Marty Schottenheimer, NFL coach with 200 wins, dies at 77
Marty Schottenheimer’s NFL coaching career was as remarkable as it was flummoxing.
There were 200 regular-season wins, the eighth most in NFL history. There were a mystifying number of playoff losses, some so epic they had nicknames: “The Drive” and “The Fumble.”
Always there was “Martyball,” the conservative, smash-mouth approach that featured a strong running game and hard-nosed defense.
Schottenheimer died Monday night in Charlotte, North Carolina, his family said through former Kansas City Chiefs publicist Bob Moore. He was 77. Schottenheimer was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s in 2014 and moved to a hospice Jan. 30.
Schottenheimer coached Cleveland, Kansas City, Washington and San Diego and went 200-126-1 in 21 seasons.
“The best coach I ever had,” Hall of Fame running back LaDainian Tomlinson said in a statement. “I never went into a game with Marty as coach feeling like I wasn’t fully prepared to win . ... I considered him a true All-American man.”
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 was a master at getting his players’ rapt attention. He would gather them in the pre-game huddle and holler, “One play at a time!” Among his other favorites: “This is us!” and “We’ve got our people!” Or, “Gentlemen, it’s the 6 inches between your breastbone and your back — your heart!”
Then there was “Raider Week,” when he’d warn his players in no uncertain terms what nastiness awaited them if they didn’t play well against their archrival. Under his “Midnight Rule,” players and coaches could celebrate victories until midnight on Sundays, and then start focusing on the next week’s opponent.
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, who was just 5-13 in the postseason.
“Well, we haven’t been real successful when we got there. We need to fix that,” Schottenheimer said in 2006 after San Diego clinched the AFC West.
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 Tomlinson and a supporting cast of Pro Bowlers, imploded with mindnumbing 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 strong-willed 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 coordinator after Wade Phillips was hired away as Dallas’ head coach. Kurt Schottenheimer had been on his brother’s previous staffs, and Marty Schottenheimer’s son, Brian, had been Chargers quarterbacks coach from 2002-05.
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 chairman 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 4427 with Cleveland from 1984-88; 101-58-1 with Kansas City from 1989-98; 8-8 with Washington in 2001; and 47-33 with San Diego from 2002-06.
He turned around the Browns, Chiefs and Chargers.
The Browns on Tuesday recalled the coach’s “tough, hard-nosed, never give up the fight attitude the team embodied that endeared him to Browns fans.”