Was Marty Schottenheimer a great head coach?
Or just a very good one?
And if you could re-hire him for the Browns today in his mid-1980s form, and not his present self as he is, unfortunately, battling Alzheimer’s, would you?
Well, would you?
Those are all great questions to ponder anytime, but especially now with Schottenheimer and the 1986 Browns team he coached, back in town to be honored at Sunday’s game with the New York Jets at FirstEnergy Stadium.
Schottenheimer coached the Browns from midway through the 1984 season through ’88, a total of 4½ years, taking the club to the playoffs in all four of his full seasons, including winning three consecutive Central Division titles and advancing twice to the AFC Championship Game.
Those were very memorable times, particularly in 1986 and ’87 when the Browns came oh, so close to making it to their first Super Bowl. The Browns had the 1986 title game won and let it get away. They were on the verge of tying the 1987 championship contest with a minute left, but let that get away, too.
So, then, are great regular seasons and a little success in the playoffs OK for you, even though there were no Super Bowl berths, let alone a Super Bowl crown? Would you sign up for that again, especially considering what has happened to the Browns since shortly after Schottenheimer left, including in this abysmal expansion era?
For a lot of years, my good friend Steve Doerschuk, the longtime Browns beat writer for the Canton Repository, and I had this conversation as we traveled together to cover practices, games, training camps, press conferences and anything and everything concerning the team. We discussed – and debated — a lot of things during those two hours on the road up and back, but the best topic was the one I’ve laid out on Schottenheimer.
Steve is a good debater and is principled. He is a Schottenheimer guy through and through and believes that hiring him would have been a great move by the re-born Browns in those early years as they struggled and struggled and struggled to find the right coach, settling for people like Chris Palmer, Romeo Crennel and Eric Mangini. Palmer and Crennel are nice guys, but they weren’t head-coaching material.
I agree that bringing back Schottenheimer during those years would have been a positive move, but only for a brief time to right the ship. I would have never considered him a long-term solution. Why? Because he was never, ever going to take the Browns – or any other team – to the Super Bowl, let alone win it. The object is to capture a Super Bowl title, and you can’t do that unless you play in the game. Schottenheimer had a long, long, long track record of falling just short of doing that, whether he was in Cleveland, Kansas City or San Diego.
If that’s what you want, to be left sick to your stomach at the end of the season again and again and again after watching him fail to finish the job, then yeah, ny all means, the Browns should have gone ahead and brought Schottenheimer back.
But the object is to win championships – not just in the division, but in all of the NFL. I know what Schottenheimer was, and after his time in Cleveland, that was never going to be enough for me. I would have kept searching for the right man to get to, and win, the Super Bowl, even if I knew there were going to be some swings and misses along the way. It was well worth the risk. To do anything else would have been an exercise in futility, like doing the same failed act year after year and foolishly expecting different results.
And look at it this way: With Schottenheimer stuck for eternity in The Hall of The Very Good, he kept some of his best players in Cleveland, such as Clay Matthews, Frank Minnifield and Hanford Dixon, in The Hall of The Very Good as well. Without the chance to perform on the big stage of the Super Bowl and showcase their abilities for all the world to see, they will be forever short of getting into the Pro Football Hall of Fame.
That’s not good – or fun, or worthwhile — for anyone involved. I can do without that, and without Marty Schottenheimer: Part II.
