LittleRed212
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Oh how I miss Jenga. :laugh2:
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The Firing of Schottenheimer
Ever since the San Diego Chargers lost to the New England Patriots in the playoffs, their offseason moves have reminded me of a game of Jenga gone bad.
Jenga is an addictive game of strategy, suspense, triumph, and sometimes heartbreak that many of us grew up playing. Move the right pieces from the tower, and you will win, but move one wrong piece and it could all fall apart.
Such is the highs and lows of Jenga, and such is the highs and lows of the Chargers, a team who went 14-2 in the regular season, but is now mired in a game of Jenga that they have played miserably.
The first piece of the strong structure known as the Chargers organization vanished when they lost their offensive coordinator, Cam Cameron, to the Miami Dolphins. The structure took a hit, but the other pieces of the coaching staff kept it strong.
But then Jerry Jones, his infamous wallet, and his glamorous team lured away piece number two by taking defensive coordinator Wade Phillips.
Adding insult to injury, even more pieces were removed when linebackers coach Greg Manusky left for San Francisco and tight ends coach Rob Chudzinski jumped ship for Cleveland.
The structure had undoubtedly begun to tremble, but it was not going to fall because the Chargers had stated that the biggest piece of the team, head coach Marty Schottenheimer, would remain in place.
That move made sense. In a season where the Chargers were the best team in the NFL, common sense would say that keeping with stability would be the best bet, right?
I suppose common sense is wrong.
In the most unstrategic move of all, the San Diego Chargers pulled out the one last block that held the organization together by firing their head coach on Monday.
And so the structure that was a 14-2 team tumbles to the ground - game over.
By losing their offensive and defensive coordinators to head coaching jobs, their position coaches to coordinator jobs, and now by firing their head coach, the Chargers have to start from scratch, and build the structure back up all over again.
It had been widely reported, and even dubbed a “dysfunctional situation” by team president Dean Spanos, that Schottenheimer and general manager A.J. Smith did not get along.
On top of the bad blood brewing between the coach and general manager, the exits of many key assistant coaches finally prompted Spanos to make the unpopular decision.
“The process of dealing with these coaching changes convinced me that we simply could not move forward with such dysfunction between our head coach and general manager,” Spanos said in a statement. “In short, this entire process over the last month convinced me beyond any doubt that I had to act to change this untenable situation.”
Schottenheimer took the high road in his interviews, but the veteren coach still could not escape the feeling that he was being penalized for his assistant coaches leaving.
“That is absolutely unfair, in my view," Schottenheimer told The Associated Press in a telephone interview. “We had no control over two guys who became head coaches in this league. We gave two guys an opportunity to be coordinators in this league.”
But the firing still came as a total shock to many, partly because Schottenheimer seemed like he was going to be the one mainstay from a season in which the Chargers dominated in every way imaginable.
The Chargers' season ended on a sour note, but no one could deny the promise that the team still had.
The defense was among the most feared in the league with 61 sacks and the offense had been bolstered by the play of quarterback Philip Rivers, who filled in flawlessly for Drew Brees. Having Pro Bowlers LaDainian Tomlinson, Antonio Gates, Lorenzo Neal, and Shawne Merriman on your team helps as well.
But still, the success that Schottenheimer had in all his regular seasons (200-126-1), his absysmal playoff record of 5-13 overshadowed everything that he did right. Add to the fact that the coach and Smith had a less than pretty relationship and the darker reasons of the firing come to the surface.
Perhaps the most important fact lost in all the drama is the fact that San Diego's players loved playing for their passionate coach.
“I always had the utmost respect for Marty as a coach and a human being,” said league MVP Tomlinson. “He always tried to do things the right way. He definitely built something special here with our team, and I think the (other players) would attest to that.”
Other players talked about uncertainty created from the firing and how ironic it was considering the success of the team.
“It's crazy,” cornerback Quentin Jammer said. “You go 14-2 and you get fired. It's wild. Now you go into the offseason not knowing what's going on. I think I speak for a lot of guys on the team when I say we really, really liked Marty.”
On top of alienating their players and their fans, the organization could not have picked a worse time to make a change.
Intead of focusing on the NFL Combine, the NFL Draft, and free agency, the Chargers administration will have to put a lot of time and effort into finding not only a head coach, but assistant coaches as well.
So as my unlikely analogy of the Chargers and Jenga comes to a close, everyone knows that the loser of the game is the one who makes the tower collapse. With that said, Marty Schottenheimer is not the loser, nor are the players, the fans, or the assistant coaches who left for other jobs.
In my opinion, Dean Spanos and A.J. Smith are the losers. Only time will tell if they can build the pieces of the structure back up, and most importantly, whether their players, fans, and potential coaches will remain on their side and in the game with them.
