I keep hearing that a potential lockout could undermine the attempts of some of the big-name coaches on the market to land NFL jobs.
For one thing, teams aren’t going to want to sink huge money into a coach when there are no games to play and no ticket revenue coming in.
Add to that the fact that the offseason could be greatly reduced, making it more difficult to bring in new systems of football.
Which, of course, is the perfect excuse for an owner to pay less for a coach or hire someone off his staff rather than take a chance.
The lockout made me do it.
That’s all it is. An excuse.
For a star quality coach, with the two biggest names having had local ties in ESPN analyst and former Raiders and Tampa Bay Buccaneers coach Jon Gruden and Stanford coach Jim Harbaugh, a work stoppage is a nonissue, assuming the teams doing the hiring and the coaches themselves simply get a little creative with the contracts.
One executive currently not in the market for a coach explained to me, “any club can structure a coach’s contract with several options based on various types of criteria.”
In other words, “We’re going to pay you ‘X’ amount of dollars during the time there is a lockout, and then your salary jumps to ‘X times Y’ when play resumes, with part of a guaranteed bonus to be paid now and the rest upon completion of a collective bargaining agreement.”
It isn’t as if Gruden is hurting for money, because he is still being paid by the Bucs as well as ESPN. It even strengthens his position that he isn’t currently coaching and can wait to get paid.
It’s a little trickier for Harbaugh, but when it comes down to it, who really thinks a work stoppage is going to go on endlessly when there is so much money to be made on both sides?
Simple economics points to a resolution at some point, and by being willing to wait to be paid, Harbaugh might even get a grateful owner to pay even more than he would have in a normal circumstance.
As for having less time to put a team together, teams that are hiring new coaches want to junk their own systems anyway, and coaches are famous for putting in 36 hours in a 24-hour day to get things done.
For an owner with ideas and a coach smart enough to see it, the threat of a lockout could be an opportunity rather than a deal-breaker.
Jumping to more Week 13 conclusions:
With 56 seconds to go in the first half, trailing 21-6, and the ball at the 49ers’ 42 on fourth-and-10, Whisenhunt punted. He punted even though he has Larry Fitzgerald on his team and the 49ers were likely to run out the clock even if Arizona didn’t get the first down.
The fact that Whisenhunt said “uncle” so early escaped notice because Anderson was caught laughing for a moment on the sideline, and then made it a thousand times worse by blowing up at the podium when asked about it.
When Pittsburgh coach Mike Tomlin talks of the $125,000 in fines incurred by linebacker James Harrison and wonders if Harrison’s kids will go to college, it sounds ridiculous.
Harrison’s last contract included $20 million in bonuses and tops out at $51.175 million.
Quotable: “Oh, man, there’s some ugly football in the NFC West “… right now it’s pretty hard to watch, most of the teams have been pretty uncompetitive when it comes to playing against the good teams in the league,” former Cardinals and Rams quarterback Kurt Warner to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.
By the numbers: 25 — The number of consecutive starts at home won by New England quarterback Tom Brady entering Monday’s game against the New York Jets. He is tied for the NFL record with Brett Favre (1995-98 at Lambeau Field).
Game of the week: tie, Pittsburgh at Baltimore; New York Jets at New England. Sunday and Monday nights don’t get any better than this as the four teams with a legitimate chance to be the AFC Super Bowl team square off.
Game of the weak: tie, St. Louis at Arizona; Carolina at Seattle. Remove Sam Bradford from the equation and there isn’t a single reason to watch any of these teams unless you happen to be a fan of one of them.
Contact Jerry McDonald at jmcdonald@bayareanewsgroup.com.
