A farewell cheer for Marty

By: North County Times Opinion Staff - | Wednesday, February 14, 2007 10:20 PM PST ∞

Our view: Chargers fumbled shot at smooth transition with flip-flop on firing coach

San Diego football fans owe fired Chargers coach Marty Schottenheimer a big thank-you for helping to resuscitate a struggling team. But Schottenheimer's ungraceful exit Monday offered a glimpse of mismanagement atop the Bolts organization.

Chargers president Dean Spanos called the conflict between Schottenheimer and general manager A.J. Smith "dysfunctional," and that's putting it mildly. For reasons they and few others know, these two highly respected football men just couldn't get along, despite -- or due to -- their shared credit in guiding the Chargers to an NFL-best 14-2 record this year and 35-13 the last three seasons.

No, the Chargers didn't win the Super Bowl this season, despite fielding the league's most talented team. Yes, Schottenheimer's career playoff record is an abysmal 5-13. But the man who has won 200 NFL games with four different teams undoubtedly righted the floundering ship whose helm he took over five seasons ago. He deserved another shot to take the powerhouse team Smith built into the playoffs.

The hostility between Smith and Schottenheimer is legend by now; the men were said to communicate only via a Chargers vice president go-between. That Spanos allowed this schism among key executives to fester so long doesn't speak well for his management abilities.

Perhaps even more revealing is the statement Spanos released Monday in which he laid out his reasons for firing Schottenheimer this week, just one month after giving him a surprising reprieve. In it, Spanos confessed surprise to a wholly predictable scenario that was wholly predicted throughout the league, over the airwaves, Internet and news wires around the country.

Just three days after the Chargers were upset at home by the New England Patriots, Spanos said keeping Schottenheimer, entering the last year of his contract, "gives us the best chance to win next year." But Spanos tried to have it both ways: He low-balled Schottenheimer with a one-year contract extension offer worth $4.5 million, which the coach promptly refused. The die was cast: The coach had just one more year to win it all.

Schottenheimer's coordinators -- offensive guru Cam Cameron and defensive whiz Wade Phillips -- were promptly lured away by head coaching offers from the Miami Dolphins and Dallas Cowboys, respectively. A pair of position coaches also fled the lame-duck season the Chargers faced for better jobs -- linebackers coach Greg Manusky snared the San Francisco 49ers' defensive coordinator job, while tight ends coach Rob Chudzinski left to become offensive coordinator of the Cleveland Browns.

And yet Spanos confessed Monday that he had expected "the core of (Schottenheimer's) fine coaching staff (to) remain intact," and said the turnover prompted his reversal. Mmm-hmm.

Now Spanos and Smith have fumbled away any chance at stability. If they had just fired Schottenheimer a month ago, at least they could have kept and elevated one of their two excellent coordinators.

Certainly the Chargers now have a chance to hire a great new coach who can bring San Diego that elusive Super Bowl ring. But their Marty mistake this month has thrown away any chance of building on the Bolts' unprecedented success this season.

And before he skips town, Chargers fans should thank Coach Marty Schottenheimer for five years of hard work that restored the Charge to San Diego County.