What we earn: Sports professionals
BY JOHN E. HOOVER World Sports Writer
Sunday, April 15, 2012
4/15/12 at 4:48 AM
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Bob Stoops
Head football coach, University of Oklahoma
Annual compensation: $4,925,000
Coming from the steel-tough south side of Youngstown, Ohio, the son of a high school football coach, Bob Stoops is humbled by his salary.
Even today, after 13 years at OU, Stoops feels "incredibly fortunate" about his latest deal: eight years, $39.4 million. Athletic director Joe Castiglione said it another way: "Exceptional. Just the perfect guy."
Here's why: When Stoops arrived in December 1998, OU's athletic department generated $26.1 million revenue. In 2010-11, it was $93.7 million, according to OU's annual athletic department report.
Stoops' salary is funded by athletic department revenue, and none of his pay comes from taxpayer dollars, according to an OU spokesman. He is the highest-paid state employee ever.
"Worth every penny," Castiglione said.
- JOHN E. HOOVER, World Sports Writer
Nolan Arenado
Third baseman, Tulsa Drillers
Annual salary: $7,500
The Colorado Rockies' top prospect considered playing college baseball - he was recruited by Oklahoma State and others - but chose to go pro when he received a $625,000 signing bonus. That's $10,300 more than what was slotted by the commissioner's office for his draft position, after being a second-round choice out of high school in 2009.
"It has worked out well," Arenado said.
First-year Double-A players, such as Arenado, who have been drafted and come up through a major league organization's farm system, earn $1,500 a month. The Drillers' season is five months long, although it could be extended two weeks for the playoffs. If Arenado reaches the majors this season, as many are projecting he will do, Arenado would earn the minimum salary. The minimum was raised 16 percent this year to $80,000 per month, or $480,000 for the season, plus potential postseason earnings if the Rockies make the playoffs.
- BARRY LEWIS, World Sports Writer
Jeff Naple
Football video coordinator, Oklahoma State University
Annual salary: $70,077
Except for brief stints at the University of Pittsburgh and with the Dallas Cowboys and a Dallas-area sports software company, the 50-year-old Naple has been the video coordinator for Oklahoma State's football program since 1988.
He first worked with 16mm film before transitioning to videotape. The switch to digital video occurred in 2000. For Cowboy coaches, Naple and his seven-person staff provide edited video - collected from four cameras - of every practice session and every game. During the season, Naple works between 60 and 70 hours per week.
"It's a lot better than when we (processed film)," he says. "I think it was 100 hours a week."
- BILL HAISTEN, World Sports Writer
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