Walk Money

Who's been paid the most to go away

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.

PHOTO

DARRON CUMMINGS/AP (HAMILTON)

TWO PHOTOS

ROCKY WIDNER/NBAE/GETTY IMAGES (ARENAS, FINLEY)

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STEVE BABINEAU/NHLI/GETTY IMAGES (LECAVALIER)

CHART