Floyd Mayweather, LeBron James Headline List Of Highest-Paid Athletes (Photos)

It must be nice to be a professional athlete. It must be even better to be a professional athlete at the top of your game with starpower and marketability.

Forbes Magazine released its annual list of the richest athletes in sports, and the No. 1 takeaway is that everyone will be jealous at the amount of money the top sports stars make each year.

It’s also not much of a surprise that the top-earning athletes are also celebrities that, in many instances, transcend sports. That’s in large part because of endorsements that put athletes on a bigger stage. That bigger stage allows for more exposure, and more exposure usually leads to more bucks.

That’s why someone like Tiger Woods — who’s ranked 181st in the world and made less than $1 million playing golf last season — still cracks the top 10. A cool $50 million in endorsements will do that.

Despite Woods’ $50.6 million in earnings, he’s far from the No. 1 spot on the top 10. Again, being a professional athlete must be nice.