Olin Kreutz was offered OL job by the Bears in '18, but...

[UOK]

They were going to pay him basically minimum wage.

[RichH55]

I mean - if he thinks Sam Mustipher is the goods - maybe thats the right rate?

[The Cooler King]

Okay the Bears are cheap lol

[Richie]

Jesus Christ...

No joke, teenagers working their first job at Chick-Fil-A start at $15 an hour.

[wab]

My kid makes more than that at BWW.

[bbaker]

Keep in mind, that was 2018. Adjusted for inflation, that’s like $200k per year.

[Atkins&Rebel]

Most coaches get their start with unpaid internships. Many if not most that get hired in quality control positions get paid very little also.

Don't be too butt hurt over Olin failing to break into coaching on a top salary

[thunderspirit]

Most coaches get their start with unpaid internships. Many if not most that get hired in quality control positions get paid very little also.

Don't be too butt hurt over Olin failing to break into coaching on a top salary

That was kind of my perspective too, but what do I know?

[docc]

Maybe $20 ? I like Olin Generally but have no idea what type coach OR Assistant he could be. Is Olin hurting for $$ ?
If he wants to bet on himself as a coach the money is irrelevant . Olin wants to be a coach with no experience as a coach. If he is such a strong candidate as a coach..I would think other teams may offer $20+ and access to the cafeteria..

[The Cooler King]

Most coaches get their start with unpaid internships. Many if not most that get hired in quality control positions get paid very little also.

Don't be too butt hurt over Olin failing to break into coaching on a top salary

That was kind of my perspective too, but what do I know?

I mean, maybe.

If you hear the recording of telling the story he talks about Donovan Raolia in the same story, who did end up being the asst OL coach for the past few years. Is that just the budget Heistand had? He confirms the offer came from Heistand but claims Pace years after acknowledged the offer and laughed that "I guess we could have done better huh" or something to that affect. Was it two separate rolls where Raolia got the full employee offer and Kruetz got the grinder role offer? Did Raoila get the offer Kruetz turned down? Kind of some unanswered questions.

Maybe $15 is the going asst OL coach rate (highly doubt it). Or maybe it is the going rate for limited gigs. Kruetz did mention it was a "players hours only" gig. And I think we all but know the standard assistant gig is a "hours of grunt work" job and I never got the impression it was paid hourly. Certainly to some extent I know that with a desirable gig that commands a deep applicant pool, abusing cheap labor is kind of the standard operating procedure. But it would also be an incredibly cheap area for an org in need of help to outbid the competition.

At the end of the day if that offer was at all tailored to Kruetz, basically unprompted, it's totally and utterly embarrassing. But also, a players status as a former Bear isn't more valuable to me. And a players former skill level isn't indicative of their skill level as a coach. Great players like Kruetz grinded away for years to maximize their talent and asking them to grind away more as a coach maybe isn't always a great fit, especially if they secured their financial footing: Kruetz, career earnings >$40M and attractive media gigs v Raoila, a career practice squad guy with zero media appeal.

Fwiw according to this link, Raolia is gonna be making 325k in his new gig, and that's even less than his predecessor.
https://omaha.com/sports/huskers/footba ... 2d02b.html

Heres another article about the life of a QC coach which is typically about the lowest rung on the ladder. Talks about Chico and I'll share this snippet.
https://www.washingtonfootball.com/news ... ol-coaches

"The QC basically does the worst of all the jobs," explains Rivera, who got his start in the profession as a Chicago Bears quality control coach -- with an assist from his former teammate, legendary running back Walter Payton. "When I was a QC guy, I used to beat everybody into the office and make the coffee, and I was usually the guy making sure the pots were all turned off at the end of the night. And if I didn't, all that black gunk would build up on the bottom, and I had to clean them with ice and salt water.

Now it's kind of ridiculous that's a coach job, but I think we've all probably heard anecdotes like this before, coaching has its similar own little initiation routine much like players have. Its probably pretty culturally engrained.

At the same time for football junkies looking to keep the dream alive, they'll look at the Raoila story and that's a shining example of the dream. He had 2 years GA at Notre Dame, 1 year at Auora University (D3), 4 years as an NFL assistant line coach and now a Power 5 NCAA position group job with a 300k+ salary and room for growth. Does Kruetz just want the 300k job? I know Raolia career eargnings won't be linear, but most assistant salaries aren't public. Here's even a 20 year old article stating most assistants then were in the 150k range
http://a.espncdn.com/nfl/columns/pasqua ... 01839.html

So after researching this, maybe something doesn't add up.

[Atkins&Rebel]

So there’s a completely different standard between being hired by the team as a position coach, and being hired by a position coach as a consultant.

Olin had never held a coaching position to the best of my knowledge. Just because he was a good player does not make him a good coach. Even good coaches in college fail to make a good impact in the NFL. He also does have a history of violent reactions. So bringing him in with little to no risk to the team financially makes perfect sense.

He could have turned out awesome, proving his worth, and gone and to be a great coach and compensated accordingly. Or he could have been Mike Singletary and not been worth the trouble of bringing in.

