The economy has been in crisis for one year now. With money at an all-time low, thousands of jobs getting lost every day, and businesses shutting down faster than a shooting nail gun, we can't afford to waste money. But guess what'that's exactly what some people are doing. At this point, you might be wondering what I'm talking about. Switch on the TV and flip it to any sports channel. Those guys right there'shooting the ball, passing, kicking and dribbling. These pros are exactly the kind of people I'm talking about. How can our country condone paying these athletes millions of dollars when our nation is in a trench hole?

How much money does an average person make a year? I'm sure it's nothing near $2 to 40 million. Do you think about how much professional sports players make when you're watching them on TV eating potato chips? Yes, sports are fun to play and do take quite some talent, but how far will the owners go to pay them? When will they learn that the athletes don't need the money'we do!

What do these professionals do that's so important to earn that much? Don't ask me; I have no clue. There are millions of people who actually make a real difference in the world that don't make anywhere near as much as the pros. The soldiers in Iraq risk their lives for us, and they don't make any more than $150,000 a year. Take Lebron James for example; you would see that he makes around $20 million a year for playing basketball (excluding all the endorsements). Owning five sports cars, a massive house, and an indoor and outdoor swimming pool all to himself, you wouldn't call him an 'average citizen.' Does he give any of his money to the needy, hospitals, charities, etc.? I don't think so. On the other hand, you have Brett Favre, Payton Manning and Champ Bailey who do something useful with the preposterous amount of money they make by helping kids around the world get active.

Not to say that football players are better than basketball players, but some of these guys need a reality check. Michael Jordan made $31.7 million in his prime years for dunking a ball in the hoop all day. $31.7 million dollars? What!? What has this world come to? Who really truly gives a crud whether 'my favorite football or basketball team is better than yours'? You don't have to absolutely hate all sports players to agree that they get paid more than they should. I love to watch football, hockey and basketball, but I don't love how I see in the news at least once a week that one of these brainless athletes gets caught with drugs, domestic abuse or has committed other crimes. Do they do this for attention, showing they have enough money for bail, or are they just completely stupid? I believe that too much money turns into too much power which leads to these pros thinking they are above the law.

I would like to know who started this mess. I don't know what the owners of teams were thinking when they signed up for this. I'm sure pros used to play these sports to entertain the public, but now it's all about who's 'worth more' than another and who gets away with hardly any time in jail for illegal dog fighting'(cough; Michael Vic). This issue isn't addressed enough in the news, for reasons I don't know why, but all we can hope for is a change in what the athletes choose to do with their money.