June 09, 2016
Things are looking up for Philadelphia sports. No really, they are! The Phillies' rebuild seems to be going well, the Sixers have the top pick in the draft, the Eagles have the guy they hope is their next franchise quarterback and the Flyers' young core is looking to build off a playoff appearance this past season.
But the annual Forbes list of the top 100 highest paid athletes in the world isn't about hope, or how much money a promising young athlete like Carson Wentz or Maikel Franco could earn in the future. It's about how much athletes made the previous year.
As for the Philly athletes on the list, it's a bit of a downer, serving as a reminder of the glory days that have since passed and the not-working-out-so-well. The Forbes list was released Wednesday, and here are the local guys who made it:
#38 — Cliff Lee, $29.3 Million in total earnings: The Philly athlete highest on the list is a guy who didn't play for the team last year. Lee was awesome during his tenure with the Phillies, but spent all of 2015 sidelined with an elbow injury. With his salary plus a buyout for the 2016 season, Lee took in $37.5 million from the franchise last year.
#53 — Ryan Howard, $25.6 Million: "The Big Piece" has had a rough year. Still on the roster in the final year of a $25 million annual salary, his fit on a young roster, coupled with his poor performance, has left a bad taste in some fans' mouth. Enough so that some idiot decided — despite Howard having an NL MVP, an NLCS MVP, a Rookie of the Year award and being an integral part of the 2008 World Series Championship team — to throw a beer bottle at him. Sure, Howard is overpaid at this point in his career, but nobody deserves that, obviously.
#60 — Sam Bradford, $24.3 Million: Finally, we have the guy who — after a mediocre season — requested to be traded (after already cashing an $11 million check) because his team, which indicated it was going to draft a quarterback, drafted a quarterback. Beautiful.
How do you feel? Depressed? Nauseous? Drowsy? No, that's not the side effects of your prescription kicking in. It's just Philly sports.
