Over Paid Athletes

Anthony Lofton

English 1013

4 April 2005

Argument

I believe professional athletes are overpaid. These athletes are making millions of dollars to have fun and play. They are getting paid to do what elementary kids do every day. Professional athletes are should be paid about sixty to ninety thousand a year. The reason I say this much is because they are at a professional level and have worked hard to get to that status. In theory, professional athletes are overpaid because the U.S. is more focused on entertainment value in today's society, rather than important issues like employment or cancer. First, the commissioner for all the sports should lower all of the salary caps for the players. Next, all of the athletes should be placed on a merit system. Meaning if the athlete is making 12 million dollars and there performance or statistics (such as shooting percentage, rebounding, or rushing yards), decrease by 20% or more, that athlete should have a pay cut. Also, when the athlete performs and does what he or she was employed to do, the athlete should be considered for a raise. Then, once this has been accomplished, the athlete will have worked for his paycheck and appreciate the hard work and dedication that he or she has committed. One summer in July in the city of Copperas Cove, Texas, I was just getting off of my $5.65 an hour job at Blockbuster Video. I sat down to watch television with my niece. I got the remote and turned the TV to ESPN. I watched 18-year old Lebron James accepts a 90 million dollar contract from Nike. As a result of this, I believe professional athletes are overpaid and should be paid at least 60 thousand a year starting off.

This is an issue that affects low income families the most. By "low income" I mean the families who struggle to put food on the table for them and their kids. This issue has started from the first time an athlete was put on T.V. or has agreed to some kind of endorsement. All a person would have to do is to turn on their television or open a magazine to see a multimillionaire athlete holding deodorant or Viagra. One of the causes of this issue is all the media exposure these players get. This comes form that player winning a championship or simply changing teams. If my claim is accepted there will be more money circulated to lower families and could set certain amount of equality between the worlds. This claim should be sought out because it gives the athletes more to work for and appreciate there paycheck. This issue is better than giving the athletes more money because, this will give kids in the future more to work for than just play sports.

Furthermore I would like to illuminate the meaning of the word athlete. In my opinion an athlete is someone who subjects themselves to physical activity for a group or team. According "Webster's Dictionary", an athlete is a kind of a person that is a intern in the entertainment industry. In other words this person is getting paid by private or public organizations to play a recreational sport or activity. Also another word I would like to clarify is the word over-paid. The word overpaid