5 Reasons Why NFL Coaches Are Underpaid Scapegoats

Published 01/08/2024, 12:41 PM EST

The NFL is a whopping $163 billion worth of league! If you combined the NBA and the MLB’s worth, it still wouldn’t match the NFL’s worth. NFL players are known to bag mammoth salaries. Joe Burrow, for example, signed a five-year extension worth $275 million, which made him the highest-paid player.

Guess how much Bill Belichick, who is the highest-paid coach in the league, makes? He signed a one-year contract extension worth $25 million. So, why are NFL coaches so underpaid?

Pay restrictions add a ceiling to the salaries of coaches

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The main reason why the situation for coaches is tougher is because of the number of players in every team. 32 teams, 53 players on the roster of every team. As such, most owners prioritize paying their players well instead of handing fat cheques to coaches. Coaches find themselves competing for salaries with players.

There is no salary cap for coaches like players do. So, what’s stopping owners from paying big for good coaches? Owners tend to prioritize other areas of team development. There are “businessmen” at the end of the day, and marketing and building better stadiums also take a chunk of the money available to owners. Washington Commanders‘ owner, Josh Harris, for example. He decided to invest $3 billion to construct a new stadium for his team. But what about his coach? After Week 18 ended, and the Commanders exited with a 4-13 record, he fired HC Ron Rivera.

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The third reason is that there is a big network of assistant coaches and coaches for specific positions. Head coaches find that they are extremely expendable due to this. The annual tenure of a head coach is merely 3 years. This just goes to show owners can fire head coaches wily nily and still get new ones to replace them. This season alone, four HCs have been fired! But are coaches helpless against this or can they collectively make a change and demand higher salaries?

Coaches plagued by lack of strong collectives and voices

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Players, even though they earn more, have managed to earn more bargaining chips for themselves. How exactly? The NFL Players’s Association regularly takes up issues that concern players and fight the league on those issues. As a result, they have managed to get through many changes. It would not have been possible if there was no collective voice, but just individual opinions. Coaches, on the other hand, lack any such association. They do have the NFL Coaches Association, but it’s as good as non-existent. Coaches pay a heavy price for this lack of representation.

Bill Belichick is the current head of the Association. But other than him, there are not many names in the collective who hold bargaining chips. He’s the exception that proves the rule. Not having strong voices tones down the effect of the Association and they are unable to speak out against low salaries. When you consider coaches’ salaries over 30 years, they have only increased from $300,000 to over $6 million. How much has the worth of the teams that they play for increased in the same time-span? In 1993, the average value of an NFL team was $100 million. Fast forward to 2023, and the average team is worth $4.14 billion!

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As the regular season comes to an end, it looks highly unlikely that things are going to change for coaches.

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Written by:

I am a hardcore believer in the ?Mamba Mentality?, which certainly applies to the NFL. The sport is not just about physical prowess but also demands a powerful mindset. Growing up, I spent time with athletes on the neighborhood soccer field.

Edited by:

Garima Yadav

5 Reasons Why NFL Coaches Are Underpaid Scapegoats

Pay restrictions add a ceiling to the salaries of coaches

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Coaches plagued by lack of strong collectives and voices