Employment & Labor Insider

This coming Sunday, Mike Macdonald will lead the Seattle Seahawks into Super Bowl LX against the New England Patriots. That Macdonald is 38 years old and only in his second season as a head coach in the National Football League makes the achievement all that more impressive. 

Nevertheless, comments recently made by Coach Macdonald about his family life raise questions about the sacrifices that he and his family make. Specifically, Coach Macdonald said that during the season he spent only about 30 minutes a week with his one-year old son.

The NFL workplace…

The pressure on NFL head coaches cannot be understated – nine of the 32 NFL teams fired their head coaches during or after the most recent season, including the Super Bowl-winning John Harbaugh from the Baltimore Ravens and the highly successful Sean McDermott from the Buffalo Bills. Not surprisingly, then, these coaches have to eat, sleep, and live football quite literally – they often spend multiple nights a week at the team facility during the season, where they also eat almost all of their meals. 

As a result, there is not much time for family. Indeed, in 1990, legendary NFL head coach Jimmy Johnson reportedly chose being head coach of the Dallas Cowboys over his wife of 26 years.

This raises questions about the type of person who becomes a head coach in the NFL. In his 2012 arbitration decision in the “Bountygate” case (in which I participated in the defense of the players), former NFL Commissioner Paul Tagliabue noted that “[c]oaching legends such as George Halas and Vince Lombardi are not glorified or remembered because they offered players ‘freedom of choice.’” Rather, it was “it’s my way or the highway.” In comments at a recent Sports Lawyers Association annual conference, Bob Wallace, a longtime attorney for the Philadelphia Eagles and St. Louis Rams, joked that “I’m not sure if only a**holes become head coaches or if being a head coach makes you an a**hole.”

For reasons such as this, I have previously opined that working in professional sports often is not all that it's cracked up to be.

…is not your typical workplace

Of course, Coach Macdonald is entitled to various types of protection and leave under both federal and Washington law in particular. Under the federal Family and Medical Leave Act, he was entitled to up to 12 weeks of unpaid leave for the birth of his son (or as “needed to care for” his wife during and after childbirth). On top of that, Washington has a paid family and medical leave law that provides employees 12 weeks of paid leave following the birth of a child (among other situations), up to a maximum weekly benefit of $1,542.

But these laws were probably not a realistic consideration for Coach Macdonald. For starters, the Coach signed a six-year contract before the 2024 season worth a reported $9 million annually. Next, he missed just two days of work after the birth of his son in December 2024. It is unimaginable that an NFL head coach would step away from his team for any extended period of time, and certainly not for the duration permitted by law.

These are the choices that Coach Macdonald and his family have made, even if they suggest present bias. “Present bias” refers to people’s tendency to value a less significant reward today (even one as significant as winning a Super Bowl) over a more genuinely significant reward in the future (such as developing a lifelong, meaningful bond with your child). Studies have found that present bias exists disproportionately in professional athletes.

The law of course respects Coach Macdonald’s freedom of choice and contract, no matter what paths we might have chosen.