NFL urges owners to stop burning money by firing head coaches

The NFL sent a memo to its teams this week reminding them how much money they have wasted by firing coaches and executives over the past five years.

There has been a common refrain that the NFL is really short for “Not For Long”, which has become apt with the lack of patience teams have shown with their key hires in recent years. As more teams strive for relevance in a league where worst-to-first turnarounds happen frequently, coaches and executives have been getting fired in record time, a process that costs the NFL’s teams plenty of money.

The problem with firing these people early is that the teams are on the hook for their entire contracts since those deals are fully guaranteed, unlike most player deals. Hastiness is expensive, as the NFL reminded its teams in a memo this week, ESPN’s Adam Schefter reports.

NFL teams have paid $800 million for early firings

The memo informed teams that they have paid $800 million for early firings over the past five years and included detailed spreadsheets breaking down how much each team has cost itself with a lack of patience. The firing trend has gone even earlier this season as Matt Rhule and Frank Reich were fired in-season, with Rhule still having four years left on his seven-year, $60 million contract with the Carolina Panthers.

Another prominent team paying through the nose for its lack of patience is the New York Giants, who are paying the salaries of three head coaches through next season after firing both Pat Shurmur and Joe Judge two years into five-year contracts. The report also covers front office executives with Tennessee paying former GM Jon Robinson for four more years after firing him in November, just months after he signed a contract extension.

It appears that the league is trying to encourage its teams to implore patience with their hires to avoid wasting over a billion dollars paying people not to work. Time will tell if NFL owners will take the league’s findings into account when Black Monday arrives.