by John Tamny
The NFL is both tough and cerebral. The adjustment from college-level play to the pros is extraordinarily difficult, and the disparity between the collegiate and pro games continues to grow. As then-University of Houston head football coach Tom Herman remarked in 2016, “I do catch NFL games every now and again, and it doesn’t remind me of anything that I watch when breaking down opponents or watching college games on TV. It’s completely different.”23 Stephen Jones, the Dallas Cowboys’ COO, agrees: “[I]n my 25 years with the NFL, I’ve never seen a larger disparity between the college and pro games.”24
Greg A. Bedard, writing in Sports Illustrated, describes college games as “high-scoring affairs ruled by simple schemes on both sides of the ball and even simpler techniques.” Sundays, by contrast, “are a chess match”:
Quarterbacks bark out complicated play calls in the huddle and then change them at the line. Defenses bluff in and out of different looks and then bring an unorthodox blitz with press-man coverage. The offensive line has to execute perfectly timed double teams from three-point stances, or the running game doesn’t go anywhere.25
With the college and pro games increasingly different, the old expectation that it would take college players two years to adjust to the NFL has been extended to three. “[C]ollege football’s rule that restricts meeting and practice time to 20 hours a week” limits players’ readiness for the new game, writes Bedard, making the draft “even more of a crapshoot than before.”26
None of this is meant to diminish college football. It’s a complicated game. To watch the teams play is to witness that the football IQ required to succeed on the college level is quite advanced. Consider 2016 Heisman Trophy winner Lamar Jackson. To watch Jackson is to marvel at a quarterback playing an entirely different game from others on the field. He’s that good. What’s important is that Jackson’s greatness springs from his knowledge of football. Figure that everyone on his level is a great athlete. That’s a given. But it’s once again the students of football who thrive. Andy Staples of Sports Illustrated has said about Jackson that he “fears nothing on the football field because he understands so much more than he ever has.”
Notable about Jackson is that it wasn’t always that way for the eventual Louisville Cardinals star. In describing Jackson’s arrival on campus in the summer of 2015, Staples wrote that, “Jackson was expected to memorize the equivalent of an encyclopedia volume.” Worse, according to Jackson, was that the encyclopedia “was a foreign language.”27 Thanks to advice from his mother in which she encouraged the quarterback to memorize the playbook in bits and pieces (as opposed to all at once), he eventually passed his weekly tests on the way to college football’s highest individual honor. So yes, the college game, too, is extraordinarily difficult to learn. It’s just that the multi-billion-dollar business that is the NFL is exponentially more advanced.
Because the NFL is so demanding, young men who are good enough to merit an expensive college football scholarship should be encouraged to major in college football, cultivating the physicality and intelligence required for a spot on an NFL roster—a spot, by the way, that any given player is exceedingly unlikely to attain.
“What’s that?” you ask. Am I really suggesting that college football players should major in their sport even though most players in even the best programs don’t make it to the pros? Why would anyone recommend that players devote all their college years to athletics when the odds of a pro career are so low? It’s a good question, but also kind of a silly one.
At a typical American university, countless business majors are focusing their efforts on business classes. Only a tiny fraction, however, will be offered a job upon graduation at Goldman Sachs or a top hedge fund. Other students are pre-med, but probably a smaller fraction will end up at Massachusetts General Hospital or the Mayo Clinic. Communications majors number in the thousands, but how many will wind up reading news at NBC or ABC? How many English majors will ever rate a professorship at a top school or a reporter’s job at the New York Times? How many will write a book that gains substantial notice?
It’s odd, isn’t it, that the academic pursuits of the average college student don’t raise eyebrows, but if a young man talented enough to earn a scholarship wants to work feverishly at a sport he’s incredibly good at in pursuit of entry-level earnings that will dwarf those of more traditional majors, he is dismissed as delusional and shortsighted.
Sure, you say, a kid’s dreams of Goldman Sachs or the CEO’s suite may be farfetched, but those business and engineering majors will be trained for all manner of professional work. Maybe so, but let’s not forget that the nature of work is changing all the time. In our constantly evolving economy, the jobs of today rarely predict the jobs of tomorrow. Millions of people who work all day on a computer weren’t trained in college for what they do now. How much of what you learned in school is relevant to the work you do today?
The University of Southern California, Notre Dame, and the University of Miami have produced the most—and best—NFL players. USC and Notre Dame claim twelve Hall of Famers each, with the next-closest school having only nine in the Hall. Alabama and Florida State are also in the top ten.28 Now, the NFL odds of any given player matriculating at one of these “football factories” are still low. But that doesn’t mean a scholarship recipient should spend more time in business and English classes than in perfecting the athletic skills that brought him there.
Indeed, what will open more doors for a college athlete after the cheering stops, a résumé that includes participation on a top team—perhaps an interception, tackle, or touchdown in a major game—or an A in English or marketing? Given alumni’s enthusiasm for their alma mater’s gridiron glory, an average player—or even a benchwarmer—probably has better post-graduation employment prospects than a student who has good grades but is otherwise invisible. Moreover, the kind of guy who can survive and thrive for four years under Nick Saban, Urban Meyer, or Brian Kelly brings something to his job that a classroom-savvy student lacks. A capacity for excruciatingly hard work and rigorous discipline tends to catch an employer’s eye.
