Ten: the number of NFL players who have died either while playing the game or practicing. More than 1,346,000: the number of U.S. soldiers who have died while serving our country. So why it is that the salaries of an NFL player are about double of that of an American soldier?

The average salary of an NFL player is $1.9 million. These salaries are so high because of the amount of money the players make for the owners of the team as well as the NFL. It is also because the players are at risk for injuries while playing.

But if part of the reason why their salaries are so high is because of the risks they take while playing the game, then why aren’t soldiers being paid more? I’d have to say their jobs propose a larger risk of injury or death.

Soldiers receive way less than half of what an NFL star makes yearly. The average salary of a United States soldier is about $54,000 per year.

Soldiers, when contracted, are obligated to stay in the military for at least eight years. That does not mean they must remain in active duty for that length of time, but even in the reserve soldiers can be called to duty and be shipped overseas to fight for our country.

The typical length of an NFL player’s career is three and a half years. That means that these players receive about $5.7 million in the three years that they are working while a U.S. soldier would only be paid about $162,000 within the same length of time.

Many of the men and women deployed are leaving behind families who have to live each day worrying about their loved ones. I doubt that when an NFL player goes to football practice their families fear that they won’t be coming home.

Not only do soldiers risk their lives but also their mental sanity. Posttraumatic stress disorder is very common among soldiers coming home from war. They experience many horrifying events on a day-to-day basis that affect them so much that they will have nightmares and have a higher risk of substance abuse. PTSD can also cause relationships to become dysfunctional.

Which do you believe to be more important: freedom or entertainment? I like to think that most would agree that the jobs of our soldiers are much more important than a silly football game.

The men and women risking their own lives and sanity in order to protect our freedom should be the ones receiving the $1.9 million paychecks, not the NFL football players who play a game for a living.