"How the heck do you a fire a guy who went 14-2 last year?!"
>> Monday
You say, "Hey Marty--Good season and all, but yeah, we still don't like you. So get out; you're fired." Or something like that.
In a way, it's refreshing to see an NFL team making a coaching change independent of team record. It may not seem fair to fire a guy whose team had the best record in the league. But that's exactly the point--his team had the 14-2 record. How much positive influence Schottenheimer had toward that end is not necessarily a reflection of the record itself.
And so his bosses realized this. And they fired him for personality conflicts, a reason far more valid than the one that fells 90% of NFL coaches, that being "We had a bad record and needed a scapegoat." It's also far more reasonable than the explanation many will no doubt suspect or will use to justify the firing--the "couldn't win the big game" criticism. But I appreciate that Chargers' president Dean Spanos didn't stoop to this excuse because he very well could have.
Instead, team management owned up to its dysfunction, an honesty rarely seen in sports or in any business for that matter. There was no cut-and-dry, "let's make Marty look like the bad guy" brush-off but rather an admission that, hey, we just couldn't get along.
I'm sure a lot of analysts will jump on this decision and call it crazy, but I think that would be shortsighted. This isn't the first time Schottenheimer has been fired, and--if recent hiring trends hold true--it won't be his last. Hey, maybe someday he'll supplant his old coordinator Wade Phillips in Dallas and then be replaced by Norv Turner. Either way, being 14-2 this year didn't magically correct whatever personality flaws hurt Marty in the past.
Sometimes coaching changes seem unfair, but when so many people of roughly equal ability are gunning so hard for a very small number of positions, high turnover is inevitable. People get fired. And get fired often. And the decision is never 100% the right one. Except when it's the Cardinals, and they fire Dennis Green. I don't see how anyone could quibble with that.
In a way, it's refreshing to see an NFL team making a coaching change independent of team record. It may not seem fair to fire a guy whose team had the best record in the league. But that's exactly the point--his team had the 14-2 record. How much positive influence Schottenheimer had toward that end is not necessarily a reflection of the record itself.And so his bosses realized this. And they fired him for personality conflicts, a reason far more valid than the one that fells 90% of NFL coaches, that being "We had a bad record and needed a scapegoat." It's also far more reasonable than the explanation many will no doubt suspect or will use to justify the firing--the "couldn't win the big game" criticism. But I appreciate that Chargers' president Dean Spanos didn't stoop to this excuse because he very well could have.
Instead, team management owned up to its dysfunction, an honesty rarely seen in sports or in any business for that matter. There was no cut-and-dry, "let's make Marty look like the bad guy" brush-off but rather an admission that, hey, we just couldn't get along.
I'm sure a lot of analysts will jump on this decision and call it crazy, but I think that would be shortsighted. This isn't the first time Schottenheimer has been fired, and--if recent hiring trends hold true--it won't be his last. Hey, maybe someday he'll supplant his old coordinator Wade Phillips in Dallas and then be replaced by Norv Turner. Either way, being 14-2 this year didn't magically correct whatever personality flaws hurt Marty in the past.
Sometimes coaching changes seem unfair, but when so many people of roughly equal ability are gunning so hard for a very small number of positions, high turnover is inevitable. People get fired. And get fired often. And the decision is never 100% the right one. Except when it's the Cardinals, and they fire Dennis Green. I don't see how anyone could quibble with that.
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