Why Marty Schottenheimer was Fired

Never before has an NFL coach been fired after a 14-2 season. Never. And yet the San Diego Chargers fired Marty Schottenheimer, one of the winningest coaches in NFL history, on Monday. Some can say it was because he let his assistant coaches interview for other jobs elsewhere, and leaving his own staff gutted. Some can say it was his team's collapse against the New England Patriots in the first round of this year's playoffs. Some can say it was his bad relationship with Chargers General Manger AJ Smith.

I'm not sure what the real reason he was fired was, but I can tell you why I would never hire him. He's the exact same coach as Marv Levy, who "led" the Buffalo Bills to four straight Super Bowl losses from 1990 to 1993.

I think Schottenheimer's body of work in the postseason speaks for itself. He's 5-13 in the postseason, and hasn't won a playoff game since Bill Clinton was a first-term president. He's a good regular season coach, but he can't get his team up when it matters - when there's no next week. His teams continually fail to put games together when they need to the most.

That's why I use Marv Levy as an example. There is no way, NO WAY, that the Bills weren't better than the Giants in 1990. It's just not possible. And yet, when it mattered, when he had to have his team stand tall and straight and leave everything on the field, they didn't - they played like it was a regular season game. That's why Frank Reich's comeback happened against the Oilers - Frank Reich picked the team up and willed them into playing with intensity. They were dead behind Kelly and Levy. Put in Reich, who's a much more fiery guy than either Levy or Kelly, and the team picks it up and gets the job done.

Marv Levy was a great regular season coach with the Chiefs and with the Bills. But when he had to get his team to play lights out when it mattered most, they didn't. The same with Schottenheimer - when he has to get his team to stand like trees, they wilt like spinach.

You don't have to have a +.500 coaching record in the postseason to be a good coach in my book, but you can't expect to fail spectacularly year after year and have too much of my respect.