Thank you, Marty Schottenheimer, your contributions were immense and your loss is keenly felt.
Too soon, former Cleveland Browns coach Marty Schottenheimer passed away on Monday, February 8, with his family at his side, after a long battle with Alzheimer’s, according to Chris Mortensen of ESPN.
Marty Schottenheimer was loved by the Dawg Pound, both as a great football coach as well as a very special man whose influence will be felt far away from the football field. Marty has been married since 1968 to his wife Pat. They live in North Carolina now. They have one son Brian, who is an offensive football coach, now with the Jacksonville Jaguars, and a daughter, Kristen.
Marty had been moved to a hospice facility near his home in Charlotte, NC, on Saturday, January 30. Pat Schottenheimer, speaking on behalf of the entire Schottenheimer family, had released the following statement at that time:
"“As a family we are surrounding him with love, and are soaking up the prayers and support from all those he impacted through his incredible life. In the way he taught us all, we are putting one foot in front of the other…one play at a time.”"
Schottenheimer has been battling Alzheimer’s disease for the past few years. Both Brian and Kristen have Youtube videos encouraging families with loved ones facing Alzheimer’s and dementia. They find that some of the lessons they learned from their football coach father can be directly applied to coping with this disease.
Even though Marty is gone, the game plan remains, for how to have better days while living with Alzheimer’s. Kristen’s video is especially poignant and allows us to be introduced to Marty the Dad, the husband, and the man. The disease robbed him of his memories, but not of the love that his family had for him.
Kristen says that working together we have a game plan to win every day, to lead the best life possible coping with this disease as best we can. Or as she put it in football terms, our plan is to kick Alzheimer’s rear end (edited that one a bit) every day. We are not waiting for a cure, or for somebody to do something, right now today each of us who are affected by this disease is going to take control of this thing and live the best life we can each day. That is a great legacy, and Marty is immensely proud of where he is now, for sure.
This writer understands all too well, having lost his mother to this disease a few years ago.
On the surface, Schottenheimer was a taskmaster who never had a losing season with the Browns, and who took the Browns to the playoff four years in a row, but he was much more than that to the people he came into contact with, not just his players.
Schottenheimer was born on September 23, 1943, in Canonsburg, Pennsylvania, an industrial town known for mining and metalworking. Schottenheimer and his younger brother Kurt, six years his junior, spent their entire childhood in McDonald, located five miles north of Canonsburg and attended Fort Cherry High School.
Marty played football at the University of Pittsburgh as a middle linebacker, and then on to the pros. He was drafted by the Buffalo Bills and made the Pro Bowl as a rookie in 1965 and coming away with an AFL Championship ring. He played there four years, and then played for the Boston Patriots for two years.
In 1974, he came out of retirement to be a player-coach for Portland in the World Football League, an ill-fated experiment that lasted two seasons. He continued to coach, catching on with the New York Giants and becoming their defensive coordinator in 1977.
He went to Detroit for two years and then became the defensive coordinator for the Cleveland Browns in 1980 under Sam Rutigliano, leader of the Kardiac Kids.
Sam’s regime fell apart after Brian Sipe was spirited away to play for Donald Trump and the New Jersey Generals. Paul McDonald was not really an adequate replacement for the former NFL MVP. Nevertheless, Browns owner Art Modell saw fit to fire coach Sam Rutigliano after a 1-7 start and named Schottenheimer as the interim for the last eight games of 1984. Schottenheimer got the team to straighten up and play disciplined football and they went 4-4 down the stretch. That was enough to result in hiring him as the coach of the Browns.
The Browns went 8-8 with Gary Danielson as the quarterback of the present and a gangly kid named Bernie Kosar as the quarterback of the future. When Danielson went down with an injury, Kosar went in and almost beat the Dolphins in a playoff game, which the Browns lost 24-21. Earnest Byner and Kevin Mack led the Browns ground game, which rolled up 251 yards, but the Dolphins got lucky at the end of the game and came away with a three-point victory.
Schottenheimer’s career would be punctuated by regular-season dominance and post-season heartbreak. His Browns teams made the playoffs four straight years, but they never won the Super Bowl. Two losses to John Elway and the Denver Broncos, known as “The Drive” in 1986 and “The Fumble” in 1987, were particularly disheartening. But you know what? If you can’t stand tough losses, playoff football is not the right game for you, because only one team wins the Super Bowl every year. It’s not an easy game, and there are many more heartbreaking losses than glorious victories in the post-season.
Schottenheimer was joined by his younger brother Kurt as special teams coach in 1987. Kurt had been a quarterback at the junior college level and then switched to defense at the University of Miami, where he played defensive back. He coached linebackers and defensive backs at Michigan State, Tulane, LSU, and Notre Dame before joining brother Marty in Cleveland.
Nevertheless, Art Modell fired Schottenheimer, not for the playoff losses to Denver but because Schottenheimer could not win with a fourth-string quarterback. In 1988 Kosar, Danielson, and third-string Mike Pagel were all injured, so the Browns signed Don Strock, the longtime backup for Dan Marino of the Dolphins, who was a free agent.
He came in and got the Browns into the playoffs but could not beat Houston in the playoff game. Genius owner Art Modell blamed Schottenheimer and specifically his failure to hire an offensive coordinator to call the plays. But Mr. Modell, how many coaches make the playoffs with a fourth-string quarterback? This fan, along with many others, never forgave Modell for that stupid move.
Marty would not stay unemployed long. The Kansas City Chiefs would be his home for the next ten years.
