There is alot of dedication and hard work that goes into being a successful pro athlete however the extremely high pay erodes away at the true passion for the game and makes it more of a business.
Perhaps if pro athletes were paid according to their own performance and incented on achieving goals(individual and team) each season, game and practice as well as paid for number of practices participated in and effort in practice there would be more drive and passion in all they do. Too many of these so called great athletes are not pushed to practice hard or even at all and get paid for each game whether they play well or at all.
With the caliber of ahtletes out there today we would see some amazing feats and games if they were paid according to how they performed.
i.e.I'm sorry Mr. Owens out of the 65 plays on offense you dogged it on three plays, dropped two passes you should have caught, missed two blocks and ran one incorrect route. You also missed two practices this week when you should have been out there with your team. Your pay this week is $250,000 instead of the $410,000 you would normally make.
Try that method and we would see the same passion and pride we currently see in the college ranks.