubtedly need entertainment, but do those who entertain us deserve to make more than the majority of who watches them in their lifetime? Maybe in the not too distant future changes will be made, the playing field will become even, and if we are lucky we may even see in the headlines that a local Odyssey writer signed a multi-million dollar deal.
