What a poor little, rich, spoiled athlete, who has no worries in the world while playing a game to make a living.”

This is what many people think when hearing about some hardships that fall on today’s professional athletes.

“They must have it so difficult, living in multi-million dollar homes while lighting cigars with $100 bills.”

Most athletes in any of the four major American sports get paid millions of dollars a year, and most people think the biggest responsibility athletes have is to play the game and cash the checks.

Despite having yearlong training, a grueling game and many other chores that come with being a professional athlete, many of them still have, at times, unique situations that not only affect them personally, but will affect all other professional athletes.

Ugueth Urbina, a pitcher for the Detroit Tigers, is one of those athletes you should actually feel for because he has to make a possibly life-threatening decision while considering the safety of every player’s family in the profession.

Urbina has taken a hiatus from major league baseball since his 54-year-old mother, Maura Villaroel, was kidnapped from her Ocumare Del Tuy, Venezuela home.

According to ESPN.com, Villaroel is still being held, presumably for a ransom, which officials deny has been set.

Although Joel Rengifo, director of Venezuela’s anti-kidnapping police unit, denies financial demands being placed, one Venezuelan newspaper, El Universal, reported a $15 million ransom being demanded from Urbina.

The kidnapping, which occurred on Sept. 1, reportedly consisted of four men dressed as police officers. After opening a gate surrounding the home by providing a fake search warrant, the kidnappers left with Villaroel in a green Ford Fiesta.

A 19-year-old motorcycle mechanic named Wilson Bolivar, who happened to be in the same area at the time, was also kidnapped.

This kidnapping was not the first family tragedy that Urbina has had to endure, though. Urbina’s father, Juan, was murdered by bandits in an attempted robbery in 1994.

So, the question is, what is Urbina to do in this situation?

Urbina really only has two options. He can either pay the reported $15 million ransom and hope his mother is returned safely, or he could not pay the ransom and hope that police officers can find her and get her home safely.

Although it seems like this should be an easy choice for a professional athlete to make, there are many dominoes that could fall if he pays the ransom.

First off, there is the possibility that Urbina may not have the full $15 million. Although the amount of money Urbina does have was not reported, ESPN reported that Urbina has made $24.7 million over his 10-year career. That’s only an average of $2.47 million per year. If Urbina has not invested money, he may not have the full amount that is reportedly being demanded.

The more important consequence is the precedent that Urbina would set by paying the ransom. By paying the kidnappers, it could show other kidnappers in the future how easy it is to get a lot of money from athletes. This could possibly put the families of current and future professional athletes at risk for kidnapping.

Although Urbina is being urged by local authorities to refuse any payments of ransom and Rengifo has even said Urbina agreed not to pay a ransom, many have speculated that he may pay behind official’s backs.

According to ESPN.com, a local police source who has been investigating the crime insisted that negotiations were ongoing and that Urbina was in the process of arranging a payment.

For someone whose family is extremely important, this is a difficult line that must be walked. Thankfully, most of us will never have to experience this kind of frustrating and daunting task that Urbina must complete.

However, all of us should have our hearts with Urbina and his family in this time of desperation and need.