In his final season as head coach of the San Diego Chargers, Marty Schottenheimer went 14-2 and lost a close game in the playoffs to the New England Patriots, a perennial powerhouse.
The Chargers immediately fired Schottenheimer, because, damn it, 14-2 and a playoff exit WASN’T GOOD ENOUGH for them! This was a supremely talented team, and the Chargers weren’t going to stand for anything less than a championship.
Since then, under Norv Turner, the Chargers have underachieved year in and year out. For the past two seasons, despite having what countless observers have called the most talented team in the AFC, they’ve gone 9-7 and 8-8 and missed the playoffs entirely.
So, Norv Turner is out on his ear, right? Because NOTHING LESS THAN A CHAMPIONSHIP is good enough for the Chargers, right?
WRONG!
Why 14-2 and a playoff loss to a superb team gets Marty Schottenheimer fired while 8-8 in football’s worst division is okay for Norv Turner is utterly baffling to me. Anybody have an explanation? Is Norv Alex Spanos’ bastard son? Does he have pictures of A.J. Smith molesting kids? There HAS to be an explanation!
Yeah, I never understood that either, especially at the time Norv was first hired. Sure, Schotty had been bounced from the playoffs all 13 of the times he was there (out of 21 seasons), and to remedy that deficiency, the Chargers hired a guy who…hardly ever made the playoffs to begin with (1 appearance in 9 seasons)!
I thought Turner was done for sure. This year the Chargers turned out to be a disappointment crashed at the beginning of the year instead of being a disappointment by flaming out at the end of the year, and that was improvement enough to keep Turner? I don’t get it.
I’m actually finding myself not that bothered that they’re keeping Norv. Maybe I’m just not remembering, but I don’t recall too many Norv mistakes this year that cost them. There was the decision in the Tebow game to settle for a long FG in overtime. It seemed like the Chargers were victims of some randomness a few times that you can’t really put on the coach (or the players, in some cases).
Of course firing Marty after the 14-2 year was a bit crazy, particularly since they had that Patriots game won if the DB (McCree?) didn’t try to return a fourth down INT.
i’ve always felt bad for marty schottenheimer. he got canned by the 'skins after just 1 season for a college coach (albeit a successful college coach).
then he gets fired after a 14-2 season for the very guy he replaced on the redskins: norv turner.
however, i don’t think he could have done better with San Diego if he had stayed. The chargers had some quality wins over the colts, and got stymied by the pats, steelers and… jets? taking a w over the jets in the playoffs would have been the only reasonable win marty could have gotten and even then they would have lost eventually anyway.
maybe this season though… not being able to compete this season really exposes norv to be a smidge fraudulent in his job.
They did compete this season, though. They lost competitive games to the Patriots, Packers, and Bears (with Cutler*). They lost to the Jets on a tipped interception, and to the Chiefs on the one-in-a-million fumbled snap. They had injuries (like everyone else).
But, you are what your record says you are, like they say. Coaches have certainly been fired for less.
I sort of joked about it when it happened, but if Cutler doesn’t break his hand the Chargers win the division.
Keep in mind that Marty didn’t get fired for going 14-2. Marty didn’t even get fired for his continual failure to win in the playoffs (0-2 with the Bolts, I believe 5-13 for his career). Marty got fired because he forced Dean Spanos to choose between himself and AJ Smith. He demanded the hiring of his brother Kurt, even though Spanos had explicitly told him not to, and he lost all of his best coordinators and assistants that offseason.
As for Norv and AJ staying for another year - who would you have replaced them with?
I’m not generally in a hurry to fire coaches. My argument was NOT so much that Norv Turner should be fired (though I think he was a bad hire in the first place) as that it makes no sense to keep him around if your standards are REALLY as high as you’ve always pretended.
If the facts are as you state, Spanos chose a GM who was widely perceived as some kind of genius over a coach who was perceived as a playoff choker. Anyone still think A.J. is a genius?
Everybody seems to regard Fisher as a super coach, but I’m not completely sure why. He had 5 playoff appearances in 15 seasons, and made the one super bowl in the Music City Miracle year. It’s a fine record I guess.
I don’t think people see him as a super coach. Just the best available coach on the market. If your goal is just to get good enough to make the playoffs on a consistent basis, he’s a reasonable bet. Especially if you don’t saddle him with a lazy, inconsistent QB.
Bill Cowher is probably going to stay in broadcasting. So, who does that leave? Gruden? I’d rather have Fisher.
Maybe you take a risk with an up and coming coordinator. But, even among coordinators, who has that kind of reputation and is also available?
For consistent playoffs Mike Sherman and Brian Billick are available and more consistent playoff makers ( and winning percentage for that matter ) than Fisher. I’m used to this argument since my Bucs are looking for a coach too and I’d take any of the three over Fisher.
Fisher’s record with Steve McNair was a lot better than without him but Billick won the Super Bowl with Trent Dilfer. Just saying.
I know I’m a bit late on this but I didn’t have internet for a week. I would have posted the same thing then though.
