Bolts fire Schottenheimer?????

[Gon_Trevil]

Marty is not the greatest of all coaches, but he shouldn't have been fired. He deserved one more shot. It must have been that bad over there, eh. If the Chargers were going to fire him, why didn't they come up with someone? Their best hope is that Lovie Smith or Ron Riveria gets the job.

Lovie Smith?

 

[pats63]

WOW,who are they going to get????Who the f**k cares!!!!!Some coaches from the Colts

 

[NJSportsFanatic]

Lovie Smith?

Lovie is a free agent I believe. He is due for an extension. He can get a raise and if he does not like it, he can be a free agent.

 

[PatsFanInVa]

Hey can one of you guys with even more time on your hands than me go and troll the Chargers forums on this subject?

 

[Isaac]

The thing about Marty is that he is such an over-arching personality, I wonder how the team is going to respond without him. If you watch NFL films such, he is the one leading every rah-rah session, as opposed to players on most teams. Personally, I don't know how the players tolerate him, it seems so uber-annoying to have a coach doing all that, but apparently they love him. It could be a gaping hole since no one on that team has really been given the space to be a leader, since it's been all Marty all the time.

 

[TeamPats]

Lovie is a free agent I believe. He is due for an extension. He can get a raise and if he does not like it, he can be a free agent.

Lovie is still signed for another year, however it is common practice to never allow a winning coach to only have 1 year left on his contract without a new extension. Because it took so long for Chicago to offer an extension was the reason for all the speculation for him leaving now that his stock is so high.

 

[PromisedLand]

Someone needs to crank up the Bill Cowher rumor machine again.

No way he goes all the way to the left coast. He is happy here in Raleigh with his family. Just built a $3M home, which by the way would be a $10M home in Boston.

 

[NoCal Patriot]

What doesn't make sense about this move is why would they let Wade Phillips walk out the door? He would certainly make more sense as a short term solution.

 

[Jimke]

Isn't there a time element involved when you can no longer approach

other NFL teams for coaches. When Bill Belichick was hired late, he

had some troubles hiring assistant coaches.

 

[Krugman]

I cant beleive they would be that dumb,I mean he was 14-2 last year.....despite the playoff loss...

 

[Grogan's Heroes]

Schefter on NFLN right now saying, "Luckily for SD there's a lot of quality candidates out there right now." Then he goes on to list Norv Turner, Mike Martz, Mike Sherman, and Jim Fassel. He says Norv would be the perfect fit due to his connections there.

I was watching last night and Schefter also listed Steve Mariucci as a possibility.

And he mentioned that Marty wanted to hire his brother as a coordinator, which precipitated his firing.

 

[ribanez]

The Chargers as way too talented not to be a force next year despite the coaching situation. Barry Switzer proved you can win a SB with talent and less than stellar coaching ability.

AJ built the team, so he was in no danger of being fired. The success of the Chargers kept the coaching staff in place despite the friction between AJ and Marty. But success leads to opportunity and Cameron and Phillips seized them. AJ was apparently also pissed that Marty allowed other coached under contract to interview and accept other non-head coaching jobs. Without the entire staff, Marty looked less appealing.

I don't see Cowher, he and Marty and good friends. I don't see Carroll, he wouldn't have enough control.

All the Chargers need is someone to ralley the troops and keep the existing gameplans in place. As much as I hate to admit it, I see Dennis Green as a good fit.

 

[PatsFaninAZ]

You know, for all the heat that Archie Manning took over his handling of the Eli situation, it turns out he was right. Marty was the best thing that ever happened to that sorry-ass franchise. They were positioned to win the superbowl next year. Seriously, I think they were the favorites, and whatever you want to say about Marty in the playoffs, even a blind squirrel gets a nut every once in a while -- just ask the other Manning QB.

Those saying that the Chargers will still be strong next year sound borderline delusional to me. They have talent, but next year looks grim. They need to hire someone TODAY, and someone who can coach. Jim Mora maybe. I don't know.

