to counter

 this article got me digging further into the gray matter. reading it carefully, the title is just a mask for the main purpose of the texts. women don't earn that much in sports because it's mostly men who follow and in my universe spent their hard-earned cash in dragging their butts to the ends of the earth just to watch grown men kick a football and the camaraderie derived hobnobbing with other enthusiasts.

but to go back to the write-up, just because the athletes the writer mostly write about are not in the top ten earners doesn't mean that those who made it to the list are not noteworthy. mayweather is maybe in jail but he promotes his own fights and fans pay extra on top of the cable tv bills to watch him pounce a winnable opponent. pacquiao was once dirt poor, i don't think there's something sinful with him helping his less fortunate constituents. tiger woods may not be luke donald but he is still the biggest name in golf. basketball as a sport may be called handball in England and their practitioners are referred to as freaks of nature but lebron james is a beautiful athlete to watch but then i spent my youth scrutinising the science of the dribble and the slam dunk. i've never have been ( and never will be) a federer fan, but tennis is one of those sports considerably covered by the wire services and the Swiss is popular worldwide.

corporate America pay good money to hire these athletes to endorse their brand. football or soccer, cricket, rugby et al do not have huge american audiences. Olympic sports such as swimming and track and field are only on the radar every four years hence usain bolt's low ranking. who cares about the colour of a person's skin or his nationality? why is that a big deal?

an athlete cannot be on top forever as well, gymnast shawn johnson is now retired at 20, after one Olympic games and a win in dancing with the stars. with the money, after every associate ( agents, PR guy, stylist, posse) gets their cut, the athlete is only left with an allowance ( but it's still bigger than most mortals). we've read and heard a lot of cautionary tales. hopefully manny pacquiao would do well after his stint on pay-per-view tv. i wonder if the likes of bing and others would still befriend him after he hang his gloves for good.