mikey23545
03-01-2011, 06:42 AM
http://www.bobgretz.com/chiefs-football/lockout-will-hurt-coaches-%E2%80%A6-wednesday-cup-o%E2%80%99combine.html
If the NFL follows through with its plan for a lockout on Friday, the players won’t be the only people on the outside looking in.
About a dozen of the league’s 32 teams – including the Chiefs – plan to immediately cut the salaries of their coaching staffs, including in some cases the head coach.
According to Larry Keenan, the executive director of the NFL Coaches Association, those cuts range from 10 to 40 percent and there are some teams that will layoff or furlough coaches rather than have them continue to work in the team’s offices.
“Players will be affected (by a lockout) because they’ll lose bonuses, but they don’t lose salary in March, April or May,” Keenan said. “The coaches will lose pay.”
Every coaching contract in the league has language covering the possible ramifications with a lockout/strike/work stoppage. Speaking at the NFL Combine, Keenan said 10 to 12 teams have already told their coaches they will operate as business as usual and will not lay off coaches or cut their salaries.
“Those teams are not a surprise, they are the best run organizations in the league,” said Keenan. “Teams like Green Bay, Pittsburgh, Indianapolis, Houston, New York Giants, Baltimore, Philadelphia and Denver. They’ve already told their coaches nothing will change.”
Another eight teams plan to operate as normal for the first 30 days or so; it would be after that time when they could force furloughs and salary cuts, or continue to operate without changes.
“The majority of the owners think coaches are valuable parts of their organization,” said Keenan.
That leaves about a dozen NFL teams that obviously disagree because they plan to immediately cut coaches pay with a lockout. That group includes the Chiefs. How serious the salary cuts are is not something the organization is willing to talk about. But apparently Chiefs Chairman Clark Hunt doesn’t mind being the bad guy with his coaching staff – league sources have described the cuts to the team’s coaching payroll as “radical.”
“I know from what I’ve heard from our coaches it’s going to be among the most massive cuts in the league,” Keenan said of the Chiefs lockout scalpel.
Head coach Todd Haley would not address the subject while at the Combine. “I’m not going to talk about that,” he said.
Other teams expected to immediately cut the salaries of coaches are San Diego, Arizona, San Francisco, Atlanta, New Orleans, Buffalo, Jacksonville, New England, Dallas, Houston, Washington and Tampa Bay.
“Every team has a clause that says their salary will be rolled back at a certain point in time,” Kennan said. “The good teams say they won’t roll back salaries for six months. The bad teams say they’ll roll it back immediately and certain teams have it written into the contracts that they can be terminated immediately. That’s for all coaches and head coaches.”
It certainly sets up an uneven situation in the league. If the doors are locked, then every team will not have access to its players. But the same can’t be said about coaches. If the Chiefs coaches are asked to take a pay cut because of the lockout, it’s hard to imagine that they will continue to work the kind of hours that coaches normally put in.
But say the Denver Broncos plan to operate business as usual, with their coaches not facing any pay slash or furloughs. The advantage goes to the Broncos in a football sense and we won’t even touch the feelings created within the coaching staffs when it comes to loyalty to the organization.
“If one team is going to cut the defensive line coach 30 percent, and another isn’t going to take the opportunity to cut the defensive line coach’s pay, which team is going to have the kind of cohesive team feeling that every head coach is working towards on his staff?” asked Keenan.
“I’ve told them if you can save some money do it. There’s enough stress on these guys without being docked 25% of their pay.”
For 32 years, Keenan (right) was a football coach. He worked at the high school, college and pro levels. He was a head coach, a coordinator and a position coach and faced many pressure situations over those years. All of that prepared him for his role now as executive director of the NFLCA. His constituency faces potential problems that coaches have never before seen. It’s one of the reasons that they are seriously considering forming their own union to deal with the league.
“We’ve talked about that and talked about that with the league,” Keenan said. “We’ll have to wait our turn as the league and players work on their deal. Once that’s in place, we will be knocking on their door.
