Is Josh McDaniel’s $40M Worth Firing The Costliest Ever in NFL History?

There are a few distinctive features of the NFL. Firstly, it is a nationwide league with rules applied to make it unique compared to anywhere else in the world. Secondly, it has the lowest number of international players despite being the world’s richest league. Thirdly, being a nationwide sport, gridiron has no international tournaments, and the NFL is the only representative of the sport. But there are a few more unique rules that surround the league.

One of them has to do with the absurd amount of money that gets spent every year. Particularly the alarming trend of spending money on its head coaches. Recently, Raiders head coach Josh McDaniels was fired following a disappointing 21-month reign. But because of the league’s rule, the team has to keep paying him his promised amount even if he finds a new employer. Better late than never, the league has lately calculated the money wasted on the untimely firings of the head coaches. It had sent an entire list of the figures to every franchise owner, and McDaniels’ premature exit is now the new addition to the league, climbing to the top rank in quick time.

Josh McDaniels’ firing is the joint-costliest in NFL history

Last December, the NFL realized that its franchise owners had been wasting a lot of money in the name of re-constructing teams. It gathered the numbers and sent out a list to them when they met for an owner meeting in Dallas. The list broke down the current total expenses inculcated by the firing of head coaches by every team. It was estimated that the teams combined paid $800 million to the fired head coaches by that point, and it was continuing.

However, much as expected, that hasn’t bothered the billionaire owners of the teams, as the Raiders fired their head coach, Josh McDaniels, just eight games into the season. They also fired the general manager, Dave Ziegler, and a few other coaching staff. While the franchise’s future was not looking great with McDaniels’ at the wheel, it certainly isn’t much better after his firing either. Financially, at least.

The head coach was just into the second year of his six-year-long contract, nearing $10 million every year. But the premature exit relieves him of his duties, and he gets the rest of the promised amount anyway by doing nothing. NFL Insider Adam Schefter has revealed that the total number is around a staggering $85 million that owner Mark Davis needs to pay to the outgoing staff. McDaniels alone gets $40 million of that.

Read More: Raiders Shell Out Millions to Dismiss Josh McDaniels as Head Coach

Davis, however, couldn’t care less, as the tweet mentions, believing money can’t affect his strategies for the franchise. Additionally, looks like the Carolina Panther‘s owner, David Tepper, acknowledges the same too. It was a former Panthers’ head coach who reached the figures before McDaniels did.

McDaniels joins Matt Rhule’s record

Last year, when the Panthers fired head coach Matt Rhule after just 38 games, it was one of the least surprising things in the entire NFL. The franchise was only going downhill with Rhule, and despite his eyebrow-raising $62 million 7-year contract, he failed to decide on the team’s offensive coordinator before circling a few names and ended up cashing out $63 million on three names for the role, more than his own contract.

When Rhule was finally shown the exit door, he had just 11 wins in 38 games to show for all of that. But real news came out in December when the NFL prepared the list. It showed that the Panthers, too, owed $40 million to Rhule for the remaining five years of his contract.

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While Tepper could be happy knowing that the Raiders’ Davis has done the harder work to put McDaniels next to Matt Rhule, the whole scenario, in the end, does not look to be a healthy business for the league that averages seven coach dismissals a season.