But apart from that, remember that prosperity and economic evolution produce professional opportunities that don’t seem like “work.” A century and a half ago, the only career most people could look forward to was farming. How energetic and intelligent might you appear if all you could expect in life was daily toil in the fields?
Fortunately, technological innovations made it possible for fewer people to produce more food. More to the point, prosperity made it possible for young men to leave the family farm in pursuit of the more rewarding opportunities that always emerge from growth. Today, something similar is happening for those who view football as life’s ultimate pursuit. Simply put, you no longer need to play professionally in order to earn a good living in football.
NFL coaches who were star players themselves are the exception, not the rule. Most head coaches got there the hard way. Doing something they loved, they put in brutally long hours over many years in pursuit of the ultimate football prize that doesn’t involve being on the field.
Waived by the 49ers and the Cowboys after playing tight end at Brigham Young University, Brian Billick worked as a lowly assistant coach for his high school and (simultaneously) for Redlands University, served as a PR assistant for the 49ers, and toiled as an assistant at Utah State, San Diego State, and Stanford before he reached the NFL. Then he spent years as tight ends’ coach and offensive coordinator for the Minnesota Vikings before finally getting his chance as head coach of the Baltimore Ravens, whom he led to victory in Super Bowl XXXV.29 The work was endless, Billick recalls. “I know of few people in any other profession who work from late July until January without a single day off.”30
The work may be endless, but imagine getting to put in long hours doing something that you’re passionate about and reaching the highest heights. Rare is the football coach who possesses a Super Bowl ring.
NFL head coaches are paid han
dsomely for all that work. Sean Payton of the New Orleans Saints is the highest paid at $8 million per season. The Seattle Seahawks’ Pete Carroll earns a similar amount, while the Patriots’ Bill Belichick pulls in $7.5 million. Even coaches who haven’t gotten to a Super Bowl, like the Cowboys’ Jason Garrett, earn more than $5 million annually.31
The pay for assistant coaching isn’t as well publicized, but as far back as 2004 Washington Redskins defensive assistant Gregg Williams earned $1.8 million annually.32 General managers usually earn in the millions, vice presidents in the $400,000 range, and directors of college scouting are said to earn $275,000 and above. Their assistants tend to be at the bottom end of six figures.33
Coaching at the college level can be dazzlingly remunerative as well. Going back to 2005, the average annual pay for head coaches at 119 major college football schools was $950,000. Nowadays that’s chump change. Numerous college assistants out-earn that dated average today. Only one head coach earned as much as $3 million in 2006 (Bob Stoops of Oklahoma), but in 2016 there were at least thirty-six coaches earning at or above the $3 million mark.34 As of 2015, the average pay for head coaches at 128 major colleges was $2 million.35 At the top of the compensation pyramid are Michigan’s Jim Harbaugh ($7 million) and Ohio State’s Urban Meyer ($6.5 million), while Nick Saban, whose Alabama Crimson Tide seems to be the permanent national champion, signed a $65 million contract extension in 2017 that averaged out to $11.25 million per season.36 After the 2017 season, Texas A&M inked a ten-year, $75 million contract with former Florida State coach Jimbo Fisher, every dollar of which was guaranteed.37
Coaches get to the top by surrounding themselves with capable assistants. And they pay them very well. Saban’s offensive coordinator Brian Daboll (since departed for the NFL) earned $1.2 million in 2017, defensive head Jeremy Pruitt took home $1.4 million, and outside linebackers coach Tosh Lupoi $950,000.38
The average assistant coaching salary in the Southeastern Conference, generally regarded as college football’s best, is $447,000,39 but the number is constantly changing because of feverish bidding. In January 2018, Louisiana State signed defensive coordinator Dave Aranda to a four-year, $10 million deal.40 What top head coaches used to be paid is now assistant money.
You don’t even have to be an expert on football to make money in the sport. If weight training is your passion, you might be courted by some of the best coaches in football if you’re really good. Alabama’s strength coach, Scott Cochran, after Georgia tried to poach him, was retained with a salary that exceeds $535,000.41 And he isn’t even the highest paid strength coach on the collegiate level. That honor goes to Iowa’s Chris Doyle, who signed a contract in 2016 that will pay him $600,000 annually.42
So high has assistant college coach pay become that many up-and-coming college football minds turn down head coaching jobs. As USA Today reported in 2015, “Pay for assistant coaches in top programs has become so good—including multiyear, guaranteed contracts in many cases—that there’s often little financial incentive to take jobs at smaller schools where they can prove themselves as head coaches.”43
And it’s not just well-known football factories that pay big salaries. Conference USA is not one of the “Power Five” college football conferences, as members such as North Texas State, Middle Tennessee State, and Western Kentucky implicitly attest, but the average pay among its football head coaches is $628,000.44 Though a very good team in modern times, Boise State is rarely in the traditional power discussion. Despite that, its assistant coach budget in 2014 was over $2 million.45 The average 2015 salary for all assistant coaches in the major college ranks was $245,000.46 Not “One Percenter” money, but close.
