SOME COACHES ARE PAID WELL TOO; TOP 10

[Bretsky]

Belichick leads top-paid coaches
e-mail print By Bob Wolfley of the Journal Sentinel
May 21, 2011 |(9) Comments

Forbes magazine last week ranked the highest-paid coaches among the four major North American sports leagues: NFL, NBA, MLB and NHL.

Now that Phil Jackson has left the Staples Center, Bill Belichick slides into the top position as the highest-paid coach in those four sports at $7.5 million. Mike Shanahan of the Washington Redskins and Doc Rivers of the Boston Celtics are next at $7.0 million.

Of the top ten highest-paid coaches on the Forbes' list, seven are in the NFL and three are in the NBA:

Coach League Team Pay (millions)

Bill Belichick NFL New England $7.5M
Mike Shanahan NFL Washington Redskins $7.0M
Doc Rivers NBA Boston Celtics $7.0M
Pete Carroll NFL Seattle Seahawks $7.0M
Gregg Popovich NBA San Antonio Spurs $6.0M
Lovie Smith NFL Chicago Bears $6.0M
Mike D'Antoni NBA New York Knicks $6.0M
Ken Whisenhunt NFL Arizona Cardinals $5.75M
Tom Coughlin NFL New York Giants $5.25M
Mike Tomlin NFL Pittsburgh Steelers $5.0M


Green Bay Packers coach Mike McCarthy signed a three-year extension with the Packers in March that boosted his salary from $4 million annually to around $5 million. That would put him at or near Tomlin's compensation, which is ranked 10th on Forbes' list.

Milwaukee Bucks coach Scott Skiles makes about $4.5 million a year on his deal, which takes him through the 2012-'13 season. The Bucks picked up the fifth-year option of his contract in Oct. 2010.

[Tarlam!]

Ah to hell with it; I wasn't considering a career change at this period of my life, but, where do I sign?

[hoosier]

As usual the Washington Snyders lead the league in paying more for less. They're like the yin to the Yankees' yang in that way.

[hoosier]

Mike Sciosia's 10 year extension was reportedly worth $50M, so he is pushing 5M per year as well. Interesting that baseball managers in general have disproportionately low contracts.

[Lurker64]

Mike Sciosia's 10 year extension was reportedly worth $50M, so he is pushing 5M per year as well. Interesting that baseball managers in general have disproportionately low contracts.

I think in the real of coaches, baseball managers simply have to do less than their contemporaries in other sports. Football coaches are responsible for quite a bit in terms of "in-game decision-making" while basketball coaches are responsible for "convincing immature multimillionaires to behave reasonably" while managers in baseball simply don't do nearly as much as those guys.

[Pugger]

Baseball is not as complex as say football or as fast moving/changing as basketball so maybe that's why managers don't do nearly as much.

[Tarlam!]

that's why managers don't do nearly as much.

They have THE most important job in the world. They exchange pitchers. How else would i get my beer glass full?

[Scott Campbell]

Ah to hell with it; I wasn't considering a career change at this period of my life, but, where do I sign?

I don't think anyone's paying you anything till you renounce Australian Rules Football.

[Tarlam!]

If you can have 8 wives, why can't I have 4 footballs?

[hoosier]

I think in the real of coaches, baseball managers simply have to do less than their contemporaries in other sports. Football coaches are responsible for quite a bit in terms of "in-game decision-making" while basketball coaches are responsible for "convincing immature multimillionaires to behave reasonably" while managers in baseball simply don't do nearly as much as those guys.

I don't disagree that baseball managers have a less complex job than football coaches and that baseball culture doesn't breed as many big egos as basketball. But I disagree slightly with the metrics of comparison. I think the real question for comparing compensation isn't which sport places more demands on its coaches/managers; after all, the different sports don't pick from a common pool of potential hires. The real question is, how replaceable are the highly successful coaches/managers in each sport? Is a Tony LaRussa, Bobby Cox or Mike Scosia more replaceable than a Bill Bellichick, Bill Cowher or Andy Reid?

And maybe the answer to this question doesn't depend only on the respective talents of individual coaches, since outside of the large market/big spending teams like NYY, Boston and Philly, very few MLB teams can realistically hope to be contenders year in and year out. It doesn't matter if they are being managed by Earl Weaver or Walter Matthau: they're going to suck either way. Pro football, on the other hand, is much closer to parity and thus the market for what are perceived as good coaches is much more competitive.

[Zool]

If you can have 8 wives, why can't I have 4 footballs?

How the fuck can you walk with 4 foot balls?

[get louder at lambeau]

How the fuck can you walk with 4 foot balls?

Roll? Bounce?

[sharpe1027]

Roll? Bounce?

But if you were rolling or bouncing then you would not be walking.

[get louder at lambeau]

But if you were rolling or bouncing then you would not be walking.

Hey, whatever gets you from point A to point B. I think legs would just be used as brakes.

[LP]

Can anyone justify Pete Carroll making 7 million per to me? It's not like his NFL head coaching resume is out of this world or anything. He may have won in college, but so what. Different dynamic, different game.