Former NFL head coach Marty Schottenheimer dies at age 77 of Alzheimer’s

Marty Schottenheimer (Wikimedia Commons)

According to ESPN on Monday, former National Football League head coach Marty Schottenheimer of Canonsburg, Pennsylvania died at the age of 77 of Alzheimer’s Disease. The news is not of a huge surprise, because Schottenheimer was placed in hospice care earlier this month.

Schottenheimer coached 327 National Football League regular season games with the Cleveland Browns (1984-1988), Kansas City Chiefs (1989-1998), the Washington Football Team (2001), and the San Diego Chargers (2002 to 2006). He posted a record of 200 wins, 126 losses, and one tie.

In 2004 with the Chargers, Schottenheimer was the National Football League coach of the year. That season the Chargers won the AFC West Division title with a record of 12 wins and our losses, but the Chargers lost 20-17 to the New York Jets in the AFC Wildcard.

You could argue the 2004 season summed up Schottenheimer’s career in a nutshell. He was a great regular season head coach as he posted a winning percentage of .613, but not a very good coach when games mattered most. Schottenheimer only won five of 18 playoff games for a poor winning percentage of .278.

Schottenheimer was also on the losing end of two memorable playoff losses with the Browns against the Denver Broncos in the 1980s.  Since Schottenheimer left the Browns in 1988, Cleveland has only won three playoff games.  

Throughout his NFL career, Schottenheimer also coached some great quarterbacks. They included Bernie Kosar, Joe Montana, and Philip Rivers. He also played six seasons in the NFL as a linebacker with the Buffalo Bills and Boston Patriots from 1965 to 1970.

In 2011, Schottenheimer finally won a championship as a head coach. However, it came in the United Football League. He was in charge of the Virginia Destroyers, who beat the Las Vegas Locomotives 17-3 in the 2011 UFL Championship. The league folded in 2012.

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