Schottenheimer dies at 77; had Alzheimer’s

Marty Schottenheimer, who as head coach led the San Diego Chargers to their best record for a regular season and a pair of AFC West titles in his five-year tenure with the team, died Monday night at a hospice in Charlotte, N.C., a family spokesman said. He was 77.

Schottenheimer was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s in 2014. He was moved to a hospice Jan. 30.

Across 21 NFL seasons, Schottenheimer amassed 200 regular-season victories and a .613 winning percentage with four franchises, starting with the Cleveland Browns in 1984. He is the eighthwinningest coach in NFL history.

His final coaching job came with San Diego, where the late John Butler brought him to replace Mike Riley in 2002.

Schottenheimer’s five Chargers teams combined for a .588 win rate and reached two Super Bowl tournaments, losing their opener each time.

Though he was named NFL Coach of the Year for 2004 by the Associated Press after leading the Chargers to their first postseason since 1995, it was the 2006 team that defined Schottenheimer’s San Diego legacy by going 14-2 and earning the AFC’S top playoff seed and a firstround bye.

But the performance didn’t translate into Schottenheimer reaching his first Super Bowl in 13 postseason visits, as San Diego lost to the New England Patriots, 24-21, as a five-point favorite in Mission Valley.

It was Schottenheimer’s final game. A month after the defeat, citing “dysfunction” between Schottenheimer and General Manager A.J. Smith, Chargers boss Dean Spanos fired the coach and replaced him with Norv Turner.

Three years later, after the Jets upset Turner’s third team as a ninepoint underdog in a divisional-round playoff game, in the same Mission Valley stadium, the Jets awarded a game ball to offensive coordinator

Brian Schottenheimer, who forwarded it to his father.

Martin Edward Schottenheimer was born Sept. 23, 1943 in Canonsburg, Pa. In

1965, he went from the University of Pittsburgh to the American Football League where he played six seasons as a linebacker with the Buffalo Bills and Boston Patriots.

His coaching career began in 1974 with the Portland Storm of the World Football League. He went to the NFL the next year as an assistant coach with the New York Giants.

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