With the departure of Los Angeles Lakers head coach Phil Jackson from the coaching ranks, New England Patriots head coach Bill Belichick takes the top spot on the professional coaches pay scale of the four major North American sports.
With Phil Jackson’s Departure, Bill Belichick Becomes Highest Paid Coach
Jackson was making a whopping $10-plus million per year while Belichick brings in just (just?) $7.5 million per year, according to estimates from Forbes.
The NFL is the richest sport so it's no surprise that several other football coaches crack the list: Chicago Bears' Love Smith ($6 million), Arizona Cardinals Ken Whisenhunt ($5.75 million), New York Giants' Tom Coughlin ($5.35 million) and Pittsburgh Steelers' Mike Tomlin ($5 million).
It also makes Tomlin look like a bargain considering he’s the only one of those that can hang with Belichick in the NFL.
I’m not surprised NFL coaches are so high on the list. I think you can make an argument that coaches make more of a difference in the NFL than any other sport. Football is the most team-oriented sport, I think, and the changes coaches can make on offense and defense have a larger impact on the game than other sports.
I could be wrong, though. Should NFL coaches be the highest paid?
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