It's nice nonwork if you can find it.
There isn't much upside to being an NFL coach. You get all the blame when things go wrong, and your failures play out before millions of people. But the money is good, and the money when you get fired is really good, considering that NFL coaching contracts are guaranteed.
"Chip Kelly just got fired for the second time in what basically amounts to one calendar year, this time by the 49ers," wrote Matt Bonesteel of The Washington Post. "And so we have this odd situation: Kelly is going to be getting paid by two NFL teams not to coach, and if he gets hired again he'll be getting paid by three."
John Breech of CBS Sports summarizes it all nicely: "Kelly still had two years worth $6.5 million each left on his contract when the Eagles fired him after the 2015 season, but then the 49ers hired him on a four-year deal with $6 million annually. And so this season, because of the offset language that's present in just about every NFL coaching contract, Kelly was paid $6 million by the Niners and $500,000 by the Eagles."
But what happens now that he's been fired again is anyone's guess. Kelly still is owed $6.5 million in 2017 and $6 million in both 2018 and 2019. Simply by doing nothing over the next three seasons he'll get all that, but it's uncertain which teams will be on the hook for all that and for how much.
"The 49ers likely would argue that Kelly should get whatever he was owed by the Eagles for 2017, and that any excess will be covered by his 49ers contract," Pro Football Talk's Mike Florio explained. "The Eagles likely would argue that the 49ers contract supersedes the Eagles contract, and that as long as the 49ers are paying Kelly as much or more than he would have made with the Eagles, the Eagles owe Kelly nothing."
Florio says the two teams might have to leave it up to the NFL office to decide.
Credit where due
"Give Lane Kiffin credit," wrote Janice Hough of leftcoastsportsbabe.com, "anyone can be fired from a losing team, how many people can get fired, or asked to leave early, on an undefeated team one game from the national championship."
Wanted
A former LSU football player is offering to pay anyone who returns his SEC championship ring and other football mementos that were stolen from his Shreveport home.
Seth Fruge was a walk-on special-teams player at LSU from 2009-13. He wrote on his Facebook page Monday that a robber broke into his home over Christmas break and took a BCS national championship watch, an Outback Bowl ring and a three-year letterman watch, among other items.
Fruge said those items were "a reminder of the blood, sweat, and tears" he put in with his teammates over five years.
Fruge's Facebook post had been shared tens of thousands of times.
Sports quiz
Chip Kelly's record as a college football head coach was 46-7. What was his record in bowl games?
Sports answer
2-2.
Sports on 01/04/2017