I can't wait until Marty comes back to KC as coach or GM and kicks Blob's ass.


The Rehabilitation of Marty Schottenheimer
October 30, 2008 - Bob Gretz |

Stand on the same street corner in the NFL long enough and you will see some interesting things.

At the corner of Kansas City and the Chiefs a decade ago was a head coach who the fans and most of the media in town had grown tired of and were in the process of running out of Arrowhead Stadium. Marty Schottenheimer was too conservative, too old-school, his message was tired and various ghouls and goblins were running around spreading rumors about his personal life. He cried too much, ran the ball too much and there was that problem of winning in the playoffs.

When his ?98 team finished 7-9 and well out of the running for the post-season, the pot of tar was boiling, the feathers were gathered and when Schottenheimer resigned as the team?s head coach, it seemed like he was leaving Kansas City a step ahead of the posse.

Everyone thought things would be better with Marty out of the picture.

Fast forward to today, and at the corner of Kansas City and the Chiefs, Schottenheimer no longer is considered an extra-long four letter word. In fact, there are those in the media and those in fandom actually clamoring for his return to the team as general manager, coach, anything. They want him to come in and save the franchise from the troubles that have befallen the red and gold.

?They love you again in Kansas City,? somebody shouted at Schottenheimer this past Sunday. He was at Giants Stadium in the New Jersey Meadowlands, watching the Chiefs and Jets play.

?I will always have great memories of Kansas City, Arrowhead, the Chiefs fans,? Marty said.

No, he wasn?t there in New Jersey for a job interview or a meeting with the Hunts. He was there to see his son Brian Schottenheimer, the offensive coordinator of the Jets. He was there to see his daughter-in-law Gemmi and grandchildren Sutton and Savannah.

He got the chance to say hello to the Hunts and some old friends before he headed back home to North Carolina, where he lives with his wife Pat and near his daughter Kristin and her family.

Here?s a link to a good story in the Kansas City Star from last Sunday about Schottenheimer. It paints a pretty accurate picture of what his life is like now. He?s husband, grandfather and golfer. Marty said this past Sunday he?s got his handicap down to a five. He and Pat just got back from a trip to Italy.

The Kansas City Star didn?t send a reporter to North Carolina just to catch up on what was new with Schottenheimer. He was sent there by the paper?s editors to see if the former coach would unload on Carl Peterson, get off his chest all the bad stories from 10 years where he tangled with the GM.

Trouble is Marty wasn?t dishing. He wasn?t dishing because there isn?t anything to dish. Several years ago, I sat down with Marty for a conversation about his relationship with Peterson. He told me that in 10 years there were less than a handful of disagreements, four or five at the most according to Schottenheimer. They were all about players and as Marty said in retrospect, ?Carl was right more than I was.?

Does Marty miss football? You don?t give as many years as Schottenheimer gave pro football as a player, assistant coach and head coach and not miss the relationships, the action, the cheering and the winning.

Would he answer a call from the Hunts? I think he would have a hard time turning it down. What Marty learned over his time in Cleveland, Kansas City, Washington and San Diego was that no matter what a coach had in the locker room, what he needed most was a good owner. In his time in the NFL, he knows the decade he spent working for Lamar Hunt and with Peterson was the most stability he ever experienced.

As he told the Star about his decision after the ?98 season: ?I should never have left.?

Would the Hunts call? Who knows; it?s not Lamar any more it?s Clark. They are different people with different ideas and different ways of doing business.

On Wednesday I caught a couple of sports talk yakkers hoping out loud that Clark Hunt would call Schottenheimer and have him become part of the solution for the Chiefs future. These same two blowhards were part of the media mob that screamed for Schottenheimer?s departure a decade ago.

Nobody would get a bigger kick out of that change of tune than Marty Schottenheimer himself. He would say that it personifies one of his favorite statements. Years ago he said that in the world of coaching no longer was it what have you done for me lately. It had become what are you going to do for me next.

Like I said, stand on an NFL street corner long enough ?

Glad to have you here.

B)

Hey nice job on the new forum guys. Let me know when everything is ready and I'll put a post up on Warpath directing people over here.

Don't be a Dick.

The Mod Team will decide if you're a Dick or Not. If you are, the Mods will vacation you, depending on the severity of the Dickery. Complaining about being vacationed for being a Dick by a Mod is, in fact, being a Dick.

Bandwidth
Keep your sigs under 100K and your avvys 150 x 150, and don't hotlink to other sites too much, they'll get pissed and think we're a bunch of Dicks.

Wonder if we can get the logos next to the forums changed from a pencil and paper to an Arrowhead logo. That would feel much more comfortable.

Also, we need to somehow get all those smileys from the refuge to this site.

Kojak?

Glad to see you here!

Are we done moving now?

:lol:

:ceers: