APThe University of Tennessee is contractually obligated to throw away a lot of money on Derek Dooley over the next four years, and that makes it easy for Dooley to pick and choose what he does with himself.
Dooley was fired as Tennessee’s head coach at the end of the 2012 season, and he had one of those absurdly lucrative contracts that big-time football schools routinely give their coaches. That means Tennessee is obligated to write Dooley a check for just under $105,000 a month, every month for the next four years, for a total of $5 million. Which means he easily could have sat back and lived the good life, rather than working.
And Dooley says that’s exactly what he planned to do — until the Cowboys called him and made him an offer to become their new wide receivers coach.
“I wasn’t looking to get a job, and I wouldn’t be here if I didn’t think it was just a tremendous opportunity and if I didn’t feel like I could help,” Dooley told DallasCowboys.com. “There were a lot of opportunities in December and January, but when you went through what I did, I wasn’t going to just take any opportunity, and this was certainly a special one. . . . I wasn’t really looking for anything, and quite frankly this opportunity was one that really excited me and I couldn’t turn down.”
Dooley said that after he was fired in late November, he spent the month of December trying to recover mentally, and then the offer from the Cowboys came along at the right time in January.
“I felt like that I couldn’t do a good job to whoever I went until I got cleansed, so to speak,” Dooley said. “You have so many emotions when things like that happen, from disappointment to anger to frustration to blame, and it’s important to really cleanse all that out and start looking forward. The train’s passed, you can’t look back.”
So Dooley will move forward. And collect paychecks from two employers.
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Daquan Bowers is an idiot!
Good personality to listen to in the media, but was under qualified to be an SEC head coach. Wish him the best.
I didn’t know this was about Daquan Bowers westampa.
Can he teach Dez to pull his pants up and tuck in his shirt?
The best gig in sports. It’s a smart move, financially, to get fired from a fat contract. Once the pen hits the paper, it’s win/win for the coach.
Well done Derek. Now he can use Jerry’s cash for spending money, it’ll be sweet. I bet Mrs. Dooley is the happiest one of all.
Derek, why would you expect college guys to take you seriously when you show up for games wearing orange pants?
Just goes to show, it doesn’t hurt to be a little crazy to coach football.
Next up for Dallas, another former Volunteer…
Jerry Jones: “I am proud to present to you the new head coach of the 2014 Dallas Cowboys, Lane Kiffin!”
Well, he’s actually qualified for this job.
And that, my friends, is what you call the Gravy Train.
I thought that whenever a college coach left you had to subtract the pay he got from his college from what he makes in the NFL…?
Derek is a nice kid, just not ready for the prime time.
Same could be said for the Shula boy.
I have more respect for them than some former coaches that have managed to stay around the NFL far longer than their talent warranted.
I cleanse myself every day around 5. Then I just push out and everything is perfect lol Dallas goes out and gets another wack job lol
It’s all upside for Dooley – by moving to Texas his state income tax rate went from 6% to zero. That’s an extra $6,000 a month. Wonder if he’s going to send a thank you note to Lane Kiffin.
@bearflagfan
TN has no state income tax.