Professional athletes Success Comes in Many Forms

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Throughout the research conducted, I have found a lot of evidence about the factors that make a Professional Athlete successful. From different sports, to around the World, to the endorsement deals, or even retirement. There are many factors that goes into an Athlete's success, and for many the definition of success is very different. In this case, I took the general idea of success, and not each individual athletes definition. When looking at all of my past blog post, it is clear that Professional Athletes success comes from many factors, such as retirement, salary caps, endorsements, and where the athlete plays.

When looking at retirement, it is clear that, retirement, will affect what you do, or how you do it. Using the information from a national newspaper The Wall Street Journal, an article "Finding the Right Business Venture for a Retired Football Pro" by Allan Boomer, I argue that athletes success will carry over into their retirement. When looking back at this, it is clear that retirement is always in question with an athlete. They go through withdraw, because they are leaving something they truly love, and have done for their entire lifetime. When an athlete does decided to retire, they have to find a passion outside the playing field, which means where do they invest their money to keep expanding their enterprise. This is a struggle for athletes, but pays off in the long run, because it helps them expand their name. For instance, Michael Jordan, world renown basketball player, but also does tons of charity work. Young kids now look up to him as an ideal for doing charity work rather than basketball, because they haven’t seen him play. This is just one of the many factors for why athletes become a success.

Also, there is the factor of salary caps in different sports. Every athlete hopes to make money that can support their families, but franchises have to limit the amount of money each player receives by different factors, such as ability. In an article, “Are Salary Caps for Professional Athletes Fair?” written by Jim Pagels, a writer and researcher on markets, sports, economics, and stats. It is clear that in today’s society, it is beneficial to have salary caps, in all sports to give an equal opportunity to players and franchises. Salary caps will help lead to success of an athlete, because it gives opportunity to teams that do not have much. As an athlete myself, you learn from an early age that the team's success is greater than individual success, for the sport. This is the same for salary caps. With salary caps, it helps the team, and franchise succeed. This is because it will give every franchise an equal opportunity to pay their players, without any disadvantage, of one having more money than the other. This is another factor of why athletes are successful, because the team's success will help the individual success.

To further look in on an athlete’s success is endorsement deals. In an article “ Why Winning Olympians Won't All Achieve Endorsement Gold”, it is clear that Athletes endorsement deals will significantly help them gain income, but can be lost at any second. This is clearly shown with many athletes, but specifically Michael Phelps. Phelps was an Olympic champion who has so many gold silver and bronze metals you cannot count on your hands and feet. He was gaining interest with many endorsers such as Speedo, Gatorade, and Subway. But this all diminished with one bad choice he made, and that was smoking cannabis. It is clear that at any moment that endorsers will help you gain income, and popularity, but that can be lost at any instance.

Around the world there are different clubs and sports, and those benefits are completely different than in the United States. This is shown in the article called “Kaka beats Gerrard and Lampard to top MLS Wage”. Also, using information from ESPN FC, the article “Premier League Consistency How does Europe affect clubs”. When looking at professional athletes around the world, it is clear that there are different priorities, salaries and endorsement deals, than in the United States. For example, soccer. Soccer was born in Europe, and as most people know, that’s where the best of the best players are. Lampard, Kaka, and Gerrard are all great players, and have done a lot over in Europe, and are just few examples. These three players came to the United States to play in the MLS after each of their terms was over with their clubs. Each of these players have many things in common; one, they all are highly paid athletes, in both Europe and even bigger in the United States, and have major deals with endorsers. Two, they all traveled to the United States to retire. Each of these players did this for a reason. First of all, they did this because of their age and playing ability. Because if they go to the United States there quality as a player is so much higher than even the top MLS player, which results in a team paying these players the highest amount of money. This is becoming more common because European soccer players are seeing this as an opportunity to take advantage of a poor system, in this case the MLS. Then there is the other factor of the athletes endorsers will now be marketing in many areas other than Europe. Which will make the athlete want to come to the United States for more money. In this case, athletes are taking advantage of the United States.

When looking back on all of this research it is clear that athletes have many factors that goes into their success. It's not all about how good you are, but rather where our team stands, or who wants to sponsor the team or the athlete. It is clear now that athletes have to gain their success. Even though from an outsider it may look absurd to put that many hours into a sport, because one day they will have to be done with it. This statement was overturned because many athletes still succeed after the playing is over. The take away here is, throughout the athlete’s life they will have a high point and they will have low points, but in all of this they will succeed, because those high and low points don't mean anything in the long run.