Monday Night Football honored former Chiefs coach Marty Schottenheimer…
They went to his home and interviewed Marty, his wife and children, all grown. Marty suffers from Alzheimer’s disease and has a hard time remembering his past life.
It was a bitter sweet story.
Marty looks great, at age 74 – in shape and upbeat. However his memory has faded badly and is not likely to get better. When asked about his favorite NFL game, he couldn’t remember and said so. Regarding his decade long run with the Chiefs from 1989-98. They showed the Monday Night Football game clip of Joe Montana hitting Willie Davis on the goal line for the game winner on the last play of the game.
Marty could not recall the play or the game.
He did seem confident about his feelings and working on his illness. Marty has always been confident. His wife and family are close by and love having him with them. Remember, Marty made millions of dollars as a coach and the family lives well because of him today.
Kansas City Chiefs fans owe Marty Schottenheimer much thanks and appreciation for bringing the Chiefs back to being a team that mattered. He gave us back our pride in having the team here in Kansas City.
Let’s be honest, after Hank Stram and Len Dawson left, the Chiefs were a joke and stunk every year til Marty got here in 1989.
Overnight he made them better and a playoff caliber team.
In Marty’s 10 years in KC they were in 10 playoff games winning only three.
However Marty and his Chiefs were regular season monsters with the NFL’s best record in the 90’s.
Marty was 101-58 while in KC.
We all know Marty couldn’t win the big ones in the post season here or in Cleveland before us. In fact Marty was fired from the San Diego Chargers in 2006 after going 14-2 but losing in the first round of the playoffs. Marty was snake bitten in the post season, here and everywhere else he coached. He was a great NFL coach, nobody would argue that one.
We all remember Marty Ball, don’t we?’
Run that ball boys.
The Chiefs with Marty were best known for bringing in top veteran quarterbacks in an effort to be a champion. We never drafted a franchise quarterback during his stay in Kansas City. We had Steve Deberg, David Krieg, Joe Montana, Steve Bono, Rich Gannon and finally Elvis Grbac.
Only Montana got close with an AFC title game that we lost to the Bills.
Most of Marty’s playoff loses came down to one play or one score difference.
We all remember the missed field goals by Lin Elliot in 1995 and the crushing loss to Denver here at home in 1998 with Elvis Grbac desperately trying to hit Tony Gonzalez for the winning score to end the game and send us on to a Super Bowl. Never happened.
I got to know Marty a bit when the Chiefs wives approached me in 1993 to do a pep rally for the new western division champ Chiefs in Westport.
We had almost the entire team present and a crowd of over 5,000 in five degree weather that night on the way to a Chiefs win over the Steelers in the playoffs.
So I became in charge with Bill Nigro, of all the Chiefs pep rallies in Westport and Red Fridays for the Marty era. It was fun and we had huge crowds and great shows. The big one had Joe Montana there in 1994.
Marty was not a party guy, per se. He was stern and all business. Although he did leave the Chiefs and KC under a cloud after a widely talked about affair with a waitress at Tanner’s in Overland Park.
I used to go back into the locker room those years after games to visit my pals at the time.
Marty was never a fan of visitors who were not on the team or media in those days. He wasn’t flashy and he wasn’t a man who showed a big ego. Marty was a great coach who loved his players, the Chiefs and the game.
I miss those days and Marty Schottenheimer. He gave us back our pro sports pride here in KC. I feel bad for him that he can’t remember his career anymore, I hear he is still a solid golfer and he loves to golf. I hope his final years are peaceful and kind to him and his family. He earned that and we all owe him a thank you.
Schottenheimer’s epitaph might well read ‘there’s a gleam men, there’s a gleam’… his coaching legacy however will not pass into/become lore, much as ‘he came up short’.
“In Marty’s 10 years in KC they were in 10 playoff games winning only three.”
– that the biggest indictment against him here, as well in CLEV, WASH and SD.
“We all remember the missed field goals by Lin Elliot in 1995 and the crushing loss to Denver here at home in 1998 with Elvis Grbac desperately trying to hit Tony Gonzalez for the winning score to end the game and send us on to a Super Bowl. Never happened.”
– CG, that was Lake Dawson that Grbac was trying hit end the game (Gonzalez earlier had scored only he didn’t/td ruled out of bounds, no push out.) The hard fact be: even were history kinder to Schottenheimer/KC, had they ever actually reached Superbowl, their proven lack of success would have required fandom to suspend their disbelief, in order think the Chiefs would have done any better, i.e., won a Superbowl.
