If Elon Musk is the icing on the cake named “billionaires aren’t geniuses,” then NFL owners are the batter.
According to a recent report, the league recently notified owners that over the last five years they’ve spent a whopping $800 million on coaches and front-office executives that don’t even work for them anymore.
I thought we were headed towards a recession — guess not.
The report goes on to tell us that the league even made spreadsheets that showed how bad the decision-making has been, displaying the absurd amounts of money that have been made by owners firing people too soon, or hiring the wrong ones. Between the Carolina Panthers, Indianapolis Colts, and Tennessee Titans, a minimum of $69 million and 12 years of remaining contracts were flushed down the toilet. The New York Football Giants are currently paying three different coaching staffs in 2022. And since 2021, seven head coaches have been fired during or after the season.
Do the names of these execs and coaches look familiar?
Jeff Saturday. Josh McDaniels. Nathaniel Hackett. Eric Bieniemy. Byron Leftwich. Leslie Frazier. Matt Rhule. Frank Reich. Jon Gruden. Mike Mayock.
If you’re wondering what they all have in common, it’s that they were either hired, fired, or should have been hired — but still aren’t — recently all due to a dumb decision that an owner signed off on. And with Black Sunday only a few weeks away, another group of head and interim coaches will be relieved of their duties as the NFL averages almost seven head-coaching changes per year.
This is not a league that values job security.
Funny enough, the report that was made for the owners feels like just another example of what Brian Flores’ lawyers will use as ammunition. Because when three Black coaches (Flores, Ray Horton, and Steve Wilks) filed a class-action lawsuit against the league for its alleged racist hiring practices, proof that the owners would rather waste millions on bad white coaches and execs instead of hiring Black ones just strengthens your case. Since 2000, only 26 Black men — sans Mike McDaniel — have been hired as head coaches in this league.
In October, it was reported that the lawsuit was “on ice” as the judge was deciding if the case should take part in open court where the NFL’s dirty laundry would be aired out, or in arbitration where NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell would be the arbitrator — which seems sketchy and biased.
But, no matter what comes of it, the fact that we’re at this moment with this new information that the league provided just further proves that wealth doesn’t equate to wisdom.