“We want respect and dignity and recognition of how valuable coaches are to the NFL.”
This strikes me as a really stupid move by the Chiefs.
If the NFL follows through with its plan for a lockout on Friday, the players won’t be the only people on the outside looking in.
About a dozen of the league’s 32 teams – including the Chiefs – plan to immediately cut the salaries of their coaching staffs, including in some cases the head coach.
According to Larry Keenan, the executive director of the NFL Coaches Association, those cuts range from 10 to 40 percent and there are some teams that will layoff or furlough coaches rather than have them continue to work in the team’s offices.
“Players will be affected (by a lockout) because they’ll lose bonuses, but they don’t lose salary in March, April or May,” Keenan said. “The coaches will lose pay.”
Every coaching contract in the league has language covering the possible ramifications with a lockout/strike/work stoppage. Speaking at the NFL Combine, Keenan said 10 to 12 teams have already told their coaches they will operate as business as usual and will not lay off coaches or cut their salaries.
“Those teams are not a surprise, they are the best run organizations in the league,” said Keenan. “Teams like Green Bay, Pittsburgh, Indianapolis, Houston, New York Giants, Baltimore, Philadelphia and Denver. They’ve already told their coaches nothing will change.”
Another eight teams plan to operate as normal for the first 30 days or so; it would be after that time when they could force furloughs and salary cuts, or continue to operate without changes.
“The majority of the owners think coaches are valuable parts of their organization,” said Keenan.
That leaves about a dozen NFL teams that obviously disagree because they plan to immediately cut coaches pay with a lockout. That group includes the Chiefs. How serious the salary cuts are is not something the organization is willing to talk about. But apparently Chiefs Chairman Clark Hunt doesn’t mind being the bad guy with his coaching staff – league sources have described the cuts to the team’s coaching payroll as “radical.”
“I know from what I’ve heard from our coaches it’s going to be among the most massive cuts in the league,” Keenan said of the Chiefs lockout scalpel.
Head coach Todd Haley would not address the subject while at the Combine. “I’m not going to talk about that,” he said.
Other teams expected to immediately cut the salaries of coaches are San Diego, Arizona, San Francisco, Atlanta, New Orleans, Buffalo, Jacksonville, New England, Dallas, Houston, Washington and Tampa Bay.
“Every team has a clause that says their salary will be rolled back at a certain point in time,” Kennan said. “The good teams say they won’t roll back salaries for six months. The bad teams say they’ll roll it back immediately and certain teams have it written into the contracts that they can be terminated immediately. That’s for all coaches and head coaches.”
It certainly sets up an uneven situation in the league. If the doors are locked, then every team will not have access to its players. But the same can’t be said about coaches. If the Chiefs coaches are asked to take a pay cut because of the lockout, it’s hard to imagine that they will continue to work the kind of hours that coaches normally put in.
But say the Denver Broncos plan to operate business as usual, with their coaches not facing any pay slash or furloughs. The advantage goes to the Broncos in a football sense and we won’t even touch the feelings created within the coaching staffs when it comes to loyalty to the organization.
“If one team is going to cut the defensive line coach 30 percent, and another isn’t going to take the opportunity to cut the defensive line coach’s pay, which team is going to have the kind of cohesive team feeling that every head coach is working towards on his staff?” asked Keenan.
“I’ve told them if you can save some money do it. There’s enough stress on these guys without being docked 25% of their pay.”
For 32 years, Keenan (right) was a football coach. He worked at the high school, college and pro levels. He was a head coach, a coordinator and a position coach and faced many pressure situations over those years. All of that prepared him for his role now as executive director of the NFLCA. His constituency faces potential problems that coaches have never before seen. It’s one of the reasons that they are seriously considering forming their own union to deal with the league.
“We’ve talked about that and talked about that with the league,” Keenan said. “We’ll have to wait our turn as the league and players work on their deal. Once that’s in place, we will be knocking on their door.
“We want respect and dignity and recognition of how valuable coaches are to the NFL.”
This strikes me as a really stupid move by the Chiefs.