All of this is especially impressive compensation when it’s remembered what Bill Belichick earned when he started out as an NFL assistant with the Baltimore Colts in 1975. Although the four-time Super Bowl winner earns $7.5 million annually today, he started out at $25 week. As Ray Didinger told the New York Times about Belichick’s low starting salary, back then “Assistant coaches weren’t even looked upon as full-time employees. They worked in the season, and when the season was over, they went back home and were substitute teachers or assistant salesmen or beer distributors.”47 At that time, football wasn’t a realistic career choice. But as the U.S. economy has grown, so has the demand for entertainment. Coaching pay has reflected this happy development. And it gets even better.
On February 12, 2016, USA Today reported that Jess Simpson, head coach at Buford (Ga.) High, would earn over $174,000 for the 2016 season. Perhaps more interesting was that Buford was not alone. At least twenty-two other school districts in the Peach State could claim head high school football coaches with annual pay in the six-figure range.48
With both the NFL and college football booming economically, even high school football is lucrative. In 2016, voters in McKinney, Texas, near Dallas, overwhelmingly approved a $62.8 million, twelve-thousand-seat stadium. Football-crazy voters approved similarly lavish stadiums in the Houston suburb of Katy ($62.5 million) and the Dallas suburb of Allen ($60 million).49
High school coaching salaries have risen along with the cost of stadiums. In 2014, four high schools in and around Austin, Texas, paid their coaches more than $100,000 per year, with eleven others earning more than $90,000.50 In Houston, more than fifteen coaches earned more than $100,000 in 2016,51 while twenty-three coaches in Georgia hit six figures.52 Football hotbed Alabama had nine coaches in that exalted bracket in 2017.53
A sport that once was remunerative only for the few now offers career possibilities for the many. A sport that requires extraordinary physical gifts combined with keen mental ability no longer must be abandoned upon graduation from high school or college. It makes sense, then, for college football players to major in—yes—college football. The game is so popular with the American people—and increasingly the world—that it brings with it high earnings even for those who don’t rate an NFL player’s contract.
And if the football-focused change their minds, that’s fine. The hard work and smarts required for football are preparation for all kinds of careers that aren’t related to football. Even better, many colleges now allow scholarship athletes to return to campus if things don’t work out on the professional level—or even if they do. As Clemson’s director of athletics, Dan Radakovich, wrote in 2015, “We also provide the Tiger Trust, which allows any student-athlete who leaves campus in good academic standing to return on athletic aid to complete his or her degree.”54 In short, if football doesn’t work out, former players will be able to finish their degree for free.
Major in college football? Without question. It’s a no-brainer.
CHAPTER TWO
Intelligence and Passion Don’t Stop at Football
“If you love the game, then you’ve already won! You can’t be beat. Because the reality is, a lot of guys don’t love it. When I came here in 1996, I had the butterflies, and then when I got around everybody, it was like, Oh, I’m fine. Some of these guys don’t love the game. I thought they did. They don’t. It’s a job for them. And when something is a job, you can have success for a week, two weeks, a month, maybe a year, maybe even two. Then you’ll fall. It’s inevitable. But if you love it, you can’t be stopped. Because when you love something, you’ll always come back to it. You’ll always keep asking questions, and finding answers, and getting in the gym.”1
—Kobe Bryant
“I don’t care if you’re a man or a woman, the best thing about Michael Jordan was his mind for the game.”2
—Becky Hammon, San Antonio Spurs assistant coach
No one has ever called the California Institute of Technology a jock school. The tiny university in Pasadena is a Nobel Prize factory, boasting thirty-five laureates among its faculty and alumni. But Caltech does have a basketball team, and in 2008 it managed to steal the head coach of its East Coast rival MIT, Oliver Eslinger. Perhaps he moved for the weather. It certainly wasn’t Caltech’s athletic tradition that drew him to
Southern California. The Beavers once went twenty-five years without winning a game in the Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference.3
Other academically-minded schools occasionally make allowances for certain athletes. Not Caltech. The Beavers’ infamous history of losing would make recruiting hard enough, but Eslinger would have to hunt for athletes with the grades and SAT scores to earn admission to a place like . . . well, Caltech.4
Still, life’s challenges are what elevate our proverbial game, and Eslinger proved up to the challenge. Searching far and wide for average athletes with excellent grades, he found them in such out-of-the-way places as Wasilla, Alaska, and even Qatar. At the end of the 2010–2011 season, Caltech broke its streak of losses with a 46-45 win over nearby Occidental College. In subsequent years, Caltech even strung together consecutive conference wins.5
Eslinger had so changed the culture at Caltech that he started to attract players who were actually good, including a six-foot-four-inch guard by the name of Brent Cahill. Declining an invitation to walk on at the basketball powerhouse UCLA, Cahill told Sports Illustrated, “Why would I want to practice four hours a day if I’m not going to the NBA?”6
With Caltech grads earning an average of $82,000 a year right out of college, Cahill’s choice made sense for him economically. But it made no more sense than the choice of scholarship-worthy basketball players to focus on the activity that most develops their own physical and intellectual intelligence—basketball.