Pitt graduate Marty Schottenheimer, coach of 4 NFL teams and winner of 200 games, dies at 77

Marty Schottenheimer, who won 200 regular-season games with four NFL teams thanks to his “Martyball” brand of smash-mouth football but regularly fell short in the playoffs, died. He was 77.

Schottenheimer, a Fort Cherry and Pitt graduate, died Monday night in Charlotte, N.C., his family said through former Kansas City Chiefs publicist Bob Moore. Schottenheimer was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s in 2014. He was moved to a hospice Jan. 30.

Schottenheimer was the eighth-winningest coach in NFL history. He went 200-126-1 in 21 seasons with the Cleveland Browns, Kansas City Chiefs, Washington and San Diego Chargers.

His success was rooted in “Martyball,” a conservative approach that featured a strong running game and tough defense. He hated the then-Oakland Raiders and loved the mantra, “One play at a time,” which he’d holler at his players in the pre-kickoff huddle.

Winning in the regular season never was a problem. Schottenheimer’s teams won 10 or more games 11 times, including a 14-2 record with the Chargers in 2006 that earned them the AFC’s No. 1 seed in the playoffs.

It’s what happened in January that haunted Schottenheimer, who was 5-13 in the postseason.

His playoff demons followed him to the end of his career.

In his final game, Jan. 14, 2007, Schottenheimer’s Chargers, featuring NFL MVP LaDainian Tomlinson and a supporting cast of Pro Bowlers, imploded with mind-numbing mistakes and lost a home divisional playoff game to Tom Brady and the New England Patriots, 24-21.

A month later, owner Dean Spanos stunned the NFL when he fired Schottenheimer because of a personality clash between the coach and strong-willed general manager A.J. Smith. Schottenheimer and Smith hadn’t spoken for about two years.

A breaking point for Spanos — head of the family-owned team — came when Schottenheimer wanted to hire brother Kurt as defensive coordinator after Wade Phillips was hired away as Dallas’ head coach. Kurt Schottenheimer had been on his brother’s previous staffs, and Marty Schottenheimer’s son, Brian, had been Chargers quarterbacks coach from 2002-05.

Schottenheimer then moved to North Carolina to spend time with his family and golf.

Schottenheimer was 44-27 with the Cleveland Browns from 1984-88, 101-58-1 with Kansas City from 1989-98; 8-8 with Washington in 2001 and 47-33 with San Diego from 2002-06.

Schottenheimer never made it to the Super Bowl, either as a player or coach. He was a backup linebacker for the Buffalo Bills when they lost the 1966 AFL championship game to Kansas City, which then played the Green Bay Packers in the first Super Bowl.

As a coach, his playoff losses were epic and mystifying.

His Browns twice came tantalizingly close to earning Super Bowl berths, only to have them ripped away by “The Drive” and “The Fumble” in consecutive AFC title games against personal nemesis John Elway and the Broncos.

In the 1986 AFC championship game at Cleveland, Elway led the Broncos 98 yards in 15 plays to tie the game on a 5-yard pass to Mark Jackson with 37 seconds left in regulation. Denver won in overtime on Rich Karlis’ 33-yard field goal.

A year later, with the Browns trailing the Broncos 38-31 with 1:12 left at Denver, Earnest Byner fumbled on the Broncos’ 1. The Broncos won 38-33 after taking an intentional safety.

Former Pitt basketball star Sam Clancy played defensive end for those Browns teams, and he remembers Schottenheimer as “a tough, no-nonsense coach.”

“He brought out the best in me as a player and as a man,” Clancy said. “I’ll always love and respect the way he treated us, looked out for us, but held us accountable to the team. Marty was a great motivator. When we won, he gave the credit to us. When we lost, he always put it on himself.

“Because we both went to Pitt, he would always talk about my basketball skills. We always kept up with what Pitt was doing. He’d see me and say, ‘Sam, did you see Pitt had a great game yesterday?’ I was blessed to have him in my life. Marty and his family are in my prayers.”

