Moneyball: Are Professional Athletes Paid Too Much?

In 2015, outfielder Giancarlo Stanton signed a 13-year, $325 million dollar contract with the Miami Marlins.  Yes, you read that correctly.  Stanton will be making approximately $154,000 per game, and that is not counting money from endorsements and sponsorships!  This ludicrous deal is hardly surprising, however.  Recent decades have seen athletes’ contracts increase exponentially, and the trend looks set to continue.  The average NBA player makes $6.2 million a year, while the average Major Leaguer earns $4.4 million a year.  To put this into perspective, a neurosurgeon’s average salary is $540,000; a soldier’s: just $99,000.  It does not take a talented reformer to see the wrong in this.  An athlete is being paid significantly more to swing a bat or throw a ball than a doctor is to perform surgery on our most complex, essential organ, or a soldier is to defend our country and freedom.

As an athlete my whole life, I understand first-hand the sacrifice and tireless work it takes to be successful in sports.  I also understand that professional athletes are responsible for the billions of dollars their leagues earn in revenue every year.  For that, I agree that athletes should be compensated generously, but their current pay is bordering on preposterous.  To combat this, professional leagues should implement stricter salary caps.  Doing so would not only limit the amount of money athletes make, but also diminish the pay-to-win approach and make leagues more competitive, thus producing better entertainment for fans.

Even with stricter salary caps, professional athletes would still earn copious, albeit less, money.  Barring an unlikely transformation of societal values, a complete overhaul in compensation for various professions is difficult to achieve, so it becomes pertinent that professional athletes are using their surpluses of wealth and social status for the greater good.  Take David Beckham, for example.  As one of the most well-known soccer players in recent history, Beckham has used his position to create his own charity, work as an ambassador for UNICEF, and support a plethora of other organizations.  Through his work, Beckham has impacted innumerable lives and used his wealth accumulated through soccer philanthropically.  Sadly, this case is a marginal one.  Many professional athletes, in addition to earning too much, irresponsibly waste their wealth through excess spending.  About 80 percent of NFL players file for bankruptcy within five years of retirement.  What is the point of paying athletes so much money when most waste it within years and do not help others with it?  I can think of ten better places to allocate that money before you can say “bankruptcy”.

In short, professional athletes work tirelessly at their crafts, and I have nothing but the utmost respect for them.  That being said, they are compensated too heavily for playing a game, especially when others who play a much more essential role in society earn significantly less.

by Joey Weber