Notre Dame Paid Charlie Weis More Money Than Brian Kelly to Not Coach

Notre Dame fans would like nothing more than to forget Charlie Weis and the costly failure of his Fighting Irish coaching days.

Weis was held up like Simba when his alma mater hired him in 2005, but five disappointing seasons later, Notre Dame athletic director Jack Swarbrick gave the former New England Patriots offensive coordinator the boot with six years remaining on his contract. He has since been hired and fired after an unsuccessful two-and-a-half-year stint at the helm of Kansas' football program.

Now, judging by a recent report by ESPN.com's Matt Fortuna, Weis is still collecting well-marbled checks from Notre Dame.

Fortuna reported Monday that ESPN.com had obtained federal tax returns filed by the school for the reporting period of July 2013 through June 2014. The returns show Notre Dame sending Weis a payment of $2,054,744—the exact figure doled out four previous times since the school paid $6,638,403 upon his firing.

This brings us to a total of $14,857,379—the amount of money Weis has made to not coach Notre Dame over the last six years. For perspective, current Notre Dame football coach Brian Kelly made $1,187,272 in 2013 to, you know, coach football.

And the fun isn't over yet. Fortuna reports that Notre Dame is slated to pay out more "additional annual payments" through December 2015, which would likely mean two more payments of $2,054,744 for Weis, bringing his total Notre Dame buyout cash to $18,966,867.

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Lump on the $5.63 million remaining on Weis' Kansas contract at the time of his firing in 2014, and you're looking at two schools paying one guy a grand total of $24.5 million to not work for them anymore.

It's an absurd sum, for sure, and instincts tell you to place the onus on Weis, who did not perform to expectations.

But lest we forget: No one forced these schools to throw bales of guaranteed cash at a former pro offensive coordinator, and he's not going to turn down money that was placed willingly on the table.

Dan is on Twitter. "Get money. Get paid." — Charlie Weis, probably.