Sunday, January 14, 2007
Another Early Exit for San Diego
I’m personally pulling for Indy to represent the AFC in the upcoming Super Bowl. Peyton Manning is one of the game’s best quarterbacks, and it’s a shame that he hasn’t found his way to the big game yet. It would be nice to see him playing for the championship. But since the Broncos and the Redskins aren’t in the playoffs, it isn’t a really big deal to me. I’m a casual observer at this point.
I only preface with this to point out that I really didn’t care much about San Diego’s bid for the Super Bowl; I wasn’t pulling for them, but I wasn’t much rooting against them, either.
Here’s the thing: Marty Schottenheimer is a damned decent coach. He knows how to win games, he recognizes talent, and he’s brought a lot of winning seasons wherever he coaches. What he doesn’t do is go to Super Bowls. Forget about winning the thing, the truth is that he never seems to get to the big game. He is the winningest coach in NFL history to never coach in the Super Bowl--a fact that is going to be thrown around in the San Diego sports pages tomorrow.
For most of the season there has been a question about whether Schottenheimer would be returning as San Diego’s head coach next season. His relationship with AJ Smith, the Chargers’ general manager, is notoriously strained and, given the expectations of the team, there is going to be a lot of disappointment. There will be talk of wasting a season where LaDainian Tomlinson, Shawne Merriman, and Philip Rivers all played brilliantly, but came up short against a surprising Patriots team.
I’ll be surprised if Schottenheimer is back in San Diego next year. His reputation as a big game loser, his sour relationship with the team’s general manager, and the massively disappointing end to the season will all overshadow just how well the Chargers played this year.
The next big question for all of us now is whether Tom Brady will get his fourth ring. He’s on pace to not only match John Elway’s records as the only quarterback to start in five Super Bowls, but to eclipse the mark. What a remarkable career that young man has already had.
Comments & Trackbacks
Schottenheimer seems like a nicer version of Dan Reeves. He can do amazing things with not very much. He’s a great motivator and a very good tactical mind. There’s no coach I’d rather hire if I inherited the Oakland Raiders, for instance.
But he can’t make the final leap to winning the really big games. I really think you need a very different attitude and skill set to win big than to bring a team from garbage to very good in most cases.
I have to say this for Reeves, though: although he never won, he did coach as a head coach in four Super Bowls (three with the Broncos and one with the Falcons) and another five times as either an assistant coach or a player. It’s a shame that, at least as a head coach, he couldn’t quite figure out how to win a championship.
The Raiders could use a guy like Schottenheimer, I agree. Before they start thinking about a championship, they really need to start thinking about being a decent team again. I wonder how happy he would be with a team like that, though? And until Al Davis passes on, you’d have to think that the Raiders are doomed to be at the bottom of the conference.
Davis is the primary reason that I used the “if I were to inherit the Raiders” hypothetical. Relative coaching competence while working for Al Davis is pretty much orthogonal to relative coaching competence anywhere else. I think that neither Schottenheimer nor Reeves would do well in a Davis-owned organization.
And the other side of that is that I suspect Art Shell might be a pretty good head coach in a sane organization.
I’ve wondered about that, too. I like Art Shell, but he was in a horrible situation. I’d love to see him get an opportunity somewhere else--somewhere with sane talent and a sane owner.
As for San Diego losing…
I haven’t stopped swearing. My roommate tells me that I cuss in my sleep, muttering something about [CENSORED] this and [CENSORED] that and definitely something about the [CENSORED] Patriots.
Then again, my roommate knows jack about football, so she couldn’t tell me exactly what I said.
Probably a good thing.
I hope that Peyton Manning never reaches the superbowl. I think he makes too much money. When you do that on a NFL team you have to get the rest of the team on the cheap. Make less money Peyton, and share some wealth.
I am a free market guy in everything except pro sports, there I am a card carrying socialist. Salary cap is what makes the NFL compelling and why baseball is so much less so.
Since I am at school and they will not let me log on to my classes and I cannot seem to access the bookstore site to get the isbn numbers for my classes I came here!
I feel special!
For what it’s worth, I’m with you on the salary cap. My buddy Jerry put it in perspective for me when he explained that he sees the NFL as the product, not just the teams. The more I thought about it, the more I agreed.
That said, I don’t know if Manning makes too much or not. I do know that he’s a tremendous quarterback, though--the exception being during the playoffs.
Well, David, it looks like we have the Curse Of Da Schott for one more year.
I need to take a college course in creative swearing. I’m starting to run low on available phrases.
I was wondering how you’d feel about that.
You can beat me up over this in a couple weeks, but here it goes: I think they made the right choice. If you get rid of Schottenheimer, who do you put in his place? Until you can name an available coach who is likely to equal his winning record and be able to take them through the playoffs, then sending him packing wouldn’t help much.
Every once in a while I think the Broncos need someone new at the helm. Then I start thinking about specifics: who? Shanahan has a remarkable record as the Broncos’ head coach and has shown a kind of consistency that some other cities would envy. Who would replace him and do as well?
Anyway, it’s likely better than what the Raiders are ending up with.