Essay - Athlete Salaries: the Price of Gladiator the Early Greeks and...

Athlete Salaries: The Price of Gladiator

The early Greeks and Romans gave us the image of the heroic gladiator, a t*****ll, muscular ***** physically fit man who towers in height above the average man; a man who, in as few as three moves, can break ***** neck of man and ferocious beast alike. They are the heroes ***** Virgil ***** Homer, and they are they ***** the men endowed with superhuman powers that mesmerized ***** entertained thousands during the Olympic Games of old (Garland, Robert, 2005, p. 24). They were the ancient day celebrity (Garland, Robert, *****, p. 24). They evolved into the modern day athlete; boxers, football players, baseball players, and other athletes who st***** as overpaid, overrated, modern day gladiators. Today's "gladiators" are overrated, overpaid athletes who lack the ***** heart of the heroes Achilles or Odysseus, and men who won't acknowledge their fan base without a financial incentive. Today's ***** are takers, giving very little in return for their *****, and the indu*****ry salaries are not driven by talent as much as they are driven by advertising.

Advertisers seem to have a greater influence on which athletes receive big salaries these days; if the athlete is popular, tall, h*****some, fit and a reasonably good player, he ***** make lucrative deals with advertisers in anything from touting l*****e insurance policies, to ***** name br***** products like athletic gear and shoes. This transfers to the *****'s sports' club player's contract, and the salaries are ridiculously high.

There are some, of course, ***** want to put a price on the bodily sacrifice that an ***** makes; arthritis, poorly healed broken bones, concussion that might ***** an adverse impact on ***** athlete's life later in *****, ********** so forth. However, when taking that ***** consideration, then the construction worker who operates a jack-hammer eight hours a day, if we measure his bodily worth on the scale of a professional athlete, is grossly underpaid. As are other laborers throughout the country if *****, again, comp***** the physical r*****k, let alone injury, to that of a ***** athlete.

In ***** film Jerry Maguire (1996), Tom Cruise's character, Jerry *****, a sports agent, is sitting with an athlete when a young boy *****pproaches and asks the ***** to sign h***** sports card. T*****e athlete looks at the card, and then tells the youngster he cannot sign ***** card because it is not a particular brand name ***** - for which, ***** course, t***** athlete is contracted ***** represent, and presumably receives a h*****nd***** stipend for doing so. To*****'s ***** are adjuncts of advertisers, and there is absolutely nothing aside ***** value as ***** sports figures whom by virtue ***** their popular*****y - ***** youngsters whose sports cards ***** won't sign ***** ***** millions of dollars in ***** and product revenues. Sports is no longer about great Walter Payton talent, but is more about looking good, being popular, playing well - not necessarily great - and having a very, ***** savvy sports agent to score