TALK ABOUT the gift that keeps on giving. A recent Notre Dame tax return showed that former football coach Charlie Weis still drew the largest paycheck from the university's athletic department in 2014. Weis received a $6.6 million payout when he was canned in '09, five years into a 10-year deal, and has gotten $2,054,744 a year since—bringing his total to $24.6 million.* The Irish made their final payment in December, but Weis is still collecting from Kansas. He signed a five-year deal with the Jayhawks in '12 but was dumped after two years, leading to a $5.6 million payout through '16. Still, others have been paid far more than Weis to just go away.
[The following text appears within a chart. Please see hardcopy or PDF for actual chart.]
$68M
JOSH HAMILTON
$62M
GILBERT ARENAS
$51.8M
MICHAEL FINLEY
$32.7M
VINCENT LECAVALIER
*NOTRE DAME IS A PRIVATE UNIVERSITY, SO ALL AMOUNTS ARE ESTIMATES.
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DARRON CUMMINGS/AP (HAMILTON)
TWO PHOTOS
ROCKY WIDNER/NBAE/GETTY IMAGES (ARENAS, FINLEY)
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STEVE BABINEAU/NHLI/GETTY IMAGES (LECAVALIER)
CHART
