“Making Money-Always Unhappy”

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They’re all making enormous money in pro sports. The superstars are earning 20-to-30M per year.

Thanks to the strength of the Players Unions, the last man on the roster makes anywhere from 500K to 1.5M per year.

And they are constantly unhappy.

It is the American way to get as much as you can from your boss on the job. But in our life and times, you wonder where the ceiling is, where the common sense it.

Go around sports, NFL to NBA to MLB to NHL, and the salaries are boggling.

I know fans cannot identify with these players, those salary figures, and the prevelant unhappiness that always seems to be out there.

I laugh when I remember the discontent of Latrell Spreewell, the legendary Golden State Warrior-NY Knicks star, who said he would not sign a 16M per year contract extension because he worried he couldn’t feed his family. He never got another offer.

Today’s pro athlete and their agents are always about one-upping the last big contract given.

So Kirk Cousins goes to Minnesota for 30M a year starting this year. Le’Veon Bell is unhappy with his 14.5M franchise tag fee.

Aaron Donald wants 20M per season from the Rams, because they just gave Todd Gurley-Brendin Cooks 16M apiece.

We are approaching the 40M per year player in the NBA, see what Kevin Durant asks for next year.

LeBron James goes to the Lakers for 36M a year.

Here comes free agency for Bryce Harper, and you can bet that agent Scott Boras will seek 10Y-400M for the Washington Nationals slugger.

The unions have done a good job helping the players earn huge dollars. If not the owners would be reaping all the profits and the players would be forever at their mercy.

But you wonder where it all ends. The average salary in baseball is at an all time high, 4.4M per player, and that includes the pitchers with ERA’s of 7.92 and the utilityman hitting (.191), in addition to what Jose Altuve earns..

The NBA has a record 81-players earning the ‘max’ salaries allowable under the current collective bargaining agreement. Did you know there were 81-superstars in the league?

The NFL pays virtually all its star players north of 15M a season, and quarterbacks now approach the 20-to-30M range.

Even the NHL has its collection of 8-10 and now 11M a year players.

The fan in the stands has to pay 200-to-300 dollars a ticket to get the choice seats. What does it cost a family of four to go to a game?

But as a Dodgers player lectured me. “No one ever complains what Tom Hanks, Bruce Springsteen, Mick Jagger or Demi Moore makes. Go enjoy the concert, the movie, the game. Let us earn what the market is willing to pay us.”

Guess the question is, how much is too much? For the player to earn? For the fan to pay? For the owners profit margins?

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