Well, let me tell you about this Mike Elko salary thing. Heard folks talkin’ ’bout it down at the market. Seems like this Elko fella, he’s some kinda big shot coach. They say he’s makin’ a whole heap of money. Now, I ain’t one to gossip, but that’s what I hear.
This Elko, he used to be at Duke, I reckon. That’s one of them fancy schools, you know? They don’t have to tell nobody what they’re payin’ their people. It’s private, they say. But word on the street is, this fella was pullin’ in somethin’ like $3.5 million a year! Can you believe that? $3.5 million! For coachin’ a football team! Back in my day, folks worked in the fields for a dollar a day, if they was lucky.
Now, I heard some other coaches, they make even more. Ten million dollars! More than ten million dollars! There’s this one fella, Swinney, I think his name is. He’s at Clemson. They say he’s makin’ around $11.13 million a year. And then there’s another one, Smart. He’s coachin’ at Georgia, and they say he gets $13.28 million. Imagine that! Just for tellin’ them boys how to play a game.
It’s all a bit much, if you ask me. Now, I did see this list that tells every coaches’ salary, and it goes all the way down to a poor fella named Bowden who’s coachin’ somewhere called UL Monroe. That’s how they say it, all those letters. He’s only gettin’ $435,400. Still a lot of money, mind you. But compared to them other fellas, it ain’t much. It says he is the lowest in college football. I feel sorry for that Terry Bowden, at the bottom like that. His $435,400 look so little next to Smart’s $13.28 million, goodness me!
- That Elko, he was makin’ $3.5 million at Duke.
- Swinney makes $11.13 million at Clemson.
- Smart makes $13.28 million at Georgia.
- Bowden makes $435,400 at UL Monroe.
- Some NFL coach named Stefanski, he also makes $3.5 million.
But this Elko, he’s moved on from Duke now. Heard he’s gone to some place called Texas AM. Now, I don’t know much about Texas, but I reckon it’s a big place. And they must be payin’ him good, ’cause I saw somethin’ sayin’ his base salary there is $7,000. Now, that don’t sound like much, does it? Only $7,000? Seven thousand dollars is not a lot, you know? That’s barely enough to buy a good cow these days!
But then, they said somethin’ about “School Pay” and Texas AM giving him $5,000. I don’t know what that means exactly. Maybe it’s extra money for, you know, school supplies. Or maybe it’s like a bonus. $5,000, that’s not too bad for a little somethin’ extra. You can buy a fair number of chickens with that kinda money. But I am sure he got more money than that. That Elko fella, he’s a big deal now. I bet he is making more than $3.5 million a year now.
It’s all a bit confusin’ to me. All these numbers and these fancy names. But one thing’s for sure, these football coaches, they make a lot of money. More money than I ever dreamed of, that’s for sure. They make more money in a year than most folks make in their whole lives. It’s a different world these days, ain’t it?
Back in my day, we didn’t have all this fuss about money and contracts. We just worked hard and did our best. But I guess times change. And these coaches, they’re like movie stars now, gettin’ paid all that money. It’s somethin’, ain’t it? Just somethin’ to think about.
Well, that’s all I know about this Mike Elko salary business. Hope it helps you some. It’s enough to make your head spin, all these big numbers. But that’s the way it is, I suppose. These coaches, they get paid the big bucks. And us regular folks, we just keep on keepin’ on.
