Show me the money! Sports Illustrated this week came up with the Fortunate 50, the highest earning U.S. athletes in 2007. It didn't really come as a surprise that Eldrick "Tiger" Woods topped the list, but the figure was staggering. For whacking a little white ball around the park, Woods pulled in a whopping $127,902,706. Yes, nearly $128-million dollars.
Doing a little research revealed a few of these savory tidbits:
- The PGA Tour raised $123-million for charity in 2007, or $5-million less than Woods earned individually
- Woods would have been the 6th highest paid Major League Baseball team, (just behind the World Champion Boston Red Sox)
- Woods' earnings were higher than all 32 NFL teams payrolls (Washington Redskins 2007 NFL highest payroll $123.4-million)
- America's Second Harvest, the country's largest hunger-relief organization, spent $127-million in 2006 to help in feeding the country's poor and starving
- If all pre-K through 12th grade teachers in the country earned the $40,000 annual starting salary advocated by the NEA, Woods could hire 3,200 new teachers for one year
- In 2007 the annual premium that a health insurer charged an employer for a health plan covering a family of four averaged $12,100. Tiger Woods could provide 10,578 families health insurance for one year
- If Tiger Woods gave each person in the United States one quarter, he would would still have $52-million (plus 3 quarters) left over for himself, his wife and child
1 comment:
This has always troubled me. It also disturbs me that so many professional athletes (mainly football and basketball) who make gazillions of dollars AND got a FREE college education, when interviewed, cannot speak English at much above the level of the average four year old. Perhaps I'm bitter because I'm a no-college (but VERY intelligent), $30,000/year, uninsured female with no athletic ability whatsoever. Or maybe it really does suck as much as I think!
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