If You Love Something Set It Free

If it resists change the locks

So I am back from nine days of vaca in paradise gulf coast Florida, on my way to work for the first time in two weeks yesterday and I get a call from a friend and former co-worker. He's a Redskins fan and he just cannot resist calling me first thing to get my take on the Washington Post reporting that morning that former Redskins coach Marty Schottenheimer was fired by the San Diego Chargers and LaVar Arrington was cut by the New York Giants. His quick take is the same as mine: the Chargers are fools and the Giants were fools.

Marty Schottenheimer
Dean Spanos should not have let Marty go. Marty had San Diego in a good situation and letting him go over a coaching exodus is a worse option than starting from scratch with any other available coach. Look at it this way: Marty knows who's good and he can deal with being so good that those he attracts themselves attract attention. Both of Marty's coordinators are now head coaches and his top offensive assistants are now coordinators. Look for Greg Manusky and Rod Chudzinski to be in the running as head coaches in two or three years maybe less.

Second, Mike Singletary, first to interview in San Diego is not the answer. The Chargers just gave up a guy with 200 career wins and a positive predictability and their first interview is a guy with 4 years total coaching experience who was the assistant head coach-defense for the 49ers last season yet not the defensive coordinator, who just got fired. It doesn't matter if Mike is a Hall of Fame player, he's not ready for duty and I'll wager one dollar with any one of my Redskinsland writer colleagues that if hired Mike will leave the Chargers with a losing record.

In San Diego, Marty lost another asymmetrical battle. In Washington in 2001, Bruce Smith led the cadre of players that resisted Marty's methods. Bruce in his 17th season did not believe he should have to be out in the summer doing the Oklahoma drill and he complained to the media. Bruce's cover was the chatter of 2000 Redskins holdovers that were supposedly whispering to the media that at least one of Marty's former Chiefs players Donnell Bennet, Dave Szott and Kevin Lockett was a locker room snitch. It was a play-action sabotage. Chatter about teacher's pets made Bruce look not so infantile in his campaign for 'fairness' in training camp and allowed him to attack the coach directly.

Marty, said nothing. He refused to strike back in the media. Up there at those new conferences with those eyes squinted for all time, those lips pursed like my Naval Aviator dad's when he was pissed he'd talk about the culture of football and how we were in fact going to deal with the reality of a regular season fast approaching and then and only then will we know who in fact is committed to the game of football. After starting 0-5, Marty's one Redskin team finished 8-8. Marty is the second Redskin coach to earn the Curly R history treatment, after Jack Pardee (hoooooo that's a tease). He was fired when Danny Rockets got a whiff of Steve Spurrier in heat.

That Marty and AJ Smith may have not gotten along, that's a personal thing and it's been proven a thousand times in football and to me personally in life that if you can put that shit aside and exceed expectations then in the end it's a positive experience for everyone. Ladies and gentlement, Marty Schottenheimer:




LaVar Arrington
LaVar left the Redskins after the 2005 season, forced to buy his way out of his contract after two really bad years. He had been to the Pro Bowl in 2001, 2002 and 2003 and had retired Troy Aikman in 2000. Coming off that 2003 Pro Bowl season, LaVar got into a contract dispute with the Redskins. Although the agent was found to have been negligent in failing to address the supposed 6.5 million dollars missing from that offseason negitiation, it was the first real evidence that Danny Rockets gets bored with his toys quickly and needs new ones to keep him from freaking out like an overtired 4 yr old at Chuck E. Cheese.

So the Giants signed him for seven years, 49 million dollars this past season. What happened with LaVar? The short answer is that Marvin Lewis and George Edwards used LaVar and going into that 2004 season after the dispute (ibid.) and the injury Gregg Williams built a top-three defense without him. Doesn't matter that the Redskins defense stinks two years later, 2004 LaVar being a problem and the team successful, Mr. I Don't Care How Much You Make just said piss off.

But part of LaVar's problem was that he is a freelancer, plays outside his body and went for the hit. Though not endowed with Sean Taylor's natural ability to deliver a hit in an exhibition game, LaVar could move side to side with the play, or without the play. He played the Giants first six games when they were 4-2 and not really noticing he was barely contributing, then tore his achilles (ouch). As Redskins fans we knew this would not work out but cutting LaVar after one year of a 49 million dollar deal is positively Danny Rockets-like.

I'm going to commit heresy: Joe Gibbs is not into it. Danny Rockets screwed Marty and LaVar over once but money heals all wounds. If Joe is wavering and Marty wants to stay in the game, if Warrick Holdman is not the future and LaVar is affordable, bring them home. I believe Marty Schottenheimer has ten years or more of good coaching in him and Joe may have one, or two. Marty got the Redskins out of the first salary cap nightmare in 2001, won that team over and had a plan for the future. He is a man on fire right now and he could do it again.
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In other NFL news, I'm just going to say that what's happening to Andy Reid's family is saddening, and I hope it does not turn tragic. Throw in Tony Dungy's son's suicide and you know Andy is doing the math. Former Redskins fan and Eagles season ticket holder Wilbert Montgomery's sister thinks this may be his graceful way out. I'd never want to see anyone have to deal with what Andy's family is dealing with and as a husband and father, my thoughts are with him.



Marty Schottenheimer as a Redskin uncredited photo from from here (read it, it's a great article about Marty turning around an 0-5 team in 2001). LaVar Arrington as a Redskin: Nick Wass / AP via this article on a guy getting shot at a 2005 party hosted by LaVar. Trouble just around the bend huh LaVar.