Coach (sport) - Coaching in The United States

Coaching in The United States

All major U.S. collegiate sports have associations for their coaches to engage in professional development activities, but some sports' professional coaches have less formal associations, without developing into a group resembling a union in the way that athletic players in many leagues have.

U.S. collegiate coaching contracts require termination without the payment of a settlement if the coach is found to be in serious violation of named rules, usually with regard to the recruiting or retention of players in violation of amateur status.

The NFL Head coaches have an association, called NFL Coaches Association (NFLCA), which includes all the coaches in the NFL, except Bill Belichick.

Many coaching contracts allow the termination of the coach with little notice and without specific cause, usually in the case of high-profile coaches with the payment of a financial settlement. Coaching is a very fickle profession, and a reversal of the team's fortune often finds last year's "Coach of the Year" to be seeking employment in the next. Many coaches are former players of the sport themselves, and coaches of professional sports teams are sometimes retired players.

On some teams, the principal coach (usually referred to as the head coach) has little to do with the development of details such as techniques of play or placement of players on the playing surface, leaving this to assistants while concentrating on larger issues such as recruitment and organizational development.

Successful coaches often become as well or even better-known than the athletes they coach, and in recent years have come to command high salaries and have agents of their own to negotiate their contracts with the teams. Often the head coach of a well-known team has his or her own radio and television programs and becomes the primary "face" associated with the team.

Both the collegiate and professional level coaches may have contracts for millions of dollars a year. The head coach at the pro level has more time to devote to tactics and playbooks, which are combed over by staff that are usually paid more than at the college level. The pro level head coaching, due to the extensive time on the road and long hours, is a very stressful job. Since the money is good at high levels, many coaches retire in their early fifties.

Many factors are part of NFL coaches' contracts. These involve the NFL's $11 Billion as the highest revenue sport, topping the Major League Baseball's (MLB) $7 Billion, while holding a non-taxpaying exemption that the MLB does not. The unusual distinction of being a tax exempt multi-billion dollar corporation and a tax exempt monopoly that can move teams from one city to another, is combined with Stadiums built through tax-free borrowing by the Cities, which every American taxpayer pays for in public subsidies even in a mixed economy in economic late-2000s recession. The NFL's coaches are the highest paid professional coaches with professional football topping the list in Forbes' highest-paid sports coaches. Bill Belichick is in the #1 spot for the second year in a row with no MLB or National Hockey League coaches making the list.

Another major element of NFL coaches' contracts, negotiated between individual coaches and NFL "teams"/owners, are NFL demanded provisions in the coaches employment contracts, that authorize the employing NFL teams to withhold part of a coach's salary when league operations are suspended, such as lockouts or television contract negotiations.