Rick Dennison salary: How much did NFL offensive line coach earn at the Minnesota Vikings?
Rick Dennison made headlines after becoming the first NFL coach to be fired for refusing to take the COVID-19 vaccine.
The NFL mandates that all coaches and trainers be vaccinated as Tier 1 employees. Players are also on the Tier 1 employee list but aren't obligated to take the vaccine to participate in the 2021 season.
The Vikings released a statement regarding Dennison's departure from the team:
The Vikings continue to hold discussions with the Offensive Line Coach Rick Dennison regarding the NFL-NFLPA COVID-19 protocols for Training Camp and preseason games. At this time, Coach Dennison does not have an exemption to the vaccination requirements of those protocols. We will adhere to the requirements of the protocols and of applicable law.
Rick Dennison salary
The NFL usually does not release official information regarding assistant and position coaches' salaries. However, it's safe to assume that Dennison's salary was somewhere close to $1 million per season, as he's one of the most experienced position coaches in the league.
Usually, offensive line coaches are among the highest-paid assistants in the league, as they are vital to any team's success - look no further than the New England Patriots' season in 2015 when Dante Scarnecchia first retired.
Rick Dennison's career so far
Dennison is a former NFL linebacker who played for the Denver Broncos between 1982 and 1990. After his retirement, he became an offensive assistant for the team in 1995.
Dennison was the special teams coordinator for the Broncos' team that won back-to-back Super Bowls in 1997 and 1998. He later became the offensive line coach in 2001.
Five years later, Dennison was promoted to offensive coordinator, a position he held for three years. He returned to being the team's offensive line coach in 2009.
Soon after, he left Denver for the first time in his career and was hired by the Houston Texans as the team's offensive coordinator. He also had stints with the Buffalo Bills, the Baltimore Ravens and the New York Jets during his coaching career.
Dennison has been the Vikings' offensive line coach since 2019.
NFL vaccine policy controversy
The NFL has made it clear that it won't reschedule a game because of an outbreak among unvaccinated players, and the team suffering from it will have to forfeit the game as well.
Getting a vaccine shouldn't be a major issue, but a few NFL players and coaches are somehow making it a big deal. Players like DeAndre Hopkins, Cole Beasley and Leonard Fournette have tweeted against taking the vaccine. They argue that the NFL is forcing them to do so with their new policy. Hopkins and Beasley even talked about retirement.
Dennison was the first coach, followed by Cole Popovich of the New England Patriots, to get fired over the vaccination issue and they surely won't be the only ones. More coaches will likely leave their jobs.