The Retort

Sports Corner: Contracts and Salaries

September 23rd, 2011 by Cory Lovec Of The Retort Staff

Many people believe that professional athletes are, to say the least, paid much too extravagantly for their services. Here are some facts about the high earnings in professional sports:

• The first time a player was paid to play professional football was in 1892; his name was William (Pudge) Heffelfinger, and he received $500 for one game.
• Peyton Manning is now the highest-salaried NFL player, making $18 million per year. This comes out to an average $1,125 million per year - much more than Pudge received!
• In 1914, George Herman “Babe” Ruth signed his first contract, a $500 contract to play for the Baltimore Orioles. Sixteen years later, after ten terrific years with the New York Yankees, Ruth signed a contract with New York for $80,000—$5,000 more than the president at the time, Herbert Hoover; Ruth said of the contract, “I had a better year than he did.”
• The New York Yankees are known mainly for two things: winning and spending money. The latter is evident in this statistic: 4 of the 7 biggest sporting contracts of all-time, and 4 of the 6 highest baseball contracts of all-time, are with the Yankees (Alex Rodriguez, Derek Jeter, Mark Teixera, and C.C. Sabathia).
• Major League Baseball players have had 13 of the 16 largest contracts of all time (the other three have been Formula One racers).
• The first ever $100 million sport contract ever (and thus biggest contract ever at the time) was the seven-year, $120 million deal Shaquille O’Neal signed with the Lakers in 1996. This deal is now the 32nd largest deal of all time.
• The largest NBA contract of all time was signed by Kobe Bryant. He currently has one year left on his seven-year, $136 million deal with the L.A. Lakers.
• Kimi Räikkönen, a Formula One racer, signed a three-year deal with Ferrari in 2007 worth $153 million. This comes out to an amazing $51 million per year and $2.9 million per race!
• Alex Rodriguez owns the honor of signing the two largest sports contracts ever; his first was a 10-year contract (2001-2010) with the Texas Rangers for a total of $249 million and his most-recent deal was 10 years (2008-2017) with the Yankees worth a staggering $275 million! There have only been three $200 million contracts in sports history. The only other $200 million contract was recently signed by Fernando Alonso, a Formula One racer for Ferrari. His contract is five years, $214 million, which averages to $42.8 million per year.
• The only National Hockey League (NHL) contract in the Top-50 largest of all time is Alexander Ovechkin, who was signed by the Washington Capitals in 2008 through the 2021 season for $124 million; this comes out to “only” $9.5 million per year.
• The largest NFL contract of all time is Michael Vick’s 13-year, $130 million deal he signed with the Atlanta Falcons in 2005. Of course, he played only two years out on the contract before being indicted for dog fighting and subsequently going to prison for nearly two years. He now owns another $100 million deal, one he signed in this year’s off-season with the Philadelphia Eagles (6 years, $100 million).
• Floyd Mayweather Jr. made $60 million in 2010 for only two boxing matches. Calculating the time his matches lasted, this means Mayweather made $833,333 per minute!
• Counting this year, Tiger Woods has been the top paid athlete (including prize money, endorsements, etc.) in each of the last 10 years. According to Forbes, Woods has made $909.3 million in the past decade!!!
• Two of the three highest paid athletes in 2011 (including endorsements) are golfers (Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson). The other was Roger Federer, a tennis player.
• Anzhi Makhachkala, a small soccer club owned by a Billionaire in the Russian province of Dagestan, recently signed former Inter and Barcelona striker Samuel Eto’o to a deal worth $29 million per season, making him world’s highest-salaried athlete.
• The highest-paid female athlete in 2011, including endorsements, is currently tennis player Maria Sharapova, who has made $24.2 million. The next two women on the highest-paid list are tennis sisters Serena and Venus Williams, respectively.