2009 NFL coaching carousel thread

yup.

His agent, Jimmy Sexton, demanded it as a "gesture of goodwill" and to "head off speculation" Saban would be looking to jump jobs again soon. : :

At the moment, Bama had painted itself so far into a corner to get Saban, they would have agreed to anything Sexton wanted under the sun. He could have demanded every first-born male child born in Alabama for the next 10 years and they would have said "ok fine, whatever you want."

 

That may be the dumbest thing I have ever heard of a university doing, which is saying something. Doesn't that pretty much guarantee he will leave early?

 

Here is Saban's contract. Please show me where the $40 million dollar payout can be found.

http://www.usatoday.com/sports/graphics/coaches_contracts07/pdfs2007/alabama_fb.pdf

 

Not many coaches are on the losing end of three conference championship games and a couple of other bad playoff losses and last at the same place for 15 years.

When Belichick starts losing consistently, and he will at some point, he'll get bored and want to go somewhere else. It's just unfortunate that he's not going be fired over the phone like he was by Art Modell.

 

Yeah, there's no way that's correct. I've looked over Saban's contract many times (I was working in that state when he was hired) and that's not in there.

What he does have is a totally guaranteed 8-year, $32 million contract with no buyout. That means he can leave whenever he wants with no penalty, but if Alabama fires him (not that they ever would) they owe him the balance of the contract.

I know Saban has agreed on an extension in the last couple of months, which could re-write some of the language, but to my knowledge, he hasn't signed it yet. (It's his MO to do that sort of stuff right after the season).

 

Thought this might be a good place to ask this ... how exactly did Al Davis make enough money to maintain ownership of an NFL team?

He came up through the coaching ranks as I recall (he was also AFL commissioner for a time), and I've never heard anything about his outside business interests. I know he has sold minority stakes in the team, and obviously the NFL revenue-sharing plan makes everyone rich, but it still seems that he has to be getting outside money from somewhere.

Anyone know?

 

yup.

And I certainly hope people aren't so silly to believe that all provisions of coaching contracts are made public, especially in a kingdom of yokels like Alabama.

Not that Saban particularly believes "contracts" apply to him anyway.

Like most coaches, he believes that a "contract" means:

1) My employer (university or NFL team) has to pay me millions and millions and millions, every last nickel included in the contract, and

2) I can leave whenever I want.

 

Well I guess it's between you and your secret source then, Starman. All I know is I've paid pretty close attention to Alabama football for almost 20 years and I've never heard even a rumor about any such provision.

Saban is a state employee, even though the state pays only a fraction of his total compensation. Thus, all provisions of his contract are subject to public review.

His radio and television responsibilities are spelled out in the publicly available contract, as is all the other language about guarantees and buyouts. Why wouldn't your super-secret out clause be?

 

When the AFL-NFL merger was announced, Davis went back to the Raiders and was made a general partner in charge of football operations (buying a 10 percent stake - he came from a wealthy family). In 1972, he got one of the other general partners to agree to make him managing general partner - freezing out the existing managing general partner.
He only became the majority owner of the team in 2005, but I've got to think the move to L.A., the Irwindale $10 mil, and the move back have put a few dollars in his pocket.

 

Thanks. I've just always wondered about that. I guess you could say Davis is (almost) living proof that the NFL's brand of socialism is at least good for one person.

 

I think Cowher will wind up in Carolina and Holmgren will wind up in Washington.

 

I agree that Landry's longevity record will never be matched. Coaching was just different in those days. There wasn't the constant media scrutiny, the immense pressure like there is now. It wasn't a 24/7/365 job. You had an offseason and maybe even a day or two off during the season.

The people I really feel for are the assistant coaches. You think we work some hellacious hours in the media? Check out those guys' schedules. They work like 18-20 hours a day, seven days a week.

There have always been bad teams. No coach could have turned this year's Rams or Buccaneers into winners overnight. I hope those coaches either got (1) long-term contracts or (2) hefty financial guarantees before signing.