Schottenheimer was eighth in NFL career coaching wins
Marty Schottenheimer, who won 200 regular-season games with four NFL teams thanks to his “Martyball” brand of smash-mouth football but regularly fell short in the playoffs, has died. He was 77.
Schottenheimer died Monday night in Charlotte, N.C., his family said through former Kansas City Chiefs publicist Bob Moore. He was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s in 2014 and moved to a hospice Jan. 30.
Schottenheimer was the eighth-winningest coach in NFL history. He went 200-126-1 in 21 seasons with Cleveland, Kansas City, Washington and San Diego.
His success was rooted in “Martyball,” a conservative approach that featured a strong running game and tough defence. He hated the then Oakland Raiders and loved the mantra, “One play at a time,” which he’d holler at his players in the pre-kickoff huddle.
Winning in the regular season was never a problem. Schottenheimer’s teams won 10 or more games 11 times, including a glistening 14-2 record with the Chargers in 2006 that earned them the AFC’S No. 1 seed in the playoffs.
It’s what happened in January that haunted Schottenheimer, just 5-13 in the post-season.
His playoff demons followed him to the end of his career.
In his final game, on Jan. 14, 2007, Schottenheimer’s Chargers, featuring NFL MVP Ladainian Tomlinson and a supporting cast of Pro Bowlers, imploded with mind-numbing mistakes and lost a home divisional playoff game to Tom Brady and the New England Patriots, 24-21.
A month later, owner Dean Spanos stunned the NFL when he fired Schottenheimer because of a personality clash between the coach and strongwilled general manager A.J. Smith. Schottenheimer and Smith hadn’t spoken for about two years.
A breaking point for Spanos — head of the family owned team — came when Schottenheimer wanted to hire brother Kurt as defensive co-ordinator after Wade Phillips was hired away as Dallas’s head coach.
Kurt Schottenheimer had been on his brother’s previous staffs, and Marty Schottenheimer’s son, Brian, had been Chargers quarterbacks coach from 2002 to ’05.
Schottenheimer then moved to North Carolina to spend time with his family and golf.
Spanos on Tuesday recalled Schottenheimer as “a tremendous leader of men and a man of great principle . ... You couldn’t outwork him. You couldn’t out prepare him. And you certainly always knew exactly where you stood with him.”
Chiefs chair and CEO Clark Hunt called Schottenheimer “a passionate leader who cared deeply for his players and coaches, and his influence on the game can still be seen today on a number of coaching staffs around the league.”
Schottenheimer was 44-27 with Cleveland from 1984 to ’88, 101-58-1 with Kansas City from ’89 to ’98; 8-8 with Washington in 2001 and 47-33 with San Diego from ’02 to ’06.
“The best coach I ever had,” said Hall of Fame running back Tomlinson.
Former coach Bill Cowher remembered his former coach and mentor as “an amazing coach, teacher and leader. Marty, you say, “There’s a gleam, men,” there is and it was always “YOU.”
Schottenheimer never made it to the Super Bowl, either as a player or coach.
He was a backup linebacker for the Buffalo Bills when they lost the 1966 AFL title game to Kansas City, which then played the Green Bay Packers in the first Super Bowl.
As a coach, his playoff losses were epic and mystifying.