Does money make the world go around? In the world of athletics, apparently it does. Athletes’ contracts offer high amounts of pay, but is it deserved for the amount of work that is done?

Riley Koehler: Have you ever been sitting at your desk job or walking around your restaurant and felt like your job put you in danger? Chances are that you have not. A desk job is safe, and usually it is unheard of to feel like you could be injured or in a spot where you could be out of a job due to an injury at your workplace. Though your accountant might not have this risk, professional athletes such as players in the NFL and NHL are putting their bodies in harm’s way and their lives on the line daily. For everything that they are doing during the practices and the day of competition, athletes should be getting paid the millions of dollars that they are getting because they deserve the money for the type of work they are doing. 

Gabby Thompson: Athletes such as players in the NFL made the choice to put their lives on the line. They made the conscious decision to walk out on the field and take that risk; serious injuries and/or death is not that common for football and various other contact sports. Sure, many jobs are sit down jobs that require very little physical labor. But on the other hand, there are tons of jobs that being physically present is requisite: firefighters, police officers, construction workers, electricians, EMTs, and more. These professions require the workers to genuinely put their lives on the line. It is way more common for any of these jobs to face harsh injuries—or even death—while working. They deserve better pay, for they are doing us people a service; football players, rugby places, any contact-sport players are all competing to entertain.

Riley Koehler: I have worked in a restaurant, I have babysat, and now I work at a swim school. There has never been a time in any of those professions when I have thought that I deserve the same amount of money that professional athletes are making, for the work is simply not the same. When adding up all of the practice, study time, on and off of the field workouts, and game time, athletes are working well over forty hours a week. 

Gabby Thompson: Being an athlete is tough that is for sure; I will not take that away from them. But, the work that goes into being a doctor, police officer, or various other professions is extremely on the same level with the work that an athlete does to compete. Doctors go to school for ten to fourteen years before they can even call themselves a doctor; this is their “practice” time. Doctors are not just working out or watching a ball when they are in school, for they are genuinely working their minds and their skills. From day to night, they work as hard as they can. Once becoming a doctor, they have to handle deaths, misery, and seeing some heavy things. They do us a favor and save our lives; that is hard work. Being an athlete requires a lot less mental strength than these other professions. 

Riley Koehler: Athletes simply put in more work than those who work a desk job, they work a 9-5 pushing their body to limits that the majority of the world do not, then after their 9-5 working on endorsements, commercials, brand deals and so much more to make sure that their team and they are supported so the team as a whole can make the money it needs to be successful. Considering before even being on a team, it’s practice, practice, practice as much as you can to become the player that you want to be. According to the NCAA, only 1.7 percent of college football players will make it to the professional level, and; only 0.8 percent of high school players will make it pro. These numbers exemplify how hard it is to get to the highest level possible. Altogether, athletes work hard, putting their lives on the line across the season. Hard work should be rewarded, and nobody works harder than athletes. 

Gabby Thompson: So many people work harder than athletes. Many athletes are naturally gifted their skill(s). When talent is gifted, athletes do not have to put in as much effort or work in comparison to people who actually have to work for their accomplishments. Some people who work normal jobs could have struggled in school, or maybe even failed. The effort of people who work normal jobs drastically exceeds the effort of numerous athletes. Athletes are there for entertainment. Professions are there for genuine services and things that benefit us as people. Athletes work for us, for a purpose.