[RichH55]

So there’s a completely different standard between being hired by the team as a position coach, and being hired by a position coach as a consultant.

Olin had never held a coaching position to the best of my knowledge. Just because he was a good player does not make him a good coach. Even good coaches in college fail to make a good impact in the NFL. He also does have a history of violent reactions. So bringing him in with little to no risk to the team financially makes perfect sense.

He could have turned out awesome, proving his worth, and gone and to be a great coach and compensated accordingly. Or he could have been Mike Singletary and not been worth the trouble of bringing in.

I mean werent the 49ers so cheap with Singletary that he couldn't afford a belt?

[UOK]

[wab]

I love Olin, but I too take everything he says with a grain of salt and I'm just a fan.

[Ditka’s dictaphone]

Translation:

McCaskey probably offered Olin $15 per hour plus a gain of salt.

[UOK]

Kreutz is on the Score and he’s destroying McCaskey.

[Otis Day]

George is just a fan, remember. He probably wasn't even aware of the offer.

[thunderspirit]

I love Olin, but I too take everything he says with a grain of salt and I'm just a fan.

Same.

Dude was a badass as a player, but also a bully. No reason to think he's any less bluster now.

[BearsFanInMN]

I love Olin and some of his takes are spot on. Some, like any other player, is off. He also said all the former players talk to the McCaskeys and they listen and agree but don’t do anything. I guess when he inferred he had talked to them it didn’t happen.

If George just said grain of salt and nothing more, it’s fine. Rest just makes you seem clueless and petty. Especially when you are well known for not embracing former players.

[Burl]

Olin says a lot of things.

[HisRoyalSweetness]

For those interested in what Olin had to say in full:



He's seriously unhappy...

[IotaNet]

I love Olin, but I too take everything he says with a grain of salt and I'm just a fan.

Same.

Dude was a badass as a player, but also a bully. No reason to think he's any less bluster now.

^^^This right here.

All due respect to his career as a Chicago Bear but if he was serious about becoming a coach, why isn't he coaching now? So you didn't like the offer McCaskey teed up, why didn't you go hustle up another one somewhere else?

It's easy to parlay status as an ex-player into a local media gig. It's a whole other prospect to go become a coach by doing it the way everyone else does -- by working your way up from the bottom like Mike Vrabel, Leslie Frazier, Mike Singletary, and a whole bunch of other people.

Methinks he didn't want to do that.

[southdakbearfan]

Same.

Dude was a badass as a player, but also a bully. No reason to think he's any less bluster now.

^^^This right here.

All due respect to his career as a Chicago Bear but if he was serious about becoming a coach, why isn't he coaching now? So you didn't like the offer McCaskey teed up, why didn't you go hustle up another one somewhere else?

It's easy to parlay status as an ex-player into a local media gig. It's a whole other prospect to go become a coach by doing it the way everyone else does -- by working your way up from the bottom like Mike Vrabel, Leslie Frazier, Mike Singletary, and a whole bunch of other people.

Methinks he didn't want to do that.

Yep, I think Olin and a lot of the world didn't or don't know how many "unpaid" spots coaches start at for a short stint to prove themselves. Hell it could have been just a summer/pre-season deal where they were going to see if he was worth anything as a coach.

Doesn't the NFL have an unpaid coaching fellowship program or something like that to get minority coaches in, or something of the sort?

[BearsFanInMN]

Sounds like it was more Heistand, who has mutual respect with Olin, made the inquiry than him looking to get in to hear him tell it. But he also hates Juan Castillo so there’s that

[Bears Whiskey Nut]

Same.

Dude was a badass as a player, but also a bully. No reason to think he's any less bluster now.

^^^This right here.

All due respect to his career as a Chicago Bear but if he was serious about becoming a coach, why isn't he coaching now? So you didn't like the offer McCaskey teed up, why didn't you go hustle up another one somewhere else?

It's easy to parlay status as an ex-player into a local media gig. It's a whole other prospect to go become a coach by doing it the way everyone else does -- by working your way up from the bottom like Mike Vrabel, Leslie Frazier, Mike Singletary, and a whole bunch of other people.

Methinks he didn't want to do that.

Yeah. I'm on board with this version. It wouldn't surprise me if it was $15/hr to shag balls and PROVE that you wanted to be out there adding value to the team. I'm guessing he thought the Bears were going to be like, "You want to coach?! Great! Here's $300K/yr to help out with the OL!" Doesn't work that way.

[wab]

Sounds like it was more Heistand, who has mutual respect with Olin, made the inquiry than him looking to get in to hear him tell it. But he also hates Juan Castillo so there’s that

The reason why you have to take everything with a grain of salt, as George said, is because a lot of these former players are still blinded by loyalty. Guys are still Team Lovie and Team Heistand after a decade and it skews their view.

[HisRoyalSweetness]

For anyone who may be interested, Olin's going to be a guest on TTNL's 'Keeping it 100' show later today:

[RichH55]

How many of your Co-Workers do you get to assault in your jobs folks?

And when work lets you do that - Do you then get to threaten your elderly boss with violence too?