Coach Marty Schottenheimer, who passed away on February 8 at the age of 77, famously told his players, "There's a gleam." He never explained what he meant, yet we all understood: in every life there are moments of hope/moments of opportunity, and we have to make the most of those moments.
Schottenheimer's first moment of opportunity to be a head coach--after a five year AFL career during which he played linebacker on a championship team as a rookie (1965 Buffalo Bills), and after a decade as an assistant coach--came with the Cleveland Browns in the middle of the 1984 season. He took over a floundering 1-7 squad and led the team to a 4-4 record down the stretch. Next season, the Browns went 8-8, won their first division title since 1980, and took a 21-3 lead in the Divisional Round playoff game versus the defending AFC champion Miami Dolphins before losing 24-21. The start of Schottenheimer's career in Cleveland foreshadowed how the rest of his career would go: Schottenheimer could turn teams around quickly and produce regular season success, but his teams not only usually lost in the playoffs but they often lost in heartbreaking fashion.
That 1985 loss to the favored Dolphins, even after blowing an 18 point lead, felt less like heartbreak at the time and more like the start of something big. The Browns' rookie quarterback Bernie Kosar would soon emerge as one of the league's top passers, and the Browns advanced to the AFC Championship in each of the next two seasons.
Schotteneheimer led the Browns to a 12-4 record in 1986, setting a franchise NFL record for single season wins that still stands (the Browns had three straight seasons with at least 12 wins from 1946-48 in the All-America Football Conference prior to joining the NFL in 1950). The Browns led the Denver Broncos 20-13 at home late in the fourth quarter of the AFC Championship before John Elway orchestrated what will forever be known as "The Drive," a 98 yard march down the field culminating in a five yard touchdown pass to Mark Jackson. The Broncos won in overtime, and advanced to the Super Bowl.
In 1987, the Browns went 10-5 in the strike-shortened season, won the division title, routed the Indianapolis Colts 38-21, and headed to Denver for the AFC Championship with redemption on their minds. Instead, the Browns suffered heartbreak again, as Earnest Byner fumbled just before entering the endzone for what would have been the game-tying touchdown.
The Browns overcame adversity in 1988 to claim a Wild Card berth with a 10-6 record before losing 24-23 to division rival Houston in the Wild Card game. After the season, Schottenheimer and Browns owner Art Modell announced that by mutual consent they had decided that Schottenheimer would not return.
Schottenheimer did not remain unemployed for long. The Kansas City Chiefs hired him prior to the 1989 season. The Chiefs went 8-7-1 that season but then made six straight playoff appearances after making the playoffs just once since 1971. Schottenheimer led the Chiefs to the postseason seven times in 10 seasons--including a pair of 13 win campaigns--but they only advanced to the AFC Championship once. Schottenheimer resigned after the team went 7-9 in 1998, the first losing season in his career.
He returned to the sideline in 2001 with the Washington Redskins, but despite leading the team to eight wins in the final 11 games after an 0-5 start he was fired by Dan Snyder.
Schottenheimer finished his NFL coaching career in San Diego, where he experienced both the worst regular season of his career (4-12 in 2003) and the best regular season of his career (14-2 in 2006). The Chargers fired Schottenheimer after an internal power struggle following that 14-2 season, and he never coached in the NFL again, though he did win his only professional championship as a head coach in 2012 with the Virginia Destroyers of the United Football League (UFL).
Schottenheimer's Cleveland tenure lasted less than five years at the start of a long and distinguished coaching career, but I will always think of him as a Cleveland Brown. The Browns' run of success under Schottenheimer happened during my adolescence and has not been matched since. That was a fun, if sometimes heartbreaking, time to be a Browns fan. There have been precious few fun times as a Browns fan since that era, and more than 30 years later we Browns fans are still waiting to see back to back playoff appearances (maybe next year!).
Schottenheimer ranks eighth in NFL history in regular season wins (200). The seven coaches ahead of him are either already in the Pro Football Hall of Fame (Don Shula, George Halas, Tom Landry, Curly Lambeau, and Paul Brown) or mortal locks to be inducted as soon as they are eligible (Bill Belichick, Andy Reid).
Hall of Fame coaches who have fewer regular season wins than Schottenheimer include Chuck Noll (193), Bill Parcells (172), Bud Grant (158), Joe Gibbs (154), Steve Owen (153), Bill Cowher (149), Marv Levy (143), Tony Dungy (139), Hank Stram (131), and Weeb Ewbank (130).
Of course, the Hall of Famers listed above with fewer regular season wins than Schottenheimer each made at least one appearance in the NFL Championship and/or Super Bowl, and--except for Grant and Levy--each won at least one NFL Championship or one Super Bowl. For that matter, each of the coaches ahead of Schottenheimer on the regular season wins list won at least one Super Bowl or NFL Championship, and Reid is the only member of that group who does not have at least two titles.
Schottenheimer ranks just 33rd in playoff wins (5), and he has the worst winning percentage (.278; 5-13 record) among NFL coaches who won at least five playoff games. He has the fourth most playoff losses all-time, but the three coaches who have more losses each had winning records and each won at least one title: Don Shula went 19-17 in the playoffs with two Super Bowl titles, Tom Landry went 20-16 in the playoffs with two Super Bowl titles, and Andy Reid has a 17-15 playoff record with one Super Bowl title.
It is too late for the Hall of Fame to honor Schottenheimer when he could have appreciated it, but there is no rule against posthumous induction. Is he a worthy candidate? If he had won just one Super Bowl he likely would have waltzed into the Hall of Fame a long time ago. Without a championship on his resume, there are lingering questions. Was there something about so-called "Martyball" that was better suited to regular season play than postseason play? Or, did Schottenheimer lift his teams farther than they otherwise would have gone? Is it reasonable to say that he "should" have taken at least one of those teams all the way?
Schottenheimer's best regular season team, the 14-2 Chargers, lost to the team of the decade--the New England Patriots--in the playoffs. His 1997 Chiefs went 13-3 but lost to the eventual Super Bowl champion Denver Broncos. Schottenheimer's two best Browns teams lost close AFC Championship games to Elway's Broncos. Individually, those losses are understandable, but one could also argue that a Hall of Fame coach should have found a way to not come up short in every single one of those contests.
There are playoff losses that are less understandable, including when his 1995 Chiefs--a 13-3 squad with home field advantage--lost in the Wild Card game to the 9-7 Indianapolis Colts.
It is difficult to put Schottenheimer at the absolute top level with the coaches who won multiple titles, including (in chronological order) Paul Brown, Vince Lombardi, Don Shula, Chuck Noll, Tom Landry, Bill Walsh, Jimmy Johnson, and Bill Belichick--but the Hall of Fame has welcomed coaches who won much less often than Schottenheimer did, and several of those coaches did not win titles. The consistent pattern with Schottenheimer--across more than 20 years and four teams--is that his teams became better after his arrival, and got worse after he departed, which suggests that he maximized or at least came reasonably close to maximizing those teams' potential.
Marty Schottenheimer is a Hall of Famer in my book. Rest in peace, Coach Schottenheimer, and thank you for reminding us all to never stop seeking the "gleam."
No comments:
Post a Comment