Boys Meet World

In order to give my blog a more masculine edge, I surveyed some of my male counterparts to find out what kind of career appeals to someone with a y-chromosome. It's no surprise that an overwhelming majority mentioned a job in sports. Some cited being an agent to star athletes, others want to coach, one was so bold as to bring up usurping Roger Goodell as Commissioner of the NFL. Yes, it would appear as though men truly love the idea of making a living by playing a game, and honestly who can blame them? I for one would be thrilled if someone paid me to play Tetris.

Though the market may be based on fun and games, there's some serious money to be made in athletics. The combined worth of all of the teams in the National Football League alone is $35 billion dollars, and the average professional athlete in the NBA, MLB or NFL makes $1.5 to $5 million dollars a year. Even in the face of national and global economic slowdown, the professional sports industry continues to see substantial annual growth and shows no signs of slowing down. 

Marry me?

For all of us mere mortals who haven't been blessed with access to the Manning family gene pool, I did a bit of research and found a list of The 10 Best Careers in Sports according to Forbes. Though you won't be pulling in $85 million dollars a year like Floyd "Money" Mayweather, any of the following careers get you as close to the action as possible without having to wear a jockstrap:

1. Physical Therapist
2. Statistician (no thanks)
3. Sports Psychologist
4. Agent
5. Public Relations Manager
6. Advertising Account Executive
7. Event Coordinator
8. Sports Broadcaster
9. Photojournalist
10. Coach

Game on.