"There's a Gleam Men. There's a gleam. Let's get the gleam".
The family of longtime NFL coach Marty Schottenheimer said Wednesday that he had been moved into a hospice facility in North Carolina.
Schottenheimer, 77, was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease in 2014 and was placed in hospice care on Saturday.
“As a family we are surrounding him with love and are soaking up the prayers and support from all those he impacted through his incredible life,” his wife Pat Schottenheimer said in a family statement. “In the way he taught us all, we are putting one foot in front of the other … one play at a time.”
Marty Schottenheimer’s teams went 200-126-1 Schottenheimer is the winningest coach in NFL history without a Super Bowl or NFL championship. He was a head coach for four teams across 21 seasons and was the coach of the 1986 and 1987 Cleveland Browns teams that lost to John Elway and the Denver Broncos in back-to-back AFC championship games by a combined eight points.
He spent one more season in Cleveland after the 1987 season and became the coach of the Kansas City Chiefs for 10 seasons. His Chiefs teams won 10 or more games six times but never won the conference title. The Chiefs went 13-3 in both 1995 and 1997 but lost in their first game of the playoffs in each of those two seasons.
Those losses began a stretch of 22 years without a postseason win for the Chiefs and Kansas City didn’t win a home playoff game until Patrick Mahomes and the Chiefs beat the Indianapolis Colts in January of 2019.
Chargers head coach Marty Schottenheimer on sidelines during third quarter as the San Diego Chargers defeated the San Francisco 49ers by a score of 48 to 19 at Monster Park, San Francisco, California, October 15, 2006. (Photo by Robert B. Stanton/NFLPhotoLibrary) Marty Schottenheimer won 200 games as an NFL head coach. (Photo by Robert B. Stanton/NFLPhotoLibrary) More After parting ways with the Chiefs after 1998, Schottenheimer coached the Washington Football Team for a year in 2001 before coaching the San Diego Chargers for five seasons. The Chargers went 14-2 in 2006 — Schottenheimer’s final season as a head coach — and lost 24-21 at home to Tom Brady and the New England Patriots in the divisional round.
Schottenheimer finished his coaching career with a regular season record of 200-126-1 and is the eighth-winningest coach in NFL history. Only Bill Belichick and Andy Reid have more wins than Schottenheimer among active coaches and Schottenheimer has 55 more wins than Pete Carroll, the third-winningest active coach.
Schottenheimer’s son Brian served as Carroll’s offensive coordinator for the past three seasons and the Seahawks parted ways with Brian in January after losing to the Los Angeles Rams in the wild-card round. Earlier this week, Brian Schottenheimer agreed to become Urban Meyer’s passing game coordinator for the Jacksonville Jaguars.
Marty was great. I'll never forget hearing on the radio that Marty resigned and the immediate lump in my throat. Modell forced that resignation because he was an idiot. He was pissed because Marty wasn't more aggressive offensively and wanted to force an offensive coordinator on him. The problem that last year was that Kosar was playing injured, and for half the season we played with gray haired Don fricken Strock, Mike Pagel and Gary Danielson at quarterback. I think Modell had his panties in a ringer because we lost that 24-23 playoff game to the oilers. I guess it didn't matter that we had Strock and Pagel for qb in that game. Stories came out later about the tension between Marty and Modell.
And into the forest I go, to lose my mind and find my soul. - John Muir
"First down inside the 10. A score here will put us in the Super Bowl. Cooper is far to the left as Njoku settles into the slot. Moore is flanked out wide to the right. Chubb and Ford are split in the backfield as Watson takes the snap ... Here we go."
Marty was great. I'll never forget hearing on the radio that Marty resigned and the immediate lump in my throat. Modell forced that resignation because he was an idiot. He was pissed because Marty wasn't more aggressive offensively and wanted to force an offensive coordinator on him. The problem that last year was that Kosar was playing injured, and for half the season we played with gray haired Don fricken Strock, Mike Pagel and Gary Danielson at quarterback. I think Modell had his panties in a ringer because we lost that 24-23 playoff game to the oilers. I guess it didn't matter that we had Strock and Pagel for qb in that game. Stories came out later about the tension between Marty and Modell.
Marty could be boneheaded as well. His quest for a linebacker brought us Cliff Charelton and Mike Junkin.
At any rate, he was a class act and will be missed.
My thoughts are with his family in this difficult time.
Love ya, Marty.
If everybody had like minds, we would never learn.
ALS...that is tough - my family does a walk-a-thon every year. Wearing their purple T-shirts and all.
Prayers out to Marty and his family.
Another casualty to that IDIOT MODELL as he once again tried his best to sabotage our team. Anyone of our coaches who did well and wanted more power to finish the deal...Modell got rid of them. The worst was PAUL BROWN. One of the greatest minds in the NFL we would have had Bill Walsh at our backs bringing along our QBs. Just for you younger people - you have to understand how GREAT he was. He was way ahead of the curve. smh - I don't hate many people in this world. But Modell you go to the top of my list.
jmho
Defense wins championships. Watson play your butt off! Go Browns! CHRIST HAS RISEN! GM Strong! & Stay safe everyone!
