The 50 highest-earning American athletes

Favre has plenty of reasons to return for a 20th season: He's due to earn $13 million in salary in 2010 on top of a $4 million deferred-salary paycheck from 2009 that he received this past March.

O'Neal was the second-highest paid player in the NBA last season and will team with Boston's Big Three to try to help lead the Celtics to another championship.

New York had hoped to land LeBron, but instead got Stoudemire, not a bad consolation prize. Stoudemire opted out of a $17.6 million option to sign a five-year, $100 million deal with New York.

In the final season of a seven-year, $93 million deal, T-Mac posted his worst statistics in every offensive category since becoming a starter 10 years ago. He was also the NBA's third-highest paid in '09-10.

Talk about a side project. Melo and wife La La Vasquez recently bought a $2 million L.A. home that will be the primary set of a VH1 reality series airing this fall documenting their July nuptials.

If the BoSox are at all worried over the Texan's bad elbow, they sure didn't show it -- the first year of his five-year, $82.5 million deal is the priciest, with an $18 million salary and a $3.5 million signing bonus.

Piece made a significant gamble by opting out of the final year of his contract, leaving $21 million on the table. He re-signed with the Celtics, inking a four-year, $60 million pact, giving him security should there be a lockout.

Creative accounting by the Raiders included no signing bonus for last year's surprise No. 7 pick, but $20.7 million in combined option and roster bonuses following a disappointing rookie season.

Gordon's foundation is again raffling off a Corvette owned by the NASCAR giant, with proceeds going to children's cancer research. Over four years, the event has raised more than $1.3 million.

The signature that keeps on giving: Wells' seven-year, $126 million extension in '06 included a $25.5 million signing bonus. The Jays' slugger just collected the last $8.5 million installment in March.