Of course, most of the time, a game is played to win. That's why player's play and owners sign players who are good at playing a particular sport. But it appears some players don't care about winning, the purpose of a game, and more about the outrageous sums of money that they make. After a 1989 Jose Canseco signing that made him the highest paid player in baseball at the time (5 million a year), Padres first baseman Will Clark called him a "jerk". And Canseco shot back: "I"m making a million more than you!" They are completely missing the point of the game, shooting insults at each other about money (Weiss, 2).
But what are athletes doing other than entertaining us for a few hours in a day? Are they saving lives? Curing diseases? Are they giving aid to war-torn countries? No they are playing simple little games. The average firefighter or cop makes $30-$40,000 a year, maybe less. They save lives and risk their lives everyday. Doctors and scientists make good money but they are working to help people and still make less than some athletes. Athletes certainly don't deserve millions of dollars for just playing a game (Eichorn 5). .
Usually players get paid to join a team to help in the ultimate goal of winning a championship. Sometime players don't help their team win though, for instance the Rangers haven't been to the playoffs at all since the signed Alex Rodriguez. And since players get paid huge multi-million dollar contracts, that could put some added pressure to them and they might not perform as expected. This might make teammates who are performing at a higher-level get angry and want justification by getting more money. It's understandable, but pretty childish considering it's just a game (Eichorn, 1).
And why are these salaries so high and player so greedy? It seemed to start in the early 1990's. At that time Sports Illustrated called it "The days of the filthy rich athlete" (Messina, 5&7).