The Kansas City Years
Schottenheimer spent 10 years as the coach of the Kansas City Chiefs, compiling an outstanding record of 101-58-1. However, the major blemish in his record was that his playoff record was only 3-7. Most of the time, the Chiefs were one and done in the playoffs.
In the early years at Kansas City, Schottenheimer depended heavily on “The Nigerian Nightmare,” Christian Okoye. That offense became known as the “Martyball” offense and was not necessarily the most exciting offense out there, but the fans were happy because he won, at least until it was playoff time. Schottenheimer’s teams tended to make early exits from the playoffs, prompting the team to make a trade for All-Universe but aging and oft-repaired playmaker Joe Montana.
The closest he came to a Super Bowl was in 1993, with Montana at the controls. They won two playoff games but came up short against the Buffalo Bills in the Conference Championship,30-13. Montana suffered a concussion in that game, though Dave Kreig played well in his place. The following year, they once again were ousted in the first playoff game, though they were ahead and probably outplayed the Miami Dolphins overall.
After Montana retired, the pundits agreed that the Chiefs were done. However, Schottenheimer was masterful, promoting second-stringer Steve Bono, who guided the team to a 13-3 record, which was better than Montana had ever achieved with Kansas City. But once again, his team found a way to lose in excruciating fashion in the playoffs, on a cold windy day.
His team missed three field goals and Bono threw three passes to the wrong team, and they dropped the game to visiting Indianapolis, 10-7. The Chiefs let Bono go after a few years, replaced by Elvis Grbac. Rich Gannon was the backup quarterback for several years and never became the full-time starter. Of course, he would star for arch-rival Oakland after leaving Kansas City and have his best years in his late 30’s.
Schottenheimer’s teams continued to feature hard-hitting, disciplined defenses with tight coverages. His offensive style was conservative, often referred to by the old nickname of “Martyball,” which was not totally a compliment. The failure to get the maximum performance out of Rich Gannon is perhaps the largest complaint that could be raised against Martyball, since he proved to be a dynamic passer for Oakland, where he made the Pro-Bowl four times, with two All-Pro awards. The Raiders also made it to the Super Bowl in 2002.
Nevertheless, Schottenheimer had nine straight winning seasons, then one season in which he went 7-9 and resigned, yielding to the pressure to show better playoff success. That does not seem very fair. But the lack of playoff wins was always the cloud hanging over him. In all probability, he could have won it all with the right circumstances. But in football, if you don’t win, ultimately you have to understand that someone else will be given a chance to succeed.
On to Washington
For those of us following Schottenheimer’s career, the one move that gave us the greatest concern was probably taking the Washington job in 2001 with Dan Snyder. Though unquestionably a very intelligent man, Snyder just does not have a good reputation as the leader of a football organization. He may be too smart for his own good.
Snyder loved to make big plays as his own general manager, signing superstar players to long-term contracts, which would eventually haunt the team by weighing down the salary cap.
Schottenheimer was expecting to have Deion Sanders in the defensive backfield, but he abruptly decided to retire. He still had 38-year-old Bruce Smith and 41-year-old Darrell Green. Both of those guys could still play, even though they were used to leather helmets instead of the plastic variety. Eric Metcalf, at age 33, was a familiar face to Browns fans.
Schottenheimer got off to a terrible start in Washington, getting off to an 0-5 start. Yet, the team turned it around and wound up 8-8 for the season, a remarkable achievement, all things considered. Joe Theismann suggested Schottenheimer deserved Coach of the Year consideration in an ESPN editorial. However, Dan Snyder had the brilliant idea of hiring Steve Spurrier as the head coach, and Schottenheimer was out after only one season.
San Diego: who gets fired at 14-2?
The San Diego Chargers offered Schottenheimer another shot at redemption. Things did not go well at first. After an 8-8 initial season in 2002, the team drooped to 4-12 in 2003. The 2004 team drafted Philip Rivers in the first round, giving them Drew Brees, Rivers, and Doug Flutie in the same quarterback room. That’s not too shabby. They went 12-4 that season, and yet still lost the Wild Card 20-17 to the Jets. The next season they missed the playoffs at 9-7, and then they seemed to put it together at 14-2, with Philip Rivers and LaDainian Tomlinson both having phenomenal years.
But then they managed to blow an eight-point lead in the fourth quarter to Tom Brady and the New England Patriots (that happens a lot in the NFL).
However, Marty was feuding with general manager A.J. Smith and team president Dean Spanos. Also, the coaching staff self-destructed because four assistant coaches Cam Cameron, Wade Phillips, Rob Chudzinski, and Greg Manusky were hired away by other teams. Marty wanted to hire his brother Kurt to replace Phillips, against the wishes of Spanos. As a result, Marty was out.
Marty would eventually win a championship, for the United Football League in 2011. The UFL was an alternative league composed primarily of former fringe NFL players. Marty continued to be in demand for radio and TV thereafter, until the Alzheimer’s diagnosis in 2014.
Everywhere he went, the people that he met really loved him. This writer can not claim to be a close friend, but just in casual conversation with his former Browns players at Browns Backers events, like Earnest Byner, Bernie Kosar, Kevin Mack, and Hanford Dixon, it is clear that they really loved Marty Schottenheimer. It was far more than just the professional respect due to him as a coach.
"“He was a man, take him for all in all, I shall not look upon his like again.” — William Shakespeare, Hamlet"
Thank you coach, you and your family will be forever in our hearts.