Three of the five highest-paid coaches in North American sports are in the National Football League.
A Forbes report pegs Phil Jackson of the Los Angeles Lakers as the highest-paid coach overall, at $10.3 million a year. But after Jackson, three of the next four are in the NFL.
Those three, according to Forbes, are Patriots coach Bill Belichick, at $7.5 million, Redskins caoch Mike Shanahan, at $7 million, and Seahawks coach Pete Carroll, also at $7 million.
Belichick and Shanahan, both of whom have multiple Super Bowl rings, certainly have accomplished enough on the sidelines to merit hefty paychecks. Carroll might seem out of place in the $7 million club, having been fired in his two previous stints as an NFL head coach. But he wouldn’t have left a high-paying job at USC unless an NFL owner was willing to offer him an even higher-paying job, and Seahawks owner Paul Allen was.
According to Forbes, one other NFL coach is in the Top 10: Jeff Fisher of the Titans, at $5.75 million.
