Professional athletes are paid millions of dollars every year, and they deserve every penny of it. In this essay I will demonstrate to you the reasons that professional athletes deserve the high salaries that they are currently taking in each year. To do this the main question needing to be answered is: Do professional athletes make too much money? My essay will first explain to you exactly what the topic is that I am discussing. Next, I will present a number of reasons for the stance that I have on the issue. I will follow that up with evidence that I have collected to support the assumptions that I have made on the topic. After that, I will show a number of counter points that other people have who have a different position on the topic than I. I will address these arguments and show why they do not effect the position that I have taken. Finally I will wrap everything up and present to you exactly why you should have the believe what I do, athlete's deserve the salaries that they are being paid.
Before I can begin to present my arguments to you, we must clarify some language so that we are actually in line with what is being discussed. To start when I am talking about professional athletes I am speaking of male athletes at the highest level competing in the major north American sports. Therefore I am only discussing the salaries of players in the National Basketball Association (NBA), Major League Baseball (MLB), National Hockey League (NHL), and National Football League (NFL). As far as the definition of what constitutes a salary that is "too high" I mean a salary that is out of proportion with the work that one participates in and all the activities that result from it. When I am talking about each of the athletes salaries I am discussing only the salary they make from the team they play for, therefore this does not include endorsement money, film contracts or any other sources of income that an athlete may have.