As explained in the article, the Marrone deal was highly unusual and should put to rest the idea that Russ Brandon is a good businessman. He is a sycophant who rose to the top in an organization by sucking up.
Anyone who agreed to this deal should be fired. Period. Let's break it down.
(1) An out clause in the event of a change of ownership -- Standard. Fully makes sense. What if the team was moving to LA, installed a new CEO, etc? Solid protection for the coach.
(2) An out clause that guarantees next year's income -- Very, very generous. Hard to believe it was required to complete the deal.
(3) An out clause that guarantees next year's income with No Offset -- OK STOP RIGHT THERE -- THIS IS WHERE IT MAKES NO SENSE WHATSOEVER. If you want to leave, ok. But every cent you earn somewhere else after you leave should reduce our obligation to you. You cannot give someone an option whose exercise makes them richer in almost all scenarios.
So while (1) is reasonable given uncertainty, and (2) is borderline, (3) is STRAIGHT UP CRAZY and would not be agreed by ANYONE who had the faintest clue of what he or she was doing.
Jeff Littmann probably laughed his ass off over this one, knowing that the $4M payday would come after the Wilson estate had disposed of team. "Russ - if you want to pay this guy $25M of the next owner's money NOT to coach here, you go right ahead."