Marquette Sports Law Review Volume 17 Article 7 Issue 1 Fall Coaching in the National Football League: A Market Survey and Legal Review Robert H. Lattinville Robert A. Boland Follow this and additional works at: http://scholarship.law.marquette.edu/sportslaw Part of the Entertainment and Sports Law Commons Repository Citation Robert H. Lattinville and Robert A. Boland, Coaching in the National Football League: A Market Survey and Legal Review, 17 Marq. Sports L. Rev. 109 (2006) Available at: http://scholarship.law.marquette.edu/sportslaw/vol17/iss1/7 This Symposium is brought to you for free and open access by the Journals at Marquette Law Scholarly Commons. For more information, please contact
[email protected]. COACHING IN THE NATIONAL FOOTBALL LEAGUE: A MARKET SURVEY AND LEGAL REVIEW ROBERT H. LATTINVILLE* & ROBERT A. BOLAND** I. INTRODUCTION The genesis for this article comes from a conversation with a National Football League (NFL) club executive who complained that the information he had at his disposal related to coaching compensation and contract terms was incomplete, and he felt that it put him at a competitive disadvantage in preparing for and handling negotiations with both his head coach and his assistant coaches alike. A bit of investigation indicated that this executive was far from alone in this feeling. It is in the negotiation of NFL coaching contracts that clubs maintain less information and perhaps less leverage. This is a particularly uncomfortable position for NFL clubs used to having strong information and a standardized contract for their dealings with players. It * Shareholder, Stinson Morrison Hecker LLP; B.S., University of Missouri; M.B.A., Saint Louis University; J.D., Indiana University-Bloomington.