Lesson 11 Blog

My experience summarizing my readings was sub-par. While working on annotating articles, I apparently found almost all of the articles pertaining to my topic. I had to search for an unprecedented amount of time looking for three new articles for this lesson. Fortunately, I found three good articles, one of which showed me a completelly new perspective that I had previously not realized existed. It provided me with a large amount of new possible material that I could use for my research paper.
Other than having a very hard time finding new articles to read, my experience researching these articles was good. The subject matter in most of the articles is very intrigueing to me. It has really shown me how much athletes are overpaid.
I attepmpted to search in the library for books on my subject, but I was unable to find any specifiacally relating to my topic.
In one of the articles I read it showed the top 50 earning athletes from 2007. Some of the amounts of money they made were completely astounding to me. The way their income was calculated was money from their contract plus money from endorsements. I am okay with the money they make from endorsements, but some of their contracts were absolutely ridiculous. From the four major pro sports, Derek Jeter and Alex Rodriguez from the New York Yankees were to of the highest paid athletes just form their salaries. They each earned 22 millions dollars a year. I know that becoming a professional athlete is incredibly difficult, and being a top athlete is even harder, but is good athlete really worth 22 million like A-rod and Derek Jeter?
Researching this subject really opened my eyes to how corrupt some professional athletes really are. They are supposed to play for "the love of the game," but some of them strictly play for money. Ty law, formerly of the New England Patriots, is a good example of this. His contract guarenteed him 7 million dollars in this year, and he demanded that his contract was bigger because he needed to "feed his family." Not all, in fact most athletes are not corrupt like this, but because of the way pro sports are set up today it has made people like Ty Law think they are deserving of a higher amount of money, when they are really not. I think he will be able to feed his family just fine with his guarenteed 7 million dollars.
Lastly, I just wanted to reiterate the point that the research I have conducted has shown me that top end pro athletes are not deserving of the contracts that they recieve. Most of the minimum salaries in the top four pro sports are around $600,000, and I think that these athletes would be able to live a perfectly happy life making this money.