Seeing him in that one Cleveland Sports documentary (I think it was the one with the father narrating to the son about the whole history leading up to the Cavs Championship, but I could be mistaken)...
... anyway, in one of those documentaries it got to the part about the Browns teams fails in the Playoffs (The Drive, The Fumble) and it had Marty on there and he got choked up. It wasn't an interview that was dug up from a while ago, it was Marty getting choked up recently thinking back on those teams and losses. That's pretty crazy when you think about it.
There is no level of sucking we haven't seen; in fact, I'm pretty sure we hold the patents on a few levels of sucking NOBODY had seen until the past few years.
The older I get the more of those I admired leave this earth. For anyone who doesn't recognize their mortality, things like this bring it home.
There a few things on my, "What a terrible way to go" list and Alzheimer’s is one of them. God's speed to you Marty and peace will be coming to you soon. God bless his family.
Intoducing for The Cleveland Browns, Quarterback Deshawn "The Predator" Watson. He will also be the one to choose your next head coach.
I ironically, man who has rich memories to cherish. Marty will remain one of my favorite coaches, both of the Browns and overall. I can only hope that whatever can give him comfort and maintain his dignity will happen with loved ones around him.
Thanks for the thrills, Coach S.!
"Every responsibility implies opportunity, and every opportunity implies responsibility." Otis Allen Glazebrook, 1880
Former Cleveland Browns players look back at how their head coach, Marty Schottenheimer, affected their careers. Ray Ellis, Earnest Byner, Kevin Mack, and Reggie Langhorne recollect what Marty did to motivate them.
Coach, I pray that you pass peacefully into eternity with the Lord. You are already a legend here.
Micah 6:8; He has shown you, O mortal, what is good. And what does the Lord require of you? To act justly and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God.
John 14:19 Jesus said: Because I live, you also will live.
As the Browns rallied in the AFC divisional playoff game against the Kansas City Chiefs to close to within 22-17, CBS analyst Tony Romo tugged at the hearts of long-suffering Cleveland fans and crooned, “There’s a gleam.”
Viewers over the age of 40 realized Romo captured the moment perfectly.
The corny catchphrase of Marty Schottenheimer signified hope and joy, the likes of which fans had not experienced since the most successful Browns coach in 30-plus years stomped the sidelines in the mid-1980s.
When Schottenheimer took over for Sam Rutigliano midway through the 1984 season, he unabashedly spoke of the Super Bowl and the Lombardi Trophy and of claiming “the world’s championship.”
“When you look at that trophy, there’s a reflection in that trophy,” Schottenheimer once explained. “Ultimately, there’s a gleam, men. That is our goal.”
That he didn’t claim it should not be Schottenheimer’s legacy. That he got closer than any other Browns coach is his legacy.
Schottenheimer, 77, entered into hospice care on Jan. 30, his family announced in a statement. He was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease in 2014.
The last time I spoke with Marty in October of 2016, he was preparing to travel from his home overlooking Lake Norman north of Charlotte, NC, to attend a 30th-year reunion of the 1986 Browns team that ended a 17-year franchise drought of not winning a post-season game. That team would lose two times to John Elway in the AFC Championship Game by 3 and 5 points. The Elway trilogy of terror was completed with a 1989 season loss of 16 points under Schottenheimer’s successor, Bud Carson.
Schottenheimer was physically healthy, Pat, his wife of 52 years had explained to me, but “he’s got that memory lag where he’ll ask you the same question three or four times.”
“I’m sitting here looking at a lake and it’s a spectacular setting,” Marty said over the phone. “Pat and I, the Lord’s blessed us. I mean, there’s no other way I can identify it. We’re doing really good.”
An authentic culture-changer
Schottenheimer’s time as Browns coach was relatively brief, only 4 ½ years. Yet his impact was indelible in the history of the franchise.
He took over after Rutigliano suffered a 1-7 start to the 1984 season. Schottenheimer, Sam’s defensive coordinator, refused the interim tag and demanded a three-year contract so the players would not consider him a substitute teacher. That stubbornness would mark his exit as much as his entrance.
Schottenheimer immediately changed the culture of the team by pulling 10th-round rookie running back Earnest Byner off the bench.
“He brought me into his office and told me, ‘Earnest, you’re my guy.’ I can remember that very vividly,” Byner told me.
Byner dragged the team, like a plow horse, to a 4-4 finish. When Schottenheimer added USFL-export Kevin Mack to the mix in 1985, he rode Mack and Byner each to 1,000-yard seasons despite the arrival of hotshot rookie quarterback Bernie Kosar.