Pitt football coach Pat Narduzzi grew up in northeast Ohio watching the Browns under Schottenheimer.

“Coach Schottenheimer made it fun to be a Browns fan again in the 1980s,” Narduzzi said. “He really revitalized that team and made them an annual Super Bowl contender. He was a tremendous coach but an even better leader. I think that’s why he raised the level of every organization he ever joined. We are proud to call him a Pitt Man, and our entire program extends its deepest sympathies to the Schottenheimer family.”

Schottenheimer’s Chiefs reached the AFC title game in 1993 but lost at Buffalo. Two of his Chiefs teams went 13-3 and locked up homefield advantage throughout the playoffs before shockingly flaming out in the divisional round.

The Chargers thought they had a Super Bowl-caliber team in 2006, but Schottenheimer’s career ended with a brutal playoff loss to the Patriots. In the first quarter, Schottenheimer insisted on going for it on fourth-and-11 from the Patriots’ 30-yard line. Mike Vrabel strip-sacked Philip Rivers and New England recovered.

The biggest pratfall, though, and one that still haunts Chargers fans, came with San Diego leading 21-13 with just more than six minutes to play. Marlon McCree intercepted Tom Brady and instead of going to the ground, tried to run and was hit and fumbled, with the Patriots recovering. New England rallied for the win.

Schottenheimer seemingly survived another playoff failure, only to be fired a month later.

After winning just 12 games in Schottenheimer’s first two seasons, the Chargers went 12-4 in 2004 behind Tomlinson and a rejuvenated Drew Brees to end an eight-year playoff drought.

But they lost a home divisional game to the New York Jets in overtime. Schottenheimer, named the Associated Press Coach of the Year earlier that day, was whistled for an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty for running onto the field to argue with the referees in the second quarter.

In overtime, the Chargers had a first down at the Jets’ 22, but Schottenheimer went conservative and called three straight runs up the middle by Tomlinson to set up a 40-yard field goal attempt by Nate Kaeding, who missed. The Jets then moved down the field for the winning field goal.

Schottenheimer was born Sept. 23, 1943, in Canonsburg. He played at Pitt before a six-year pro career with the Bills and Patriots.

After graduating from Fort Cherry, where he was an all-state football player and a starter for the Rangers’ PIAA champion basketball team, he matriculated to Pitt, turning down offers from Penn State, Maryland and Virginia. He played linebacker and center and was a member of Pitt’s 1963 team, one of the school’s all-time best, that finished 9-1 with No. 3 national ranking.

The late Beano Cook, Pitt’s sports information director from 1956-66, said Schottenheimer was not just a good player on the field.

“What I remember most about Marty was that studious look he had with those glasses,” Cook said in Schottenheimer’s 2012 autobiography “Martyball.”

“He looked more like a college professor than a linebacker. And he was so well spoken and literate. But let me tell you, he was a darn good football player, too. Don’t let him or anyone else kid you. I sent out letters to every sportswriter in the country trying to get him first team All-American his senior year. He deserved it. He was that good. He wound up second team All-American, but he should have been first team.”

Schottenheimer graduated from Pitt in 1966 with a bachelor’s degree in English.

“On behalf of the University of Pittsburgh, we send our heartfelt condolences to coach Schottenheimer’s wife, Pat, his children, Brian and Kristen, and many loved ones,” Pitt athletic director Heather Lyke said in a statement. “As a Canton native, I saw firsthand the excitement he brought to Cleveland. With more than 200 victories coaching in the NFL, it is evident that he brought excellence to each of his coaching stops. Pitt takes great pride in his wonderful legacy as coach, leader and man.”

He is survived by his wife, Pat, and children Brian and Kristin. Brian Schottenheimer was fired as Seattle’s offensive coordinator last month and then hired by new Jacksonville coach Urban Meyer as passing game coordinator-quarterbacks coach.