One must wonder if the increased salaries in sports have caused players to forget the reasons why they play professional sports? What happened to playing the game because it was a childhood dream to play at Wrigley Field or Yankee Stadium? Or the dream of hitting the game winning jump shot as time expires to win the NBA Championship? The times have changed and so have the players and their attitudes. It has changed from being played on the field or court to being played in the owner's office or out on the golf course. In 2001, players are taking advantage of their opportunities to make more money than has ever been seen in professional sports. Players are signing multi-million dollar contracts that total, in some cases, over $200 million. Then, there are the players who have been in the circle of professionals for a year or two and feel the need to threaten owners and fans, sometime accusing owners of not showing enough respect and threatening to sit out an entire season if their contract is not restructured. Today's professional athletes make astronomical salaries and they're only going one direction. Up. Professional athletes are making too much money in a society that's salaries

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That amount of money is ridiculous! Is there anyone who is worth one hundred and seventy thousand dollars a day? The president of the United Sates earns about two hundred and fifty thousand dollars a year and this basketball player makes about that much in a day (Burrow 2). There are so many hard working Americans who will never get a glimpse of money like that. So who is more deserving, the hard working, middle class person who has to work overtime in order to make ends meet or the basketball player, whose career is no more than a game? Chances are that the hard working, "ordinary" citizen is the more deserving of the two. So why then does the less deserving person get the money? The less deserving will end up with all the money because that is the way of the world. Usually, those who deserve or need it are the ones that have to do without. And the ones that do without are the ones that are footing the bill for these overpaid athletes. Where exactly does the money for their salaries come from? The money comes from the fans, the hardworking citizens of America. So how do these athletes that make too much money continue to receive such high salaries. Also as I am sure you have already heard Alex Rodriguez was signed by the Texas Rangers for an unbelievable contract of 10 years and an average of $25.2 million per year. This is the largest contract in the history of sports. This is absolutely unbelievable.

Athletes were once respected for they're playing ability, but now it is about how many zeros are in their paycheck (Shelton 1). The more zeros, the better they are and the more respect they think they deserve. Americans once had to earn respect of the American people. With this idea in mind, how much respect do these athletes actually deserve? They are greedy, thinking only of themselves. If they weren't they would not expect such outrageous numbers to appear on their contracts. If they were not so selfish, they would put the team ahead of themselves (Widmyer 2). But how many times to do Americans hear about an athlete who has given up a million dollars for the good of his team. So do they actually deserve our respect? No, they do not, for they have completely stopped trying to earn it, they no longer care, just as long as the value of those paychecks continues to rise.

The money that these athletes are wasting could be used so much more productively. Suppose that athletes made what the average American made. Now suppose that all the extra money that is being put into the player's pocket at this moment goes somewhere else. All that money could go toward the homeless, the hungry and the starving, Medicare, Welfare, the national deficit, charities, medical research, or a number of other important causes. But these athletes are too selfish and greedy to think of the greater causes to make the world a better place. They only want to make "their world" a better place.

and wages are traditionally based on the value of ones work.

Some common words found in the essay are:
Euler Players, Texas Rangers, NBA Championship, Medicare Welfare, United Sates, Michael Jordan, Athlete He's, White Sox, Joe Football, Hopefully Americans, professional sports, shelton 1, athletes money, professional athletes, basketball player, athletes actually, thousand dollars, role models, belle's white sox, widmyer 1, based value, money pro sports, play professional sports, pro sports create, sports create brand,
Approximate Word count = 2477
Approximate Pages = 10 (250 words per page double spaced)