Overpaid Athletes

Pay Away

The United States of America; the land of opportunity, the land of equality, the land of freedom, and the land where someone can become a multi millionaire from swinging a bat, while the person who is teaching the future leaders of our country is operating on a $60,000 salary. It's a strange thing to comprehend, here is this man or woman who paid their way through at least four years of undergraduate studies and two years of graduate work, making a fraction of what some "kid" straight out of highschool is making just to entertain us. I'm not undermining the athleticism or accomplishments of these athletes but it's simply ridiculous for an athlete to get so extravagantly overpaid when there are so many other things this money could be used for to help our economy as well as others around the world. One person just doesn't need all that money.

Take into consideration Tiger Woods. A few years ago he was the best golfer in the country, and is still arguably the most famous golfer to date. According to Sports Illustrated July issue his salary and winnings come to the sum of $6,370,407. This is money that Mr. Woods has rightfully won from being the best at his chosen craft which is generally understandable. Where it becomes a bit plethoric is when you realize that he has been paid an additional $80,000,000 in endorsements from various sponsors. This is simply incongruous for someone to need that much money. Anyone could live comfortably with a salary of $60,000 and be well off with a salary of $100,000. The real issue isn't even that they get paid so much, it's what they do to get the money that is sickening. Woods is simply playing a game, no may be exceptionally good at this game, but in the end its still a game. There is no purpose, there is no reason other than recreation for the game to be played and yet all this money is given to the players.

Also, in the same article, athletes charities are listed and amounts donated are documented. Of Tiger Wood's $80 million, he donates about $1.5 to the Tiger Woods Foundation which funds the Tiger Woods Learning Center in California and other educa-

tional and youth groups. This is only about 1.9% of his total earnings. He definitely could donate a lot more to charity. No one needs $78 million to live comfortably. It is greedy to keep all that for yourself when other people can't feed their children.

According to Medical Economics the average doctor makes roughly $100,000 annually, a clearly insignificant amount when compared to that of Tiger Woods. Yet it's hard to believe that while doctors are saving lives, Woods is hitting a little ball around trying to get it into a hole. Is that what our nation has come to? Apparently instead of raising my children to study hard and get a good job, I should just put a golf club in their hands and