Talking NFL

According to ESPN’s Chris Mortensen, Marty Schottenheimer was fired this evening by Chargers team president Dean Spanos.

Not to break out the Anchorman jokes again, but as Luke Wilson’s character said when Tim Robbins chopped his arm off; “ahhh! I did NOT see that coming!”

Spanos cited a “dysfunctional situation” between the coach and general manager A.J. Smith.

That’s like calling the ongoing cat fight between Jessica Biel and Lindsay Lohan a “subtle misunderstanding”.

With 5 Charger assistants jumping ship this off-season (including both coordinators), it appears that one of two things happened. Either Smith and Schottenheimer could not agree on who would fill Wade Phillips spot once he accepted the Cowboys head coaching job, or A.J. simply figured that with all the off-season coaching departures, why not start from scratch now? (especially since he & Marty don’t exactly play racquetball together…)

Either way, the problem for the Chargers now is to fill the head coaching position at a time when nearly every other team has their staff in place for 2007. And whoever becomes the new HC in SD will want to fill the assistant ranks with their own staff choices (meaning that poor Clarence Shelmon is probably going down in the trivia books as the shortest tenured offensive coordinator in Charger history). Again, with every other team in good shape, this will be a challenging task.

However, not all the news is bad for Charger faithful. If A.J. Smith is able to pounce on Bears defensive coordinator Ron Rivera, then they will have secured a very well regarded assistant that appears ready to take on a head coaching position. And now they won’t have the specter of Marty’s playoff failings hovering over the team in ‘07.

As for Marty, say want you want about him (and many have, myself included), but if it came down to him not backing down from A.J. regarding who his assistants would be, then good for him. One thing that has always been said about Schottenheimer is that he is a loyal guy, and he may have gone down going to bat for his staff and his guys. That’s the type of guy I would want to work for.

He’s also the guy I would want coaching the team that my team was playing against in the postseason, but sadly that’s not going to happen anymore (man, I’ve REALLY got to stop this habit of throwing one last jab instead of ending the post on a positive note). All right, let’s try this again; you know what’s great about Marty? He always