It is no secret that athletes get paid millions of dollars to play their sport and that seems a little obsessive.

There are many other ways, and many more productive ways for the money to be spent.

Teachers, professors, nurses and other professions that are taking a hard hit from the dwindling economy should get increases to their salaries while athletes’ are reduced.

Athletes should still make a good chunk of change, but paying them more money than they can even spend is unnecessary. In every industry there will be people who are overpaid and underpaid, but I think we should balance out the portion of our money that goes to athletes with other types of professionals.

The average salary for a major league baseball player, according to the Major League Baseball Web site, is $2,996,106. The average salary for an NBA player is $5 million, and New York Yankees player Alex Rodriguez will make $270 million in his ten-year contract.

Does he really deserve that much money?

In my opinion, no.

Financial rewards should come from how hard a person works. I am not saying athletes are not hard workers. They dedicate their lives to practice and traveling and are extremely talented people, but I still have a problem with $270 million.

I agree with famous athletes being great for marketing, so it may be worth the money for a company to shell out a ton of money for an athletic icon to model its shoes. The problem is that athletes are making too much.

They have a rare talent and rare talents deserve to be rewarded, just not as much as they are being rewarded now.

Sara Humphrey is a junior broadcast journalism major from Colleyville.