Categories
Golf

The 2007 50 Highest Paid American Athletes



Still good to be Tiger

SI has released their list of the top U.S. money earners for 2007. Of course, Tiger Woods is #1 with his $100M in endorsement money and the regular cast of characters fill out the top 10 (Shaq, Kobe, Mickelson, A-Rod, etc.) but it’s really the middle of the list that is the most interesting.

We spotted two types of athletes in addition to the genuine superstars. First, you have the washed up former superstar that is making a ton of cash on their contracts (thank you stupid GMs!) and practically nothing in endorsements. These are mostly NBA players (Michael Finley, Jalen Rose, Eddie Jones, Steve Fraacis, Grant Hill) but also includes useless baseball player Jason Giambi.

The second anomaly is the overhyped athlete that hasn’t done a damn thing but manages to get into this list by virtue of the great hype machine. Well… it’s just one person actually — Michelle Wie. With only $700k in earnings, she manages to come in at #22 with $19.5M in endorsements. What a joke.

The full list of the Top 50 earning American athletes in 2007 after the jump.

Categories
General Sports

The World’s highest paid athletes



It’s good to be Tiger

[Update: Check out the 2007 highest paid American Athletes]

Here are the top 10 highest paid athletes in 2005 according to Forbes.

  1. Tiger Woods – $87M. The guy makes most of his money ($80M) just from endorsements and appearance fees.
  2. Michael Schumacher – $60M. This is actually a drop in income because of lower endorsements and licensing.
  3. Oscar De La Hoya – $38M. $35M came from just 2 fights.
  4. Michael Vick – $37.5M. Got $30M as guaranteed bonus money for his 10 year contract with Atlanta.
  5. Shaquille O’Neal – $33.4M. He has the NBA’s highest salary at $28M.
  6. Michael Jordan – $33M. All of it from endorsements.
  7. David Beckham – $32.5M. All that money and he still doesn’t know how to tell time.
  8. Kobe Bryant – $28.8M. Hate him for his cash.
  9. Lance Armstrong – $28M. I guess he realized with $28M, he could do better than Sheryl Crow.
  10. Valentino Rossi – $28M. Yeah, we never heard of him either. Apparently he races motorcycles in Italy.

What do these athletes have in common? Most of them are pimping Nike. That and they have more money than you ever will.

Related Links:
[Forbes.com]: The World’s Best-Paid Athletes