Not all professional athletes make a lot of money such as those that participate in less traditional non revenue producing sports. In order to be able to be a professional athlete full time, a lot of these athletes have to rely on the products and money they get from their sponsors and advertisers. Other athletes, that are constantly in the press however, make much more money playing their sport and even more sometimes from their sponsorship deals. One of the earliest athletes to really do this was professional basketball player, Michael Jordan who used his basketball skills to promote many products in addition to apparel, toys, products and even basketball videos with his likeness on them.

Wherever there is room to promote a sponsor, they will find a method to do it whether it is on the helmet of a race car driver or in the form of a body tattoo for professional beach volleyball player Gabrielle Reece. Athletes are offered great package deals to promote a certain brand as a kind of spokesperson and in exchange they get monetary and product compensation. For the less famous athletes, this is very helpful to offer them the needed income to be able to train full time. For other well paid athletes in sports as professional baseball, basketball and football players it is just icing on the cake.

Michael Jordan was one of the first professional athletes to really be endorsed by various sponsors and he ended up bringing in more from those sponsors than he did playing basketball. The inital companies saw the total star power in Michael Jordan and knew he would make the perfect marketer for their product. One example was Gatorade which was a sports drink that had existed for some time but when they got Michael Jordan to endorse Gatorade, sales rose quickly and it became the best selling sports drink.

Now younger professional athletes that are making it to the big leagues see product endorsements as part of the package deal when they become a professional. Many new athletes that are confident in their sport and their ability to sell items even hold out for multi million dollars contracts today. One example of that youthful professional player is Le Bron James. He was in the headlines for his basketball abilities saying he was the next Jordan when he was a young school kid playing in Akron, Ohio. Now he is one the biggest paid athletes with multiple endorsements.

The largest grossing professional athlete to receive the largest amount of endorsement deals in history is golfer, Tiger Woods. As an individual athlete, he is only paid by performance and the number of large golf tournaments he wins. Because he has been such a powerful and likeable force in his sport, his endorsements deals are earning him many million every year on top of his golf earnings. He also has lost several of these sponsors with the latest scandals of his many infidelities.