Lets Sum it All Up- Athlete's Salaries

Final Reflection

Over the past month or so, I have been trying solve if Professional Athletes salaries are justified? Now that everything is coming to an end, I feel as if I failed. But I still came up with good stuff, and some interesting facts about Athlete's salaries. During research, some of the questions I had have changed, but still worth while. I always tried to find the information but it seemed as if there was none. I could not help if there wasn't any written documents of players whining about money, but I did find alot of other useful information.

Who makes the standards for player salaries? This was a foundation question that I had, but I never really found an answer to it. I really wanted to know who sets it up. I wanted to know who is the mastermind behind the player asking for 23 million to play next year. As for all the moves that happen within an organization, I wondered who was the guy who says, "I will pay 18 million for 'such and such' to play on my team." Does that come from the owner? Do the owners even play a part in the process? I feel as if I definitely failed on this one, but I made up for on other questions.

Another foundational question that always bothers me would be, what makes a difference between two athletes? If you were to take two athletes from different sports and compare the two, you should not see that much of a difference. The players should have drive to compete, they should be in top physical condition and they should understand that they are just players on a team. This way if they know they are just one player on a team, they would understand that a team needs every member to contribute. Nobody wants to be a backup to anybody, but a backup is a very useful guy. He or she is always one event waiting to play. But to really find what makes a difference between two athletes would be impossible, the only viable difference is the sport that he or she plays. There is no real way you can compare Danica Patrick (Female IRL Driver) to Sidney Crosby (NHL-Pittsburgh Penguins Captain/Center), other then to say that they give all they can to there sport.

As for the whole, and to answer the essential question of the search, are Athlete's Salaries justified? I would answer no. True, they do alot of work but it is not like they are saving lives. I do believe that athletes should be paid well, but not to the standards of today's market. A person who can catch a football should not be paid more than someone who finds the cure for a disease or save someones life on the emergency table. These people are everyday heroes that go unnoticed most of the time. What I want to know is why do athletes feel like they should be paid that much? What are they going to do with the money, buy the latest gas guzzler or maybe a house with 23 bedrooms instead of three. I know that I repeat this through all of my posts but I am very opinionated on the subject. Who do the athletes think they are, gods above men?