I have mentioned this in passing before; so, today I plan to step up on an imaginary soap box to convince you that there is a wrong to be corrected related to professional football. I will avoid doing this in any way related to how I think either Stephen A. Smith or Pat McAfee might make this case; I will try to maintain the focus and decorum one might expect from Sergeant Joe Friday – – just the facts, ma’am.
Here is the simple statement:
- Marty Schottenheimer is not in the Pro Football Hall of Fame as a coach, and he should have been enshrined by now.
The key number that supports my assertion is “200”. Marty Schottenheimer’s teams won 200 regular season games between 1984 and 2006. There are only eight coaches in the history of the NFL who have won 200 or more games and they are:
- Don Shula 347 wins Hall of Fame
- Bill Belichick 333 wins Soon to be in Hall of Fame
- George Halas 324 wins Hall of Fame
- Andy Reid 284 wins When he retires …
- Tom Landry 270 wins Hall of Fame
- Curley Lambeau 229 wins Hall of Fame
- Paul Brown 213 wins Hall of Fame
- Marty Schottenheimer 200 wins Not in the Hall of Fame
As they say in those infomercials that run at 3:00AM on obscure cable channels, “But wait; there’s more …”
There are 23 more coaches already inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame whose teams won fewer than 200 games. They are:
- Chuck Noll 193 wins
- Bill Parcells 172 wins
- Bud Grant 158 wins
- Joe Gibbs 154 wins
- Steve Owen 153 wins
- Bill Cowher 149 wins
- Marv Levy 143 wins
- Tony Dungy 139 wins
- Hank Stram 131 wins
- Weeb Ewbank 130 wins
- Sid Gillman 122 wins
- Dick Vermeil 120 wins
- George Allen 116 wins
- Don Coryell 111 wins
- John Madden 103 wins
- Tom Flores 97 wins
- Vince Lombardi 96 wins
- Bill Walsh 92 wins
- Jimmy Conzelman 87 wins
- Ray Flaherty 80 wins
- Jimmy Johnson 80 wins
- Greasy Neale 63 wins
- Guy Chamberlin 58 wins
The knock on Marty Schottenheimer has been that his teams underperformed in the playoffs and I am not going to gloss over that or try to deny it. His playoff record over his career is a less than gaudy 5-13. However, in 22 seasons of NFL coaching, his teams made it to the playoffs in 13 seasons which seems pretty good to me. Moreover, in at least two of those playoff losses, Marty Schottenheimer was tormented by situations that were so iconic that they have names of their own:
- The Drive – – Thank you to John Elway in 1987
- The Fumble – – No thanks to Earnest Byner in 1988
Underperformance in playoff games has not been held against other coaches already in the Hall of Fame.
- Marv Levy lost 4 Super bowl games in 4 consecutive seasons, and he is deservedly in the Hall of Fame
- Bud Grant had a team in the Super Bowl 4 times and lost every time, and he is deservedly in the Hall of Fame.
And let me make one last point to commend Marty Schottenheimer for the Hall of Fame. In the ignominious years when Daniel Snyder owned the Washington franchise, he employed 10 head coaches for his teams. All but one of those 10 coaches – – including Joe Gibbs 2.0 after Gibbs was inducted into the Hall of Fame – – left with records below .500. That one exception was Marty Schottenheimer who coached Washington for 1 season. After losing the first five games of that season, he rallied that club to finish at 8-8; he broke even under Daniel Snyder and no one else could.
Thank you for your attention to this matter; Marty Schottenheimer’s absence from the Pro Football Hall of Fame is a wrong that needs to be made right.
But don’t get me wrong, I love sports………