"In Portugal its their religion and Catholicism is their tradition."
Paul Petty concerning Soccer
If Soccer is their religion, then the footballers are their patron saints. Like the holy wars of old, people are willing to fight for a threatened team. Because their team is almost like their family. Whole towns shut down on game days. Kids flunk out of school just to play. And people will pay through the nose if it means they can attend.
We have an almost religious attachment to our star players. Days start and end with them--and we pay for it. Oh do we pay for it. In soccer, David Beckham, player for LA galaxy is expected to earn $32.5 million over the next five years. According to Forbes magazine Beckham earned around $27 million in 2006. This included his salary at Real Madrid and his celebrity endorsements. He endorsed with Adidas, Gillette and others. In American professional football, a regular player makes at least one million dollars annually. The highest paid NFL player is Julius Peppers of the Carolina Panthers. He makes 16.683 million a year!! Following him are Carson Palmer and Eli Manning both grossing over 15 million annually. This far surpasses even the highest paid doctors, and seems especially surprising when considering that the work a doctor does is much closer to that of deity. The highest paid physicians, orthopedic surgeons, earn anywhere from $450,000-$600,000 annually. It is interesting to note that orthopedic surgeons specialize in surgery of the bones and joints, arthritic deterioration, spine, sports related injuries and trauma.
The question I'd like to pose is just exactly this: Why do you think athletes have become so highly valued in society? What are the reasons behind their annual earnings? Should it be that way? To me, all signs seem to point towards the fact that we value our entertainment far above anything--even our health--but I think it has more to do with wanting something to believe in. We want so much to believe in anything or anyone. We want something to bring us together. We crave that community spirit that used to come with religion. And so we'll do whatever it takes to have that. I think that society is looking for its next patron saint.
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I think there are many reason why athletes are so highly valued in our society. But I believe that one reason is that we are impressed and in awe sometimes by what they can do in their given sport. I remember the Olympics where Phelps won 8 gold medals. I was a swimmer in high school and was just in awe on how an accomplished swimmer he was and how much hard work goes into being able to obtain those 8 medals.
I think athletes get paid so much because they bring something to the world that unites people despite differences they may have. Sports will always have a huge fan base so there there will always be opportunities to make money, hence the reason big corporations sponsor athletic teams and tv stations pay millions of dollars to show sporting events. It is sad that jobs that could be considered more important, such as teaching, don't permit larger salaries, but I don't think it's going to change.
I think that you make a really good point. Athletes have definitely reached a new level of hero worship. I think that a reason for this is that we feel they should be rewarded for their natural talent. We live in a world where we believe that if given the opportunity to attend school and with a good work ethic, anyone can rise to the top of academic achievement. However, athletes have to be born with raw talent in order to perform at the professional level. Those of us who cannot do the things they do, no matter how hard we practice, are willing to reward them more for being able to do it.
Athletes in the western world, and indeed much of the world in general, have definitely achieved a realm of hero worship that is out of proportion for their actual impact on society. I observed during time spent in Europe the same phenomenon regarding the way soccer has replaced religion as was quoted about Portugal at the beginning of this post. I think such a transition is sad; and a little telling about the vacuum that the lack of spirituality has produced in many of these great nations. As far as their salaries, I don't really care what they earn, if that's what the teams that hire them consider them to be worth more power to them. However, I don't think that it is good for so much glory, adulation and worship to be bestowed upon athletes when as mentioned, in the larger scheme of things, what they do is really not that significant. Do they build society? Reinforce strong values? Inspire caring, compassion, brotherly kindness? Provide for the poor, the sick, the needy? Comfort the dying etc? No they do not. And its a shame that they have overtaken religion as objects of worship in the eyes of so many.
i think they have become so valued because as we have read in one of our reading assignments, the U.S. is a society based on entertainment. Sports are one of our biggest forms of entertainment so naturally they would get paid a lot and be very highly valued.
I think you are right in that the reason why professional sports salaries are so high is because we live in a very highly-entertained world. Certain nights and designated weekends are looked forward to primarily because of what team is playing, and a certain athlete who's on that team, who makes that team worthwhile watching. If we were to compare the salaries of NFL players to some professional soccer athletes, we would see some discrepancies. Why? Because football is simply, 'more entertaining.'
I think you're right in that we want something to bring us together. I don't watch soccer--football-- but I certainly did watch the US vs England game of the world cup. Why? Everyone I knew was planning on watching it, and I wanted to be able to talk about it with my friends. I think we idealize the famous athletes because they are a person to whom the masses can talk about and relate to each other with.
The world will pay you what it thinks you are worth. It is all about supply and demand. Few people can play as well as Kobe while there are a good number of people who can be good surgeons and doctors. If people were not willing to pay to watch basketball the players wouldn't make money.
Also, the people making the real money are the owners and the companies that use athlete endorsements. They pay the basketball and football players because it will make more money for them in the end.
It makes me sad that people like teachers, who work so hard and are responsible for our youth, get paid peanuts compared to sports stars. really shows where our values are huh?
We are a culture that feeds on entertainment. Those who can entertain us are the ones we pay attention to and focus on. We spend money on these activities in order to watch our favorite entertainer. Sports is entertainment. It's competition, drama, and fast paced, all the things many American's love. To me, it makes perfect sense why sports stars are paid millions of dollars while teachers and other professions that are technically more valuable to society get paid minimally. It all comes down to where our priority is. In America, it is on entertainment.
I think this all comes down to society's fascination with celebrities. I agree - we love to be entertained and we are willing to pay tons of money to be entertained. We love seeing someone have an incredible amount of talent. It excites us. I don't feel they should be paid more than a doctor, but with the way our society is set up I don't think we have much control over that.
Because athletics is something that is highly valued in our society, athletes can demand a lot of money and be worth it. Until individuals begin to value other things more, the industry will continue in this way; and I don't see that changing anytime soon.
We pay people what we think they are worth, and in our society, we think our entertainment is worth a lot. Not just in sports, but in all other facets of entertainment - we pay so much for movies, music and art. We want to be entertained and will pay plenty to get it.
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