 

[ctpatsfan77]

Isn't there a time element involved when you can no longer approach

other NFL teams for coaches. When Bill Belichick was hired late, he

had some troubles hiring assistant coaches.

Not exactly; it's just that in general teams can deny assistants permission to apply for jobs outside the organization while they are under contract. (The exception is HC positions--NFL rules specifically mandate that a non-HC can break a contract to accept a job as head coach, without compensation to his current team.)

 

[BelichickFan]

You know, for all the heat that Archie Manning took over his handling of the Eli situation, it turns out he was right.

Two things :

- I'd still put my money on SD over NYG right now. With Tiki gone, that could be a frightfully bad team.

- It's irrelevant. Ellie should be banned to hell - the Mannings think they're bigger than the league. You get drafted by a team you go to that team. End of story. Don't like it ? Go play in the Arena league or the CFL.

 

[ArmyPatsFan]

Two things :

- I'd still put my money on SD over NYG right now. With Tiki gone, that could be a frightfully bad team.

- It's irrelevant. Ellie should be banned to hell - the Mannings think they're bigger than the league. You get drafted by a team you go to that team. End of story. Don't like it ? Go play in the Arena league or the CFL.

I have to agree with this....I do not like it when players or family members manipulate the game so badly. I know it has been done in the past....still don't like it and why I do not like the Manning family. (Though I do respect Peyton and his talent)

 

[zippo59]

I'm glad they finally put that old horse out of his misery. The timing was peculiar though.

 

[Armen Da Pats Fan]

An Army of One

"An army is a team. It lives, eats, sleeps, fights as a team. This individuality stuff is a bunch of bull****."
- General George Patton Jr (...hmm maybe BB)
QUOTE]

Yes, I dig that quote right there!

Do people in the Army hate the whole "Army of One" marketing campaign?

I do.

 

[PatsFaninAZ]

It's irrelevant. Ellie should be banned to hell - the Mannings think they're bigger than the league. You get drafted by a team you go to that team. End of story. Don't like it ? Go play in the Arena league or the CFL.

Agreed. Although I note that John Elway is widely beloved throughout the league and even non-Bronco fans seem to get misty-eyed over the "this one's for john" NFL film.

I'm not saying what Archie DID was right. I'm just saying that he was correct in his assessment of that sorry-ass franchise.

 

[bigdgp]

Living in San Diego this is not really a surprise. Here is what my impression is from being around the situation and reading the papers, hearing the fans take, talking to players, etc.

To clarify a few things 1st-The Chargers initially offered Marty a multi-year extension to his contract. Marty declined that and accepted a 1 year extension. This may sound foolish at 1st (and in hindsight is more foolish now) but his rationale was that he was on the cusp of winning the Superbowl and he'd be coaching this year for his next contract. If he won the Superbowl he could re-negotiate an extension for more $$$'s and years or get the same thing somewhere else. Pretty reasonable.

As to the issue with AJ Smith and Marty-their combustible relationship is because of AJ's TITANIC sized ego. AJ wants to be the person in the papers and receive the credit for the Charger's success. Given the talent he's brought in it's somewhat reasonable with the exception of that his teams haven't won a superbowl yet either. Of course this has been everyone else's fault except his (Not shockingly-he has very close ties to Bill Polian).

So when AJ Smith was forced by Dean Spanos to keep Marty it was with the idea one of Cam Cameron and Wade Smith could step in if Marty was canned. With both canidates leaving AJ wanted to get a jump on Marty's replacement and bring in his people while Marty wanted someone he was comfortable with so he'd have a better chance to win now. Marty wouldn't back down and so AJ went to Spanos and asked him again if he could fire Marty.

This has nothing to do with other coaching jobs being available (or not). This has nothing to do with the players undermining Marty (The truly do love him). If there's any other questions on the topic, please let me know, and I'll do my best to answer them.

Edit: Oh, one last thing. The fans here are also LIVID that they have to pay Marty's contract with all the financial issues around the team and them wanting public money to fund a new stadium.