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Of note, per a graphic in the following article,
NFL team operating profits have soared an
average of 21.5%, NFL coaches' salaries have
increased an average of 14%, CEOs' pay (in-
cluding bonuses, stock options and the like?)
has increased by 10%, and NFL average pay
for players has increased by a paltry 2.7%
(trailing inflation) over the last 10 years.

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September 9, 2007

Hotter than a CEO -- NFL Coaches'
Pay First-Cla$$
http://www.nypost.com/seven/09092007/business/hotter_than_a_ceo.htm
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Complete article:

Salaries of National Football League head coaches
are soaring, growing five times as fast as players'
paychecks and even outpacing the growth of CEO
compensation over the past 10 years, research by
The Post shows.

Led by the behemoth contracts of Mike Holmgren,
who will earn $8 million this season coaching the
Seattle Seahawks, Joe Gibbs, who will be paid
$5.7 million to revive the Washington Redskins,
and Brian Billick, who will get $5 million to guide
the Baltimore Ravens, NFL head coaches' salaries
have ballooned by an average of 14 percent a year
over the past decade.

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http://www.nypost.com/seven/09092007/photos/biz035.jpg
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That outshines the average 10 percent annual increase
in total CEO compensation and the meager 2.7 percent
average annual increase of players' salaries, research
shows.

Head coaches will pocket an average of $3.25 million
this season - up from $1 million in 1997 - while the
players will earn an average of $1.5 million.

"There's no question salaries have skyrocketed over
the past 10 years," said Larry Kennan, staff director
of the NFL Coaches Association - a group working on
issues affecting its members.

And deep-pocketed owners are offering up more than
boatloads of cash to snare the right coach.

"I've had two-thirds of the league's owners come down
to the [Florida] Keys and offer to make me one of the
highest-paid coaches in the league and throw in 10 per-
cent of the team's proceeds," former Dallas Cowboys
and Miami Dolphins head coach turned Fox analyst
Jimmy Johnson told The Post in an interview from his
Florida home.

"Owners would shell out millions in the past for an
offensive tackle who could get hurt and miss the entire
season. But they were reluctant to consider paying a
head coach a lot of money. Eventually, their thought
process changed and salaries began to rise steadily,"
Johnson added.

Just how dramatic has the change been? Consider this:
Johnson earned $400,000 in his first season in Dallas
in 1989. Holmgren will pocket $500,000 per *game*
this year.

Contracts began taking a massive turn in 1996 when
the NFL Coaches Association formed. That was when
Kennan and his co-workers began gathering data on
pay scales for assistant coaches, placing a higher
value on their worth.

Over the same 10-year period, the average operating
profit of each NFL team has risen 21.5 percent a year,
according to Forbes.

Other factors that significantly influenced the boom
were free agency and the salary cap, which made the
coach's job more demanding - and important.

So does Johnson feel a bit jealous over the big bucks
being shelled out?

"When you consider all the work involved, I don't
see any coach being overpaid," Johnson said. "Nor-
mal weekdays during the season can be from 5 a.m.
until 10 p.m."

"There's a lot of sacrifice, especially for the ones
with a family," he added.

"There's only a two-week vacation. The rest of the
time you're working long, long hours. I do miss the
competitive nature, but not the 14-hour days."

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