Marty Schottenheimer, who won 200 regular-season matches with four NFL teams because of his”Martyball” brand of smashmouth football but often dropped short in the drama, has expired.
He had been transferred into a hospice on Jan. 30.
His achievement was suspended in”Martyball,” a traditional strategy that featured a powerful running game and tough defense. He loathed the Raiders and adored that the screenplay”One play at a time,” which he would shout in his players at the pre-kickoff huddle.
Winning in the regular season wasn’t an issue. Schottenheimer’s teams won 10 or more matches 11 times, including a 14-2 record together with the Chargers in 2006 that got them the AFC’s No. 1 seed in the playoffs.
It is what occurred in January that haunted Schottenheimer, that had been only 5-13 from the postseason.
His playoff demons followed to the finish of his profession.
In his final match, on Jan. 14, 2007, Schottenheimer’s Chargers, including NFL MVP LaDainian Tomlinson along with a supporting cast of Professional Bowlers, imploded with mind-numbing errors and missing a house divisional playoff match to Tom Brady along with also the New England Patriots 24-21.
A month afterwards, owner Dean Spanos alarmed the NFL when he fired Schottenheimer because of a personality clash between the trainer and strong-willed general director A.J. Smith. Schottenheimer and Smith had not spoken for about a couple of decades.
A breaking point for Spanos — mind of this family-owned team — arrived when Schottenheimer wished to engage his brother, Kurt, as defensive coordinator after Wade Phillips was hired off as Dallas Cowboys head trainer. Kurt Schottenheimer was on his brother preceding staffs, and Marty Schottenheimer’s son, Brian, was Chargers quarterbacks coach from 2002 into’05.
Schottenheimer subsequently proceeded to North Carolina to spend some time with his loved ones and golfing.
Schottenheimer has been 44-27 with Cleveland from 1984 to’88; 101-58-1 with Kansas City from 1989 into’98; 8-8 with Washington in 2001 and 47-33 using the Chargers out of 2002 into’06.
Schottenheimer never left it into the Super Bowl, either as a coach or player. He was a backup linebacker for its Buffalo Bills if they dropped the 1966 AFL Championship Game into Kansas City, which then played with the Green Bay Packers at the first Super Bowl.
As a trainer, his playoff declines were both epic and mysterious.
His Browns double came tantalizingly close to making Super Bowl berths, just to get them ripped off by”The Drive” and”The Fumble” in successive AFC Championship Games against private nemesis John Elway and the Denver Broncos.
A year after, together with the Browns monitoring the Broncos 38-31 with 1:12 left Denver, Earnest Byner fumbled on the Broncos’ 3-yard line. The Broncos won 38-33 after having an undisclosed security.
“As a head coach, he directed the company to four playoff appearances and three star names, but it had been his hard, hard-nosed, never give up the struggle attitude that the group uttered that endeared him to Browns fans and frequently caused thrilling successes,” that the Browns stated in a statement.
Two of the Chiefs teams went 13-3 and secured up home-field advantage throughout the playoffs before amazingly spat out from the divisional round.
“When Marty came in 1989, he reinvigorated what was then a struggling franchise and immediately turned the Chiefs to a constant winner,” Chiefs chairman and CEO Clark Hunt said in a statement. “Marty’s teams created Chiefs soccer a proud part of Kansas City’s individuality once more, along with the group’s resurgence forged a strong bond with a new generation of lovers that made the legendary home-field edge at Arrowhead Stadium.
“Marty will always hold a special spot in the background of their Chiefs, and he’ll be dearly missed by all of those who have been lucky to call him a friend.”
The Chargers believed they needed a Super Bowl-caliber group in 2006, but Schottenheimer’s career ended with a barbarous playoff loss to the Patriots. At the first quarter, Schottenheimer insisted on going to it on fourth-and-11 in the Patriots’ 30-yard line.
The largest pratfall, however, and one which still haunts Chargers lovers, came with San Diego top 21-13 with just over six minutes to perform. Marlon McCree intercepted Brady and instead of going to the floor, tried to operate and has been hit and fumbled, with all the Patriots recovering.
Schottenheimer apparently survived another playoff collapse, just to be fired a month after.
After winning only 12 matches in Schottenheimer’s first two seasons, the Chargers went 12-4 in 2004 supporting Tomlinson and a rejuvenated Drew Brees to finish an eight-year playoff drought.
Nevertheless, they dropped a house divisional match into the New York Jets in overtime. Schottenheimer, called The Associated Press Coach of the Year before that afternoon, was whistled for an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty for running on the field to contend with the referees in the next quarter.
In overtime, the Chargers had a first down in the Jets’ 22, but Schottenheimer went conservative and predicted three straight runs up the center by Tomlinson to establish a 40-yard field goal effort by Nate Kaeding, who missed. The Jets then proceeded down the field for the winning field goal.
Tomlinson, today in the Pro Football Hall of Fame, known as Schottenheimer”that the best coach I ever had.”
“I went into a match with Marty as trainer feeling as I was not fully ready to win,” Tomlinson said. “He wanted you to know every facet of this game program. I believed him a real All-American man. He was a fantastic father figure, and that I was blessed that my spouse and I must understand he and [his wife] Pat past the normal participant and trainer connection. He had been a well-rounded human being. He cared about the guy than the athlete. I’ll remember him for the entire life lessons he taught me”
“You could not outwork him. You could not out-prepare him. And you always knew exactly where you stood with him” Spanos, the Chargers’ owner and chairman, stated in a statement. “I’m thankful that he had been head coach for five seasons, and I am even more blessed to have been able to call him a friend.”
Brees, today together with all the New Orleans Saints, had his very first NFL success whilst playing Schottenheimer at San Diego, also chose to social websites to discuss his ideas.
Schottenheimer was created on Sept. 23, 1943, in Canonsburg, a little town outside Pittsburgh. He performed at Pitt prior to a six-year pro career with the Bills and Patriots.
“We all know he’s looking down from heaven and smiling,” his daughter said. “We’re so incredibly proud of this guy that he was and the way he lived his entire life “
