Are professional athletes overpaid? No. This answer may be difficult for an overworked employee who makes much less money than these athletes do to accept. Professor Peter von Allmen would tell you, "Here is a secret about pampered multimillionaires who whine and moan about not making enough money. They're right." (Millman) Professional athletes are paid fairly based on the money they make for the owners of their team, their entertainment value, and the downsides to their job. This essay will look at football and baseball, the two most profiled sports for paying athletes large salaries, and make them the basis for the argument.
             Professor von Allmen, an economics professor at Moravian Colleges, concludes, "Most people wouldn't guess that, from an economic standpoint, most professional athletes are underpaid, even the ones who make the most."(Millman) The professor teaches than the difference in their value to the team and the amount of money they receive in their paychecks often contain a large discrepancy. The professor gives the example, "[Michael Jordan] made an enormous amount of money for the people who own the Bulls, much more than they paid him."(Millman) The professor notes that this is the same with most professional athletes. While most people are not paid the amount they make for their company they are paid close to the same percent as professional athletes.
             Another aspect of the controversy is most professional athletes are not paid millions of dollars. One-third of Major League Baseball (MLB) players make the league minimum of three hundred and fifty thousand dollars. Of the one thousand nine hundred and eighty-one National Football League (NFL) players in 1999, One hundred and thirty-four of them did not make more than sixty-two thousand dollars. One thousand five hundred and eighty-two of them make five hundred thousand dollars or less and one thousand seven hundred and eighty-one make less than a ...