Highest Paid Coaches

Highest Paid Coaches

What is the value of a coach? Do coaches win games for their teams? Whatever your opinion is on the value of coaching, one thing has to be recognized.... coaches get paid.... a lot. The value of a coach may be determined by historic success, future potential or any other characteristic that you can think of. Analyzing the top paid coaches, leads to interesting results. NFL coaches dominate the list of top paid coaches and success if often recognized.

The top 10 coaching salaries are....

You would think he could get a hoodie that is not torn...

Coach	Sport	Annual Salary
Bill Belichick	NFL	$7.5 million
Mike Shanahan	NFL	$7 million
Doc Rivers	NBA	$7 million
Jeff Fisher	NFL	$7 million
Pete Carroll	NFL	$7 million
Gregg Popovich	NBA	$6 million
Lovie Smith	NFL	$6 million
Ken Whisenhunt	NFL	$5.8 million
Mike Tomlin	NFL	$5.5 million
Andy Reid	NFL	$5.5 million

The National Football League dominates the list of highest paid coaches. Coming in at number one is the coach of the New England Patriots, Bill Belichick. Making $7.5 million a year, the highest paid coach in the league has won three super bowls and has a career winning percentage of .643. Belichick has won 72% of his games since taking over the Patriots in 2000. Mike Shanahan making $7 million a year is tied for second place in annual salary. Shanahan has a winning percentage of .569, but is only 11-21 since taking over the Redskins. Also making $7 million a year is the coach of the Seattle Seahawks, Pete Carroll. Carroll has an unproven 47-49 record in the NFL but his success at USC made him a hot commodity when he decided to return to the NFL. Jumping down to the bottom of the top 10 you will find the head coach of the Philadelphia Eagles, Andy Reid. Although Reid has not won a championship, he has a very impressive 126-81 record and has been a model of consistency in the NFL.

There are some notable facts about the list of highest paid coaches. Phil Jackson who retired as the coach of the Los Angeles Lakers would have been on the top of the list if he was still coaching. Jackson's annual salary was over $10 million dollars. Another notable coach is suspended New Orleans Saints coach, Sean Payton. Payton would have been tied for second on the list at $7 million had he not been suspended for the season. 

Taking a look at the list of top paid coaches it is easy to tell how successful some of the coaches are. Success in general gets coaches paid. Belichick has a proven track record of winning and being the highest paid coach is more than justified. As for some of the other members of the list.... the large dollars may not be justified. Although Shanahan has won in the past, since getting the large dollars from the 'skins he has not won... at all. Pete Carroll had a great college coaching career.... but I do not think he was deserving of the big bucks from the Seahawks.

Final Thought

Why are there not hockey or baseball coaches on the top 10 list? And why do football coaches dominate the list? The answers to those questions are simple. Football coaches do the most work, especially in-game. In baseball or hockey, coaches put the players that can do the best job in the game and hope it works out. Football constantly involves plays being called and adjustments being made. Although some coaches are seeing nice salaries, they still do not compare to the highest paid athletes. Alex Rodriguez will be paid $30,000,000 this season.

Drew Rosen

Follow on Twitter @dmrosen7

Data from Espn.com, forbes.com and cbssports.com