“However Marty and his Chiefs were regular season monsters with the NFL’s best record in the 90’s. Marty was 101-58 while in KC.”
– like these curious Hall of Famer enshrinees – George Allen (made but never won an Superbowl), Bud Grant & Marv Levy (both made four, and both lost them all, all 8 in total), success came regular season but never post. As such, Kerouac does not believe Allen, Grant or Levy belong the Hall of Fame, yet, there they are. Bill Cowher won one Superbowl and he’s in, while Tom Flores and George Seifert won two each, yet neither is in (politics much, Hall of Fame voters?)
Schottenheimer does not merit inclusion, my opine, nice a man as he might’ve been (reported rumors of his ‘extracurricular activity’ notwithstanding, unsubstantiated.)
Only Saints are those Heaven and down New Orleans; still, behind only Hank Stram was Marty Schottenheimer as best Head Coach franchise history (current Andy Reid almost a carbon copy of Marty: chokes like a classic car on a cold winter’s morn, i.e., they just can’t win the big ones any/ever, neither them. Might refer to Reid as a poor man’s Cowher/Don McCafferty same…. least they won a Superbowl, to wit the latter won his in his rookie season as Head Coach. McCafferty isn’t in Hall of Fame either: he died less than five years later age 53 from a heart attack while mowing his lawn.)
🙁
Marty was a very good coach, it was great to have him in KC especially since he went all out to beat the Raiders twice EVERY YEAR!
Yes there was lots of energy with his teams and pride…maybe its back now…right now I have it Hank Stram, Marty then Andy as Chiefs best…Andy can move ahead of Marty with a super bowl game under his belt here or another 3 years of playoffs and some wins…to be truly great you have to have that world title at least once.
Marty and the Chiefs were 17-3 against the Raiders during his head coaching term.
another stupid comment by the dunce. Marty brought the excitement and fun back to kc ball. ONly one team wins the trophy…but who cares…the many weeks of fun and drinking and
high fiving at places like tanners made those years so sweet.
For depression old man glaze it was hiding in the closet cause kc never made it to super bowl. Go back to you apple cart entertainment center with your 1980 tv and watch the games.
Those were some great times while you needed pills to get you thru the days.
Were he Olympian, Schottenheimer would have earned one third place medal (even that a tie his NFC failed Superbowl-pursuit counterpart) for an decade’s worth of trying post season. That venue, every game Marty’s was as Christmas Day 1971… Groundhog Day in Kansas City.
Home of the Chiefs – and also always there to brave the holidays – Marty’s lone success a Bronze in 1993. Never a Gold nor even an Silver for he, the ‘Porgy’ of ‘Porgy & Bess’… “Oh I got plenty o’ nuttin, and nuttin’s plenty for me.”
‘Upside down cake Marty’ by any other: his ‘body of work’ to borrow a descript famous author one his novel’s protagonists: “he seemed an normal-sized man, a powerful man with the shoulders, arms and thick crouching torso an weight-lifter… but some sections of him were not in proportion others.”
Like Schottenheimer’s post season record compared his regular. What he did to OAK, everybody else did to him. 17-3 regular season vs Raiders 1989-1998, then 3-7 post same period… the equivalent cutting off your nose to spite your face: buddy can you spare a dime- er, post season W (Superbowl? Forget it.)
His success vs OAK was reminiscent Rauch/Madden success vs KC and Stram same during the Chiefs so-called ‘glory years’ 1966-1971. In that 6 year period when the Chiefs went to two Superbowl’s, 12 regular season games, could only beat the Raiders 3 times, while also managing two ties vs the superior Raiders.
OAK also beat KC both games in 1969 during our ‘special wild card’, one-time only, post season ‘we backed into a Superbowl’ win season. 1-1 vs OAK in post season, our one shining moment in the last half century ‘triplicated’ by OAK’s 3 World Championships. Reason why Kerouac says and results confirm…’the best team doesn’t always win’, whichever side your partisanship ‘lies’.
🙂
according to experts, not you old senile man kerowacky, super bowl 4 was historyic. After namaths victory which was called a fluke by experts, the afl continued to be thought as second best. Check the stories and the words from experts and you’ll see that super bowl 4 proved the american league was for real against the tough and tight vikings defence they scored all those points and scored very few against a tough chiefs defence. Even mr. sabol said super bowl 4 was the coming of age of the american league as the two leagues headed into
consolidation.
STFU old washed up man….you’re senile and boom boom has the articles and pieces to prove that game was pivotal in the rivalry between the two leagues.
STFU…you ramble on like an old man with brain damage. Maybe try some
crossword puzzles or soduku like glazo bozo plays!
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