Jim Tomsula has carved out a pretty nice life for himself. Sure, he might have been fired by the San Francisco 49ers after one 5-11 season as their head coach, but it’s pretty safe to say that he’s landing on his feet.
As Pro Football Talk has reported, the 49ers will effectively pay Tomsula $14 million for one miserable season manning their sidelines. Even during the rare moments when things were going well for the 49ers on the field, there was never one shot of Tomsula where he didn’t appear to be completely overwhelmed by the job he was doing.
#49ers fire Jim Tomsula: https://t.co/pkmhIpGrap pic.twitter.com/yg2HtrFbGk
— KNBR (@KNBR) January 4, 2016
Now, $14 million might sound like a lot to the average Joe, but in the big-money world of the NFL, it’s more or less chump change. That’s all true, but CSN Bay Area’s Matt Maiocco gave us another perspective to view this news, especially as it relates to the man Tomsula replaced, Jim Harbaugh.
The 49ers paid Harbaugh approximately $20 million for his four seasons as head coach. Tomsula worked only one season in that role, and the 49ers will ultimately pay him $14 million.
Just as a reminder, Harbaugh won three more games in his worst season than Tomsula did in 2015. Harbaugh’s teams reached their fifth win on Nov. 9 or earlier in all four years, Tomsula didn’t do that until a completely meaningless Week 17.
He may never publicly admit it, but 49ers CEO Jed York is probably second-guessing that decision by now. They would have just been better off paying Jim Tomsula $14 millon at the end of the 2014 season and hiring someone else to coach the team in 2015.
So, if anywhere out there thinks that Jim Tomsula is getting treated unfairly, just keep that in mind and ask yourself if you wouldn’t instantly trade places with him right now. Not many people in the world get paid $14 million to be one of the worst at their jobs for one year.