Fred Harteis News Articles – Richest Athletes

Fred Harteis News Articles - Are America's richest athletes growing poorer? For the third year in a row, Sports Illustrated and SI.com set out to discover who the 50 top-earning athletes are. And for the third year in a row, we came to the same conclusion: When it comes to the money game, no one even comes close to Tiger Woods, who has a jaw-dropping $97.6 million in earnings.

But the average wealth of the 50 actually fell by $500,000 since last year's list. The reason? Endorsers are taking fewer chances on athletes and increasingly turning to Hollywood celebrities (No. 2 Phil Mickelson and No. 4 Kobe Bryant are the only others on this list to have a noticeable increase in corporate income).

Here are a list of he top 10:

Tiger Woods - Pro Golf ~ $97,628,024 Tiger's a lock to be sports' first $100 million-a-year man; the 11-time major winner has now exceeded a half-billion in career earnings.

Phil Mickelson - Pro Golf ~ $45,971,710 Double-bogey: Thanks to Lefty's increasing endorsement portfolio, the Fortunate 50 features its first golfing one-two.

Shaquille O'Neal - Heat (NBA) ~ 34,000,000 Guess I'll stay: Shaq couldn't find a taker for his Beach mega-mansion at his $32 million asking price, so he took it off the market.

Kobe Bryant - Lakers (NBA) ~ $33,656,932 Look who's playing second fiddle to Shaq again! Nearly doubled endorsement earnings in royalty payments from the likes of Nike, Sony and Upper Deck.

Carson Palmer - Bengals (NFL) ~ 550,000 Franchise quarterback's nine-year, $119 million contract extension included $24 million in up-front bonus money.

LeBron James - Cavaliers (NBA) ~ $28,621,800 Wait 'til next year: James will earn $5.8 million in salary this upcoming season, the last year of his rookie deal before his extension kicks in.

Derek Jeter - Yankees (MLB) ~ 28,000,000 The Yankee captain headlines 10 Bronx Bombers earning roughly 75 percent of the team's $196 million payroll in '06.

Alex Rodriguez - Yankees (MLB) ~ $27,000,000 A-Rod recently bought an eight-room, 5,000-square foot condo in Trump Park Avenue for a cool $7.5 mil.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. - Auto Racing ~ 761,830 Add in sales of Dale merchandise and income to his racing company and Junior's actual take in '06 is about twice this figure.

Michael Vick - Falcons (NFL) ~ $25,400,000 Falcons maestro is still reaping the benefits of the 10-year, $130 million contract extension he signed in 2004.

To see the complete list of Top 50 Richest Athletes click here: Sports Illustrated

Source: Sports Illustrated.com

About Fred Harteis: Fred Harteis leads Harteis International. Fred Harteis has a background in agriculture and has created many successful business ventures.