Jack I do not understand why you state that we pay athletes to much money. I am a avid sports fan and yes you could argue that by watching a team on tv and owning a couple of jerseys I am paying a player but truthfully Im not. The people who pay athletes are there billionaire owners. These billionaire owners get 10s of millions of dollars a year just for owning something they enjoy. I do not see any problem why athletes get paid so much. It comes down to freedom and if people are willing to pay them that much to have them play for there team who is society to say no. In Europe for soccer and even rugby they have transfer fees where superstars might command a price of 100 million dollars just to sign for a team before there own contract. This is a crazy amount of money but along as its coming from private hands there is nothing wrong with it. You also have to think that the fast majority of pro athletes don't get paid anywhere close to as much as the numbers you stated. 99 percent of pro athletes will never make 35 million dollars in a career let alone a year. Yes you can argue that an athlete makes 2 million dollars in 3 years that is enough to live off of because the average person makes that in a lifetime but that is not true. If I was to give some one a hundred dollars every week for a year they could make that last the entire year. If i gave someone 5200 dollars all at once it will definitely not last. So yes athletes make a ton of money for what some say is a hobby but who are we to say how much you can make for doing something you love. If someone loves coding who are we to say they have to get paid less since they enjoy it. Superstar athletes are the best at what hey do and as a society we should reward people who are the best at there profession. That is why I don't see anything wrong with how much athletes get paid.