Can you imagine working for Bill Belichick? If he’s not talking to you about Donald Trump, maybe he’s talking to you about how he hates newfangled technology and fancy stats. There’s no way everybody on the staff likes him but hey, you’re an assistant coach making lots of money and life is great.
But what about those people that are at the very bottom of the coaching hierarchy — the coaching assistants.
Not the assistant coaches — the entry-level coaches that do the grunt work for all the coaches. MassLive.com talked to three people that went through the grueling interview process just to get to a grueling job that basically paid in gruel and it sounds like a nightmare.
Current Patriots tight end coach Brian Daboll was someone that went through the process.
Daboll was well prepared. He had spent two years as a grad assistant at Michigan State under (Nick) Saban, so could speak semi-comfortably about scheme, self-scout, all that. Then (Dante) Scarnecchia asked him about salary.
What do you think you should make?
Daboll had researched this, too. He had made calls to colleagues, and had dug up salary surveys from the NFL Coaches Association. He believed the average annual salary was around $65,000. He also thought, having worked for Saban, that he was a tad better than average.
“So I say 70,” Daboll recalled. “And Brad Seely leans over and says, ‘Would you take 15?’ I go, ‘Yessir.'”
Ah, the joy of 100-hour weeks for $15,000 a year. I don’t want to make this Patriots story about cheating, but isn’t there some sort of unfair labor practice thing happening here? Is that a living wage? Looks like once again I’ve cracked the case wide-open and this will result in swift punishment from the NFL.
