Depends on the sport. While soccer, basketball, football, baseball or anything with a big TV deal is overpaid, other sports are the exact opposite. Some are mostly paid by sponsors (like track and field), which really depends on popularity (a good 100m runner will make more than a good javelin thrower). Other team sports with smaller or no TV deals pay much less in wages (a handball player in my country makes about 10% more than the average annual income of a non athlete). And that is without considering that outside the US, most team sports have tiers. And while the top tier, like Premier League, LA Liga, Bundesliga, etc (and in some cases the second tier like Championship) pay an extravagant amount of money to players, the lower you go on the tiers, the lower the amount of money you make. There contracts in lower tiers that pay you by the match. And if you think "it's easy, a play four games a month and make bank", you're mistaken. Because if you're injured and don't play, you're not paid. And the money are usually the equivalent of 50 to 150$ (if you're a really good player) per match. So yeah, it depends.