The Browns’ downhill, smash-mouth football came to be known as Martyball. The stereotype preceded the bespectacled coach at future stops in Kansas City, Washington and San Diego.
“At the end of the day, Martyball is finding out what your players do best, and do that,” is how Schottenheimer explained it.
When Kosar and the front office demanded a more professional pass offense, Schottenheimer handed the reins to new offensive coordinator Lindy Infante. Before you knew it, the Browns were throwing out of “empty” sets long before it became the NFL rage.
Marty stubbornly clung to his beliefs, however. In a miked-up scene in the NFL Films-produced “A Football Life,” released in 2013, Schottenheimer turns to Infante during one game and asks, “Lindy, any thought about trying to run a bit?”
Schottenheimer was noted for the loosest tear ducts this side of Dick Vermeil, and for his failure to defeat Elway. He also lost a heart-breaker to Elway’s Broncos in a divisional playoff game with the Chiefs after the 1997 season.
He would receive more acclaim for overcoming adversity, such as coaching the Browns to the division title in 1988 through five quarterback injuries, and steering Washington to an 8-8 season after an 0-5 start in 2001.
I witnessed perhaps Schottenheimer’s shining moment in the strike season of 1987. He and his staff took a collection of teachers, truck drivers, bar tenders and semi-professionals, and molded them into a team in 10 days. In the locker room following a 20-10 victory in Foxboro, MA, against the New England Patriots, Schottenheimer positively glowed in the triumph.
Jeff Christensen, the quarterback who was called from tending bar in the Flats for the strike replacement team after being cut in training camp, said on Wednesday, “I remember it vividly. After the game, he told me, ‘There’s no other way to say this. I really love you kids.’”
Marty’s final game as Browns coach in 1988 was a painful, 24-23 playoff loss to the Houston Oilers in which Byner committed back-to-back personal fouls. The next day, I phoned owner Art Modell for his comments and plans. Without informing Schottenheimer, Modell bellowed that he would demand staff changes of Marty, including a reassignment of Schottenheimer’s brother, Kurt, who was special teams coach.
When GM Ernie Accorsi read the story in the morning paper, he intercepted Schottenheimer and pleaded with him to take a week vacation to cool tempers before meeting with Modell. Schottenheimer refused, and stormed into Modell’s office. Less than a half-hour later, Schottenheimer stormed out, leaving Browns PR to hastily prepare a release to explain the club had “parted ways” with the coach who had made four consecutive playoff appearances, including two in the AFC Championship Game.
In my phone conversation with Marty in 2016, he said, “It was the dumbest thing I did. I mean, what the hell, leaving there. God only knows I might still be there. I’ve said to my wife and a number of people, of all the decisions I made in my life, it’s the one I regret the most.”
Always a winner
Schottenheimer left Cleveland with four winning seasons and a 46-31 record. The three coaches he preceded had losing records, as well as the 12 full-time head coaches who followed him, including Bill Belichick – until Kevin Stefanski.
Within hours of leaving the Browns, Schottenheimer was hired as coach of the Chiefs, who had not won a post-season game in 17 seasons. In 10 years in Kansas City, Schottenheimer produced nine consecutive winning seasons. Like in Cleveland, he got no further than the AFC Championship Game.
His post-season failures followed him to his fourth NFL stop in San Diego, where he was fired after a 14-2 season that ended in a torturous 24-21 loss to Belichick’s Patriots in a divisional playoff game.
In 21 full seasons as an NFL head coach, Shottenheimer had two losing seasons. His 200 career regular-season victories rank eighth all-time among NFL coaches. He is the winningest NFL coach without a league championship. His 5-13 record in the postseason is the worst among coaches with more than 10 appearances.
“Disappointment? Sure,” Schottenheimer said. “But I never let it consume me.”
In March of 2011, Schottenheimer returned to the sidelines at the age of 67 to coach in the upstart United Football League. His Virginia Destroyers went 4-1 in the shortened season and played the two-time defending champion Las Vegas Locomotives in the league’s final game.
Martyball rode defense and former NFL running back Dominic Rhodes to a 14-3 victory. It was Schottenheimer’s first league championship. He bowed out a winner, after all.
Romans 10:9 "That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and believe in thy heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved."
May the Lord comfort his wife, family, and friends.
Micah 6:8; He has shown you, O mortal, what is good. And what does the Lord require of you? To act justly and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God.
John 14:19 Jesus said: Because I live, you also will live.
One of the Things I appreciate most is, say you take the best team ever to play, and put them in the same division with Marty's team, and they meet 10 games in with the first place in the division on the line, Marty's team would win that game, every time.
Can Deshaun Watson play better for the Browns, than Baker Mayfield would have? ... Now the Games count.
"First down inside the 10. A score here will put us in the Super Bowl. Cooper is far to the left as Njoku settles into the slot. Moore is flanked out wide to the right. Chubb and Ford are split in the backfield as Watson takes the snap ... Here we go."
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