Even as for most people, the salary and lifestyle of a sports athlete seem like a dream, the reality is that athletes are still salaried employees who get pay very big salaries to play sports. They are employees.
People in power, when they see athletes rebel against the status quo, they get us upset as when a coal miner unionizes and attempts a strike.
Even worst, the owners of the Sport Clubs feel double insulted because of the hefty salaries they provide. They expect athletes, whom very often come from humble households, to feel indebted to the people who took them out of middle-class households and allow them to live in the style of the very rich, if even for a few years. They expect reverence from athletes, not rebellion.