Chuck Long Takes a Well-Paying Desk Job

Chuck Long, when he was San Diego State's football coach

Through an unusual situation that doesn’t sit all that well with either San Diego State or Chuck Long, the former SDSU head football coach is drawing a $700,000 salary from that school for “projects” and “analysis”

Long, the former Iowa Hawkeyes star quarterback, and later, assistant coach, was fired as the Aztecs’ head coach last November.

From the San Diego Union-Tribune: http://www3.signonsandiego.com/stories/2009/feb/20/1s20chuck223517-new-duties-campus-ex-coach/

Long’s contract called for him to be reassigned at SDSU if he were fired as football coach – hence his new job and new office. If he obtains other employment, his contract states, “You shall be entitled to no further compensation whatsoever from the date of that other employment.”

SDSU hoped he would find another job, so it wouldn’t have to continue paying him. However, Long is not likely to find a job that pays nearly as well as the $700,000 salary he receives at SDSU. His next job likely will be as an assistant coach at about $200,000. Because of this, Long has a strong financial incentive to stay with SDSU instead of taking a lesser-paying job elsewhere.

So Mills said Long is prepared to ride out his new SDSU job until his contract expires. “At this point, that seems like our only alternative,” Mills said.

Mills is Jack Mills, Long’s agent.

In these troubled economic times, it’s kind of nice to know that at least one fired employee in America is making out OK. That’s not being a wise guy, either. I know Chuck a tiny bit and like him, and you don’t want to see anyone you like get fired or be at a job they don’t really want.

He’d rather be coaching than holding some bogus office job, sure. But a whole lot of people would have loved to keep their jobs, too, and couldn’t negotiate a sweet safety net for themselves when they took those positions.