Sports Illustrated has unveiled its list of the 50 highest-earning American athletes, and by our count it includes exactly one Chicago-area player: White Sox pitcher Jake Peavy, who ranks 42nd with $16,625,000 in total earnings last year.
Earnings include "salary, winnings, bonuses, endorsements and appearance fees." Peavy's day-job base salary -- $16.5 million -- is is some $14.2 million more than the No. 1 name on the list, Tiger Woods, made on the PGA Tour. The biggest difference: Tiger pulled down $60 million in endorsement (and this is after the "I'm sorry for sleeping with everyone but my wife" sex scandal); Peavy managed just $125,000, which was better than just three other players: Barry Zito ($100K), Zach Randolph ($100K), and Darnell Dockett ($75K).
These are the lists where you don't mind bringing up the rear. For $16 million and change, you could give us Sammy Sosa skin-bleaching treatments while Brian Urlacher and Lance Briggs took turns tackling us at midfield of Solider Field in January. And we'd happily endure it all.