In my last blog entry, I discussed average NFL salaries. I had initially hoped to talk about median salaries but, with my limited internet searching skills, was not able to find enough information about the history of median NFL salaries.
When
analyzing data, why do we often focus on the median instead of the average
(mean)?
Indianapolis Colts – 2012 Salaries
|
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Rk
|
Player
|
Salary
|
||
1
|
Dwight
Freeney
|
$19,035,000
|
||
2
|
Antoine
Bethea
|
$6,225,000
|
||
3
|
Robert
Mathis
|
$5,750,000
|
||
4
|
Andrew
Luck
|
$4,015,000
|
||
5
|
Reggie
Wayne
|
$3,500,000
|
||
6
|
Adam
Vinatieri
|
$3,200,000
|
||
7
|
Antonio
Johnson
|
$2,000,000
|
||
8
|
Samson
Satele
|
$1,866,667
|
||
9
|
Anthony
Castonzo
|
$1,818,431
|
||
10
|
Cory
Redding
|
$1,716,667
|
||
11
|
Jerry
Hughes
|
$1,691,250
|
||
12
|
Winston
Justice
|
$1,500,000
|
||
13
|
Austin
Collie
|
$1,417,388
|
||
14
|
Donald
Brown
|
$1,385,000
|
||
15
|
Pat
McAfee
|
$1,322,500
|
||
16
|
Drew
Stanton
|
$1,225,000
|
||
17
|
Pat
Angerer
|
$1,132,500
|
||
18
|
Tom
Zbikowski
|
$1,033,333
|
||
19
|
Coby
Fleener
|
$971,000
|
||
20
|
Vontae
Davis
|
$957,500
|
||
21
|
Fili
Moala
|
$873,000
|
||
22
|
Trai Essex
|
$825,000
|
||
23
|
Mewelde Moore
|
$825,000
|
||
24
|
Jerraud
Powers
|
$784,625
|
||
25
|
Darius
Butler
|
$770,000
|
||
26
|
Mike
McGlynn
|
$700,000
|
||
27
|
Moise
Fokou
|
$627,438
|
||
28
|
Drake
Nevis
|
$622,278
|
||
29
|
Donnie
Avery
|
$615,000
|
||
30
|
Justin King
|
$615,000
|
||
31
|
Delone
Carter
|
$571,301
|
||
32
|
Dwayne
Allen
|
$565,826
|
||
33
|
Ricardo
Mathews
|
$551,628
|
||
34
|
Kavell
Conner
|
$551,309
|
||
35
|
Josh
Gordy
|
$540,000
|
||
36
|
Jeff
Linkenbach
|
$540,000
|
||
37
|
Seth
Olsen
|
$540,000
|
||
38
|
Matt
Overton
|
$540,000
|
||
39
|
T.Y.
Hilton
|
$521,750
|
||
40
|
Sergio
Brown
|
$490,000
|
||
41
|
Cassius
Vaughn
|
$490,000
|
||
42
|
Joe
Lefeged
|
$467,667
|
||
43
|
Kris Adams
|
$465,000
|
||
44
|
Mario
Addison
|
$465,000
|
||
45
|
Martin
Tevaseu
|
$465,000
|
||
46
|
Joe
Reitz
|
$455,000
|
||
47
|
Vick
Ballard
|
$426,140
|
||
48
|
LaVon
Brazill
|
$409,670
|
||
49
|
Chandler Harnish
|
$401,474
|
||
50
|
Mario
Harvey
|
$390,000
|
||
51
|
Justin
Hickman
|
$390,000
|
||
52
|
Dominique
Jones
|
$390,000
|
||
53
|
Nathan
Palmer
|
$390,000
|
||
54
|
Bradley
Sowell
|
$390,000
|
||
55
|
Jerrell
Freeman
|
$375,000
|
||
Source: Fox Sports*
|
As an example, let’s look at the salaries for the 2012 Indianapolis Colts.
This
team is somewhat of an anomaly because they have the highest-paid player in the
league (Dwight Freeney) and the
lowest total team payroll in the league.
This makes the Colts an exaggerated microcosm of the NFL – a league in
which most players earn a high salary, but a few players earn an insanely high salary.
So,
how much money does the typical player
on the Colts earn?
If
we use average salary (rounded to the nearest dollar) the answer is $1,469,115
– but is this really typical? 43 players, representing78 percent of the
team, make less than this amount.
The
average salary is artificially inflated by the top-earning players on the
list. If we take the top three salaries
(Freeney, Bathea, and Mathis) off of the list and recalculate the average, it
becomes $957,526 (again, rounded to the nearest dollar). Removing three players caused the average
salary to decrease by about 35%.
It
seems more reasonable to use median salary and state that the typical player on
this team earns $622,278. This amount is
not artificially inflated by the top earners on the list. If we remove the top three salaries, the
median becomes $615,000. This number is
about 1% lower than the original median.
If
the example of the Colts does not convince you that median is the better way to
go, consider this example:
A
group of one hundred people decide to look in their wallets to see how much
money each person is carrying.
Ninety-nine of the people are carrying $1 and one person is
carrying $1,000,000. The average amount
of money per person is $10,000.99 ($1,000,099 ÷ 100). Does this mean that the typical person in
this group is carrying over ten thousand dollars in his/her wallet? Of course not.
In
situations like these, median gives
the best approximation of the typical case – the average is not really very
average.
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