Top 50 Highest Earning Athletes in the U.S.

[RyGuy45]

SI.com

Five years ago, Sports Illustrated first set out to find the 50 top-earning American athletes (taking into account on- and off-the-field income). Wediscovered a few basic facts, and as the Fortunate 50 turns five, some things have remained dead-on consistent:

No one can touch Tiger Woods, the runaway No. 1 for the fifth year in a row. Tiger's near $128 million haul is more than double hisclosest pursuer, Phil Mickelson at $62.4 million. As usual, hoops dominates the 50: More than half this year's list is made up of NBAplayers. There are 10 baseball players, seven football players, three NASCAR drivers, three golfers and one boxer -- and yet zero women.

As always, we limited our estimates to salary, winnings, bonuses, endorsements and appearances. Candidates for the 50 had to be American citizens.


1. $127,902,706 - Tiger Woods
2. _$62,372,685 - Phil Mickelson
3. _$40,455,000 - Lebron James
4. _$40,250,000 - Floyd Mayweather, Jr.
5. _$35,490,625 - Kobe Bryant
6. _$35,000,000 - Shaquille O'Neal
7. _$35,000,000 - Alex Rodriguez
8. _$31,000,000 - Kevin Garnett
9. _$30,500,000 - Peyton Manning
10. $30,000,000 - Derek Jeter


Full List:
http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/more/specials/fortunate50/2008/index.html?eref=T1

 

[mks33]

wow tiger... i ain't mad at ya

 

[kiddin like jason]

Durant at 13.

Michael Finley, Jason Schmidt, Ben Wallace.

 

[shannonscrooks]

...Floyd getting $20 million from the WWF...

 

[18th letter]

at tiger just being a beast
dude just +$@%# on everybody
#2 isn't even close

 

[frenchblue23]

Not a surprise, first athlete I thought of being #1 was Tiger.

Now, if MJ was playing these days, wow.

@ Jason Schmidt making 16 mil, and only playing like 5 gamesfor the Dodgers.

 

[RyGuy45]

Carlos Delgado still getting partially paid by the Marlins, and payinghim more than any current player on the Marlin roster

 

[crazy dav0]

is tiger a billionaire yet.... dude plays as lil events as possible it seems and he kills it... endorsements, tour earnings, appearance fees from overseesevents ... he is a beast

on a side note lma0 @ phoenix paying shaq, when they got no chance of winning w/ him

 

[inine5]

top 2 are golfers..... (and the people they say it's not a real sport and easy to hit a ball that's still....)

 

[inine5]

Originally Posted by RyGuy45

Carlos Delgado still getting partially paid by the Marlins, and paying him more than any current player on the Marlin roster

you think that's weird, the red sox are still paying for part of edgar renteria's salary and he's on his 2nd team removed from the redsox......

 

[tbone95860]

People expected Tiger to be up there or #1..... but phil at #2, by a lot over #3, and making a TON

 

[brunotattaglia]

Just think, even if there were no super hype marketing machine like Tiger Woods, the world's top paid athlete would be... Phil Mickelson???? aka philmanboobs?

 

[slow motion g35]

man screw sports, Im making my kids swing a club....damn thats is absurd amount

 

[thegreatpoohdini]

finley second highest paid in the league

 

[tuff g0ng]

Stephon Marbury.

 

[you big dummy]

Originally Posted by brunotattaglia

Just think, even if there were no super hype marketing machine like Tiger Woods, the world's top paid athlete would be... Phil Mickelson???? aka phil manboobs?

No he wouldn't, without Tiger, Phil wouldn't be making anywhere near what he is making now.

 

[i fr3sh i]

What does Phil Mickelson endorse?

 

[CP1708]

Originally Posted by I FR3SH I

What does Phil Mickelson endorse?

Should be bras.

 

[RyGuy45]

Im not really a big golf guy, but it seems strange to me how the top U.S. golfer endorsements break down like this:

1. $105,000,000 - Woods
2. _$53,000,000 - Mickelson
3. _$11,000,000 - Furyk


Taking away Woods obviously, only one other PGA golfer makes 11 mil in endorsements......and Phil makes $53 mil? Wow.

 

[franchise 55]

at Durant killin it in endorsements.

 

[airjordan jb23]

^ Yea I was surprised to see Durant on there.

Tiger straight killin it.

VC makin the cut...

 

[ap27]

didn't Oscar De La Hoya make like $40+ mil from the Mayweather fight?...isn't Golden Boy Promotions raking in money too?...he's gotta be at least3rd on there, and he's not even on the list?

 

[MVP]

not suprising, but what endorsements does kobe have, i know he has that nike contract, but is there anything else

we still don't see any commercials

@ Wallets having his own shoe, the "Big Ben"

 

[nostrandave68]

@ earning almost a Billion dollars from playingthe sport of Golf for 13 years... Christ!!

 

[jehlers02]

is tiger a billionaire yet.... dude plays as lil events as possible it seems and he kills it... endorsements, tour earnings, appearance fees from oversees events ... he is a beast

With close to $800 million in total earnings on and off the course over his 13-year career, Tiger should become the first billion-dollar athlete in the next two years -- and he's still only 32. See Tiger's sponsors.
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