Exactly right.  Why not sports figures or some other profession?  

The key thing to remember in regards to CEO pay is that this was due to the left's outrage decades ago.  The Bonfires of the Vanity pushed CEO pay to be more ownership related as opposed to straight pay.  Well, it turns out that this was very lucrative for CEOs as short-term cash was exchanged for long-term options and equity, worth many times what the cash would have been.