Marty Schottenheimer, coach of successful and memorable Browns teams in the 1980s, died at 77

CHARLOTTE, NC. – After a seven-year battle with Alzheimer’s disease, former Cleveland Browns coach Marty Schottenheimer died at 77, according to ESPN.

Schottenheimer was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s in 2014. He was transferred to a hospice near his home in Charlotte on January 30.

Schottenheimer leaves his 54-year-old wife, Pat, his sons Kristen and Brian, and grandchildren Brandon, Sutton, Savannah and Catherine.

The Cleveland Browns issued the following statement about Schottenheimer’s passing.

A life of football

Born in Canonsburg, Pennsylvania, in 1943, Schottenheimer lived and breathed football, playing a linebacker during high school and college at the University of Pittsburgh. He was selected in the fourth round of the 1965 NFL draft by the Baltimore Colts and in the seventh round of the AFL draft by the Buffalo Bills, opting to play for the Buffalo.

After spending four years at Bills and winning an AFL championship, Schottenheimer played two seasons with the Boston Patriots before jumping from the Pittsburgh Steelers to the Baltimore Colts and then retiring in 1971.

Although he enjoyed several years as a professional football player, Schottenheimer made his name several years later as a coach.

Unforgettable coaching legacy

Schottenhemier began his coaching career before his time as a Browns coach, serving as New York Giants lineback coach in 1975 and 1976, Giants defense coordinator in 1977 and Detroit Lions lineback coach in 1978 and 1979. He was hired as a Browns defensive coordinator in 1980.

His break as head coach came with the Browns in 1984, when he replaced Sam Rutigliano, and he had his first full season as head coach in 1985. That year, Schottenheimer and defender Bernie Kosar, who had just been selected in 1985 supplementary draft. , a successful era in Cleveland began that surpassed even the Kardiac Kids era that fans had brought together.

Although Schottenheimer and his Browns never made it to the Super Bowl, he helped make the team an eternal playoff candidate during his tenure. At that time, Schottenheimer held a record of 44-27, a winning percentage of 0.620 and made four playoff appearances. The Browns, under Schottenehimer, won three AFC Central Division titles. After the 1988 season, Art Modell intruded with the successful coach (not for the first time), causing a split that could not be reconciled, and Schottenheimer moved away from the Browns.

Schottenhemier went on to the next season to become the head coach of the Kansas City Chiefs, where he would spend the next 10 years accumulating a 101-58-1 record in the regular season and making seven playoff games with three division titles. Despite success in the regular season, Schottenheimer and the Chiefs never made it to the Super Bowl and he resigned as coach after the 1998 season.

After spending time as an ESPN analyst, Schottenheimer rekindled his head coaching career, taking over from Washington for a season before being fired by owner Daniel Snyder in an unpopular move.

Schottenheimer ended his NFL coaching days with the Chargers, spending five years with the team before being fired in 2007, after discord broke out within the organization.

In his years as head coach of the NFL, Schottenheimer developed the training strategy known as “Marty ball” or run, run, pass, punt. It worked well for him throughout his years of coaching during the regular season, but it never paid off in the playoffs. Schottenheimer’s 205 victories are the maximum that any head coach has not achieved or won an NFL championship.

But despite never winning everything, Schottenheimer’s legacy is truly unforgettable, and his coaching tree continues to have an impact on the league to this day, with names like Bruce Arians, Mike McCarthy, Bill Cowher, Tony Dungy, Hue Jackson, Mike Tomlin, Jim Caldwell, Doug Marrone, Todd Bowles and Leslie Frazier, all going back to him.

Kosar reminiscences

Former Browns quarterback Bernie Kosar had known for some time that this news was coming, but knowing about Schottenheimer’s death was still a blow.

“Remembering Marty as someone you absolutely love and cherish, and I can’t thank you enough for the structure, discipline and belief he had in me,” said Kosar.

Schottenheimer’s first full year as head coach in 1985 was Kosar’s first full-back. Together, they would transform a team that started from 1 to 7 the previous year and transform it into a franchise that would run for two consecutive conference championships. Kosar said Schottenheimer, a former player himself, brought toughness, courage and discipline to the job, as well as an attention to detail that made players anxious for Sunday.

“Training was really more difficult than games, training for two days, training for three days, the amount of contact you had to train, in fact, made Sunday not so difficult against other teams,” he said. . “It probably shortened the career of many players, but in the short period of play our teams were difficult, disciplined and every Sunday we knew we were ready to play.”

So he did it again with the Chiefs.

“For him, setting up the structure and organization of two organizations that were not winning football games and playoff games before he got there, to put these two teams and these two organizations together in a decade to get to several AFC Conference games Championship is absolutely not an easy task to do, “said Kosar.

Schottenheimer was in the early stages of Alzheimer’s in 2016 when he returned to Cleveland to be honored with his 1986 team. It’s a disease that in his last days robbed him, Kosar says, of really enjoying this year’s decisive showdown between two of his franchises. greatest success.

“It is really a shame that a man who has had such a big influence on so many of us is not really able to understand, really know the magnitude of a Browns-Chiefs game where he has had such a big influence,” said Kosar.

In life, fate kept Schottenheimer away from the game’s biggest stage, but Kosar hopes that in death he can still earn the game’s highest honor. A football journey that started in Cleveland and ended on the same street in Canton.

“When you talk about the history and tradition of the Cleveland Browns and going back to the great Paul Brown and Otto Graham, and having Marty Schottenheimer mentioned at the same time in that type of organization is absolutely confirming our previous declaration of his earnings the right to own a home in Canton, the Hall of Fame, ”said Kosar.