Over Paid and Under Preforming: The Top 50 Highest-earning American Athletes

Sports Illustrated released their list of the Top 50 highest-earning athletes this year.  Ever wonder how much paper LeBron is stacking?  Here is your chance to find how he stacks up against other high-profile athletes.

What were the rules when making the list?  Sports Illustrated had a few requirments:

"Candidates for the Fortunate 50 must be U.S. citizens or play in a U.S.—based league. Endorsements reflect current deals, and salaries are based on current or most recently completed seasons; for instance, for NFL players the season that ended in February was used. (Ravens quarterback Joe Flacco’s new deal, which will pay him $20.1 million next season, isn’t reflected.) For auto racing and tennis, prize money came from the 2012 calendar year. Golf earnings are from July 1, 2012 through April 21, 2013. Boxing purses are from August 2012 through May 2013 (but projected money from bouts through September was included since fight deals are done on a yearly basis)."

With that in mind, here is your Top 5:

I would take that beating for a few million

1. Floyd Mayweather Jr
2. LeBron James
3. Drew Brees
4. Kobe Bryant
5. Tiger Woods

Any surprises?  Not really.  Mayweather deserves the top spot, he is the highest profile boxer in the past several years, and he gets the crap beaten out of him every time he works.  Brees is somewhat a surprise, just based on how the team preformed this year, but a lot of his payment was a signing bonus.  When you look at the whole list, however, there are plenty more surprises to be found than the top 5.

12 of the top 50 play for the Yankees, Dodgers, or Tigers

Are they getting a good return for their money here?  The Yankees on this list (A-Rod #9, Jeter #19, Sabathia #22, Teixeria #28, and Vernon Wells #32) are no surprise.  Wells maybe, but he is actually having a decent year for in pinstripes.  Sabathia is the ace of the staff, but the infield guys on this list are hurt.  Cano is the best infielder for the Yankees and he is the only one not on this list.  Look for that to change in a contract year.  

The Tigers spent wisely (Prince Fielder #23, Cabrera #36, and Verlander #38).  Cabrera won the triple crown, Verlander is the best SP in baseball, and Fielder is a big reason Cabrera won the MVP last season.  The Dodgers, however (Greinke #10, Matt Kemp #30, Gonzalez #34, and Crawford #42) are not getting a good return for this investment.  They are in last place in their division, and need some serious help.  Maybe they need to keep some cash in their pockets and spend a little more wisely.

12 of the top 50 play in California, 11 in New York

Paul:"Hey wait, I make $1.4 million more than you in
endorsments, how are you higher paid than me?

Howard:"All about that contract baby!"

This is just looking at guys who play for sports teams, not guys in individual sports (Like Tiger Woods, Phil, Mayweather).  No surprise here, these cities have money and a huge market for the talent.  Unlike the International list of high paid players, this list has no soccer guys.  Mainly Baseball, Basketball, and Football players, it is easy to see what we spend money on and where we spend it.  

13 NBA players, 8 NFL, 23 Baseball.....1 NASCAR

I am from the South, so Dale Jr has to get a shout out for being the lone NASCAR guy on the list.  It is interesting, however to see that almost half the list is made up of Baseball players, while Football, considered by some to be the new American Passtime, only has 8 guys on the list.  Of the 8 NFL guys on the list, only Calvin Johnson (#29), Vincent Jackson (#15),  Mario Williams (#18), and Carl Nicks (#21, who the hell is this guy) are not Quarterbacks (Peyton #8, Brees #3, Schaub #27, Eli #48).

"Hi, I am Dale Jr.  I may not win a lot of races, and I sure don't make money racing, but I sure do love
my sponsors!  I love that they pay me $12.6 million annually (more than twice what I make form racing)
almost as much as I love the taste of Diet Dew!

What does it all mean?

Not a lot.  I would say you cannot win a Championship by just spending and spending (see the Dodgers and Lakers), but the Heat have their 3 big guns on this list (Lebron #2, Wade #11, Bosh #47) and they will probably repeat this year.  

I will say that, looking at teams on this list with success, I have 3 rules for spending money wisely.

Believe it or not, Pau makes $2.1 million in endorsments.
Dirk, he only makes $400,000.  

1. If you are a baseball team, spend your money on pitching first, then hitting (The Giants have 3 on this list)
2. If you are an NBA team, spend money on guys who can put the ball in the basket, not always size
3. If you are going to play a sport, play golf or box.  Mayweather, Tiger, and Lefty are all in the top 6 on this list.  I would let Mayweather beat the crap out of me for a cool $10 million anyday, and that is only a fraction of what he makes on his fights!

-Matt