NBC 7's Derek Togerson looks back at the career of former Chargers coach Marty Schottenheimer in this commentary
On Monday morning, the Chargers hold their first off-season workouts of 2015 at the team’s Murphy Canyon training facility. I’m sure it was a complete coincidence, but on Saturday night, NFL Network re-aired its installment of “A Football Life: Marty Schottenheimer.”
It got me thinking how much I miss Martyball.
I know, I know, I was among those people who, at the time, thought A.J. Smith was right in making a head coaching change (the problem was with the guy he picked to do it). But, now nearly a decade removed, I realize just how great a football coach Marty Schottenheimer was.
There is no denying he turned franchises around. Just look at the track record:
Schottenheimer was named head coach in Cleveland in 1984. The Browns had made 5 playoff appearances in 15 years and not won a post-season game since 1969 when they were champions of the NFL’s Century Division. Marty put them in the playoffs four of the next five years.
Schottenheimer went to Kansas City in 1989 to take over a team had made one playoff appearance in 17 years. Marty had them there seven times in the next 10 seasons.
Schottenheimer made a one-year stop in Washington, defying logic by leading a talent-deficient team to an 8-8 record. Then he landed in San Diego. The Chargers had not had a winning record in seven years. Marty led them to two division titles in the next five years.
Overall, Marty won 200 games as an NFL head coach. Only six men have won more. Five of them are in the Hall of Fame (Don Shula, George Halas, Tom Landry, Curly Lambeau and Paul Brown). The other is Bill Belichick, who will probably end up in Canton one day.
The man right behind Schottenheimer is Chuck Noll, another Hall of Famer. Now, all of these other men won either a Super Bowl or NFL championship, the one glaring blank space on Marty’s resume. But, Schottenheimer won more football games as an NFL head coach than Vince Lombardi and Bill Walsh COMBINED.
In the years Schottenheimer was coaching the Chargers, 12 players who were drafted or signed as rookie free agents developed in to Pro Bowl players. That does not include LaDainian Tomlinson or Drew Brees, who were added the year before Marty arrived. It also doesn’t include Jamal Williams or Lorenzo Neal, established players who grew in to All-Pros under Schottenheimer.
Under Norv Turner, the Chargers drafted or signed three players who went to Pro Bowls. I would have to think the quality of players coming in did not change all that much; they simply were not being coached in a way that made them better football players.
That’s the number one thing Marty Schottenheimer did. We can talk about his post-season record (5-13) until we’re blue in the face, and it is worth consideration. But, he made guys better football players. And isn’t that what a coach is supposed to do?
So while it was annoying to win 14 games just to lose in the first round of the playoffs, with the way the last handful of years have gone, I would gladly trade asking the question, “Do you think we can make the playoffs this year?” for the question, “How far do you think we’ll go in the playoffs this year?”
I do see Mike McCoy and his staff getting back to that old way of doing things, though. Players are, for the most part, improving as they grow in the Chargers current system. Is it too late to trademark the term, McCoyball?
(I'm sure you all have plenty to say about this, so we'll save the talk about how Bobby Beathard should be in the Hall of Fame for another day)
