CHARLOTTE, NC. – After a seven-year battle with Alzheimer’s disease, former Cleveland Browns coach Marty Schottenheimer has died at the age of 77, according to ESPN.
Schottenheimer was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s in 2014. He was moved to a hospice center near his home in Charlotte on January 30.
Schottenheimer is survived by his 54-year-old wife, Pat, his children Kristen and Brian and grandchildren Brandon, Sutton, Savannah and Catherine.
The Cleveland Browns issued the following statement regarding Schottenheimer’s death.
“The Cleveland Browns are saddened to learn of Marty Schottenheimer’s passing. As head coach, he led the organization to four playoff games and three division titles, but it was a tough, tough attitude that never gave up the fighting attitude that the team embodied that made him love the fans. to Browns and often led to thrilling victories. His impact on the game of football was not only felt in Northeast Ohio, but throughout the NFL. Our thoughts and prayers are with his wife, Pat, and his entire family. ”
A life of football
Born in Canonsburg, Pa., In 1943, Schottenheimer lived and breathed football, playing high school through college and university at Pittsburgh. He was selected in the fourth round of the 1965 NFL Draft by the Baltimore Colts and in the seventh round of the AFL Draft by the Buffalo Bills, opting to play for Buffalo.
After spending four years with the Bills and winning an AFL championship, Schottenheimer played two seasons with the Boston Patriots before jumping from the Pittsburgh Steelers to the Baltimore Colts and then retired in 1971.
While enjoying a few years as a professional footballer, Schottenheimer made a name for himself a few years later as a coach.
Unforgettable legacy of coaches
Schottenhemier began his coaching career before his time as Browns head coach, serving as line coach for the New York Giants in 1975 and 1976, defensive coordinator for the Giants in 1977 and linebacker for the Detroit Lions in 1978 and 1979. He was hired as Brown’s defensive coordinator in 1980.
His break as head coach came with the Browns in 1984, when he replaced Sam Rutigliano and got his first full season as head coach in 1985. That year, Schottenheimer and defender Bernie Kosar, who had just been selected in 1985 for an additional draft, began an era of success in Cleveland that surpassed even the Kardiac Kids era that fans gathered.
While Schottenheimer and the Browns never made it to the Super Bowl, he helped turn the team into a permanent competitor in the playoffs during his tenure. At the time, Schottenheimer had a 44-27 record, a .620 winning percentage, and made four playoff appearances. Browns, led by Schottenehimer, won three AFC Central Division titles. After the 1988 season, Art Modell mingled with the successful coach (not for the first time), causing a breakup that could not be reconciled, and Schottenheimer moved away from the Browns.
Schottenhemier left the following season to become the head coach of the Kansas City Chiefs, where he will spend the next 10 years accumulating a regular season record 101-58-1 and making seven playoff games with three divisional titles. Despite his success in the regular season, Schottenheimer and the Chiefs never made it to the Super Bowl, and he resigned as head coach after the 1998 season.
After spending time as an analyst for ESPN, Schottenheimer relaunched his coaching career, taking a position in Washington for a season before being fired by owner Daniel Snyder in an unpopular move.
Schottenheimer ended his NFL coaching days with the Chargers, spending five years with the team before being fired in 2007, after discord broke out within the organization.
In his years as NFL head coach, Schottenheimer developed the coaching strategy called “Marty ball” or run, run, pass, score. He worked well for him over the years as a coach in the regular season, but never scored in the playoffs. Schottenheimer’s 205 wins are the most of any head coach who doesn’t reach or win an NFL championship.
But while he never won everything, Schottenheimer’s legacy is truly unforgettable, and his coaching staff continues to make an impact in the league to this day, with names like Bruce Arians, Mike McCarthy, Bill Cowher, Tony Dungy, Hue Jackson, Mike Tomlin, Jim Caldwell, Doug Marrone, Todd Bowles and Leslie Frazier, all looking back at him.
Kosar reminds
Former Browns quarterback Bernie Kosar has known for some time that the news is coming, but the news of Schottenheimer’s death was another blow.
“Remembering Marty as someone you absolutely love and cherish and I can’t thank her enough for the structure, discipline and faith she had in me,” Kosar said.
Schottenheimer’s first full year as head coach in 1985 was Kosar’s first full-back. Together they would turn a team that started 1-7 with the previous year and turn it into a franchise that would go to two conference championships. Kosar said the former Schottenheimer himself brought resistance, squeaking and discipline to the workplace, as well as an attention to detail that made players wait on Sunday.
“The practices were actually harder than the games, the two days a day, the three-day practices, the amount of contact you went through for training made Sunday not as difficult for other teams,” he said. he said. “It probably shortened a lot of players’ careers, but in the short term our teams were tough, disciplined and every Sunday we knew we were ready to play.”
Then he did it again with the bosses.
“For him to put the structure together, the organization together for two organizations that didn’t win football games and didn’t win playoffs before they got there, to put those two teams and those two organizations together in a decade to get to more AFC Conference Championship games is not an easy thing to do, “Kosar said.
Schottenheimer was in the early stages of Alzheimer’s in 2016, when he returned to Cleveland to be honored with his 1986 team. this year between two of its most successful franchises.
“It’s really a shame that a man who has had such a massive influence on many of us is not really able to understand, he really knows the extent of a Browns-Chiefs game in which he has had such an important influence,” he said. said Kosar.
In life, fate kept Schottenheimer from the highest stage of the game, but Kosar hopes in death that he will still be able to achieve the greatest honor of the game. A football trip that began in Cleveland, ending right on the road to Canton.
“When you talk about the history and tradition of the Cleveland Browns and the return to the great Paul Brown and Otto Graham, and Marty Schottenheimer being mentioned in the same breath in that type of organization is absolutely a confirmation of our previous statement of earnings the right to have a home in Canton, the Hall of Fame, ”Kosar said.
Coach Marty Thank you for everything you have done and mentioned in me and so many of our lives will be greatly missed 🏈For the Luv of the game Mat pic.twitter.com/7eHLbDq0Pp
– Bernie Kosar (@BernieKosarQB) February 9, 2021