Most Overpaid People in Sports

I never understood this complaint. Would it be less sad if the owner got another 30 million and the players got 30 million less? Not in my world. And no this has nothing to do with the importance of athletes/movie stars/.. versus teachers.  We spend far more on education than we do on sports.  I have no clue if Jim Rome is over paid or not. If he brings in 100 million to CBS than paying him 30 million might be a good deal. Personally i can't stand him but that goes for pretty much every talk show guy out there.

You will never convince me that any of them are overpaid.

Would you turn down more money from your boss? Would you expect more if you brought more money in?

Everyone is paid what they are worth or what they can convince someone they are worth. Remember that these salaries are just the tip of the iceberg, the bigger names pull in much more in endorsements.

The only reason owners beg for a salary cap is to protect themselves from themselves. It is usually the small market team that sets the bar so high and then they cry when the bigger markets match it.

Everyone is still profitable paying these salaries - if you have that much of a problem with it - dont go to games, dont watch them on tv and dont read about them online since doing any of them contributes to their salaries.

Just because it is the way it is doesn't mean the argument of overpayment is redundant.

It's a market flaw, it seems to me. Not by the player's own design, but are we really going to say that an athlete does more for the well-being of society than a doctor?! That's not an irrelevant question. because you can then stem the argument that reward should be proportional to your input.

All of these guys are way overpaid. But that's just how it is.

It's hard to argue that a free market is flawed.  It's also hard to argue who, or what occupations, do more for the well-being of society than others.

It's subjective, but it isn't that hard to argue really...

I totally agree.  It's not as if this is taxpayer money that they are getting paid with and it's coming away from other more worthy causes.  The money comes from the fans.  We buy the tickets, the merchandise, and the sunday ticket and estra innings tv packages, etc. to watch the players play, so that's where the money should go.

So, in the sense that them making x million amount of dollars makes them overpaid, I disagree.  But, if you just want to compare salaries within the specific fields relatively, then we can talk about some that are overpaid.  I can certainly make a case that Alex Rodriguez and Mark Teixiera are overpaid in relation to Robinson Cano, or that Vernon Wells is overpaid vs. Torii Hunter.

I don't know many poor doctors.  Do we need doctors more than we need athletes or sports announcers, sure.  We need teachers and police officers too, should they make just as much as doctors, and athletes?

In a free market value is determined by society.  In order words, you are only worth what someone else is willing to pay you.

Not only is that one way to view things - meaning, there are other ways of viewing things, like, you are worth the benefit you bring to society (how we measure that is a different question) - but the other obvious truth is that athletes are paid that much because the rules are in their favour and the market is not completely free.

A simple analogy: The NFL has a rule that allows only something like 53 players per team, and the league only allows for 32 teams. That means that there are only 53*32 players to share from a pool of money. There isn't such a rule in the world of medicine, so there are a lot more people to share from a single pool of money. If there were no such constraints in the world of sports, these guys would not be getting paid that much.

I'm not sure if I agree with that since there's a wide disparity between what a starting QB or RB is paid and what a backup lineman or tight end gets paid.  The QB or RB gets paid more because he's more valuable to the team in terms of winning, bringing fans to the stadium, increasing television ratings, and the sale of team products.  I'd argue that between 25% - 50% of NFL players make less than the average doctor in a major city, especially if they are affiliated with a hospital.

That's not the point, really. I am saying that whatever they make, it's exaggerated by the regulations set in place that limits the number of earners in the same pool.

Same thing happens outside of the sports world, by the way. Less so nowadays in the US (though it has happened), but there have been cases where the number of competitors within a market have been in some shape limited by law.

Just quickly googled this

http://www.steelersdepot.com/2011/07/2011-2014-nfl-minimum-base-salaries/

As far as money is concerned, it can't get much simpler than that.

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I don't think that is an even analogy because you are comparing one pro sports league (of which there are several) to the entirety of the medical "world."  I would counter by saying that if you are going to pick one sports league, then you'd be better off comparing it to, say, one hospital.  Certainly that hospital has a budget that only allows for a certain number of doctors, no?

The average doctor makes less than 250k which is well below what the average NFL salary.  Of course you shouldn't look at the average doctor salary. Look at the top 2000  or so doctors salaries and compare them to the NFL players.  I wouldn't be surprised if the doctors came out on top. For example Dr Nicholas Perricone (he showed up in a quick google) made 18 million a year in 2005 hawking his skin care solution but I am guessing zero of us knew his name. Now I don't know how many of them make more than 10 million a year like a top pro but the bottom ones will be making 2 million instead of 500k so it probably evens out.

The top people in any field make boatloads of money. Here is one random article http://www.championnews.net/2011/12/12/top-100-teacher-salaries-for-2011-phys-ed-teacher-heads-list-with-203154/ about a Phys ed teacher making 200k a year. Now I am sure there was some circumenstances (probably retired and used 30 weeks of vacation to spike his pension). If you want the obscene numbers look at what a university president makes. However most non sport fields we talk about the average worker not the top. In sports the average worker makes zero dollars and has to pay to play.

There aren't any regulations that limit competition in profession football, there's been the USFL, CFL, XFL, NFL Europe, Arena Football and probably a few I missed.   For various reasons many of those leages failed but it wasn't due to regulation.  The NFL has also expanded the number of teams over the years without a decrease in salary.

The reason salaries are so high in the NFL is because the NFL is the #1 sport in the United States.  NFL owners make A LOT of money and the players union makes sure the players get their fair share.  If all the fans stopped supporting the NFL, the television contracts and stadium revenue would disappear and the players wouldn't be able to demand the salaries they do, no matter how many players were in the league.

I didn't say average NFL salary I said the average doctor in a major city makes more than 25% - 50% of NFL players.  NFL League minimum for 2012 is $390,000

For what its worth, the median NFL salary for 2011 was $770,000.  (The average is 1.9 mil)

No idea what the average doctor in a major city makes.