Some athletic directors would like to forget certain coaching contracts, but the checks that have to be written to a coach who has already been dismissed won't allow it.
Count Notre Dame's deal with former coach Charlie Weis among them.
Fired in 2009, Notre Dame paid Weis more in the 2013 calendar year than current head coach Brian Kelly, USA Today reported Tuesday. The school is reportedly still on the hook for payments to Weis through December 2015. Kelly's total compensation actually fell from 2012 to 2013, dropping from nearly $1.5 million to close to $1.2 million, because he made significantly less bonus money in a highly incentivized contract. Meanwhile, Weis took home more than $2 million in the same year.
Between the pay he received as coach in 2009, his severance, and buyout earnings since his ouster, Notre Dame has cut him checks for about $15 million from 2009-2013 alone.
All to simply go away and coach somewhere else.
From his firing at Notre Dame, Weis went on to spend a year as the offensive coordinator with the Kansas City Chiefs, served in the same role at Florida for a year, then spent two-plus years as head coach at Kansas before a midseason firing last fall.
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