"After the NFL's lockout started Saturday, Bengals president Mike Brown said employees would be asked to make some sacrifices. One group that was affected immediately were the assistant coaches. According to a league source, the assistants have had their salaries reduced by 30 percent since the lockout started. The Bengals are one of a dozen teams that have cut assistants' salaries by more than 25 percent. Five teams have cut assistants' salaries by half. At a meeting with reporters before last month's NFL scouting combine in Indianapolis, Larry Kennan, the director of the NFL Coaches Association, said almost all teams would reduce coaches' salaries if the lockout lasted 90 days or more. While the Bengals have reduced their assistants' salaries, they will allow coaches to recoup the money when the lockout ends. They also have not opted out of the league's pension plan for assistants like 13 other teams have done. Brown said that employees would not have furloughs or layoffs but acknowledged there would be some hardships. "We have no plans to make our employees carry this burden unduly," Brown said last week. "They will be asked to do something, but we are going to keep our people under hire and support them. We have an obligation to our people and we are not going to ask them to carry an unfair burden." Kennan, though, would argue that the assistants are indeed carrying an unfair burden during this lockout." Read more: http://news.cincinnati.com/article/...feel-pinch?odyssey=mod|newswell|text|Sports|p
