The reserve clause, in North American professional sports, was part of a player contract which stated that the rights to players were retained by the team upon the contract's expiration. Players under these contracts were not free to enter into another contract with another team. Once signed to a contract, players could, at the team's discretion, be reassigned, traded, sold, or released.
Curt Flood
In professional sports, as opposed to amateur sports, participants receive payment for their performance. Professionalism in sport has come to the fore through a combination of developments. Mass media and increased leisure have brought larger audiences, so that sports organizations or teams can command large incomes. As a result, more sportspeople can afford to make sport their primary career, devoting the training time necessary to increase skills, physical condition, and experience to modern levels of achievement. This proficiency has also helped boost the popularity of sports. In most sports played professionally there are many more amateur than professional players, though amateurs and professionals do not usually compete.
Professional athletes like footballers Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi receive salaries that come from corporate sponsors that advertise on their uniforms or around the sporting venue, as well as from the fans who pay money to attend the game
Andy Murray and Laura Robson, professional athletes competing in the tennis mixed doubles event at the 2012 Summer Olympics.
Liverpool Footballer Steven Gerrard preparing to strike the ball, 2005