JohnNord Posted February 3, 2021 Posted February 3, 2021 (edited) I came across this info on Twitter today. Sad new for Marty Schottenheimer as it appears he has been moved to hospice from his issues with dementia. Someone shared this article from Tim Graham in 2010 where Marty said he wanted to be the Bills HC with Buddy Nix (who he worked with in SD) Ralph for some reason was not comfortable with him and would never consider it. If Marty is HC in 2010 do you think he turns around Buffalo? If you look at his record, he was able to turn around every franchise, with the exception of his 1 year stint in Washington. I also always found it to be odd that he he never was given a second chance in the NFL after going 14-2 as the top see in the AFC. https://www.espn.com/blog/afceast/post/_/id/9487/marty-schottenheimer-wanted-bills-gig Edited February 3, 2021 by JohnNord 1
Stank_Nasty Posted February 3, 2021 Posted February 3, 2021 he turned around every franchise he ever worked with. So ya, i woulda been down for some "Marty Ball". People will reference his one year stint in Washington as a stain. But that team started 0-5 and then finished 8-3 down the stretch. They decided to go with spurrier then next year. Obviously a big mistake. Very sad to see Martys decline. 2
SF Bills Fan Posted February 3, 2021 Posted February 3, 2021 Marty could turn it around and get a bunch of wins, but he never won in the playoffs. That was my impression and recollection. We would have gotten out of our rut sooner, but I doubt he would have taken down the Pats at that time. 1
Don Otreply Posted February 3, 2021 Posted February 3, 2021 (edited) The answer is yes. Should it be true that Ralph said no, it further shows how poor his decision making was as to team development, and that he was a big part of holding the team back from success in his later years. Edited February 3, 2021 by Don Otreply 1
RobbRiddick Posted February 3, 2021 Posted February 3, 2021 Yeah, I mentioned this in the other thread. I wanted them to hire him back then. A lot of people pointed to his lack of success in the playoffs, which was a fair point but we had been so irrelevant for so long he would have given us some respect and got us back to the playoffs 2
ProcessAccepted Posted February 3, 2021 Posted February 3, 2021 33 minutes ago, Stank_Nasty said: he turned around every franchise he ever worked with. So ya, i woulda been down for some "Marty Ball". People will reference his one year stint in Washington as a stain. But that team started 0-5 and then finished 8-3 down the stretch. They decided to go with spurrier then next year. Obviously a big mistake. Very sad to see Martys decline. I lived in DC at the time. The team was a complete mess when he arrived and he got the players to really give a $#!+ and play hard. Dan Snyder was obsessed with Steve Spurrier and had tried to get him before. Synder was even willing to buy out the balance of Marty's contract for the "Head Ball Coach". Costly mistake financially and team performance wise. I would have loved to have had him as our coach in 2010
corta765 Posted February 3, 2021 Posted February 3, 2021 He would have helped the Bills break the drought faster and maybe got another playoff appearance, but I think his success would've been stunted twofold. The NFL evolved into a high passing league this last decade and I wonder if he would've been able to keep pace. Second who is the QB? We really lacked talent in 2010 and it took until 2012 to get back to a moderate amount of talent that amounted to something with 2013 starting to show the payoff at least on the defensive side. We had Fitz who is known as the best Qb to get you almost to 10 wins possible and nothing else. I could see him doing what Joe Gibbs did his second stint in WAS which had some success and stabilized the team at the time. The franchise certainly would've regained respect nationally which may have helped to get better players and personnel. But the Pegula's didn't purchase the team until 2014 which truly stabilized the franchise long term and the stadium/facility only started getting renovated from 2013 on which would've been nearly four years later. He would've had to stepped down medically in 2013-14 based on the medical reports above so his time would have been at most five years as HC. The team needed a good two years to build the foundation. So yes the drought would've ended and it would've stabilized a good amount of things. At the same point I think the ability for the team to be where it is now is pretty doubtful.
loyal2dagame Posted February 3, 2021 Posted February 3, 2021 I think no, for the same reason he wasn't successful in Washington. Bad ownership..... 1
oldmanfan Posted February 3, 2021 Posted February 3, 2021 It would have helped. Sad to see Marty in such decline. I remember watching him as a player back in the '60,s. 1
BaaadThingsMan Posted February 3, 2021 Posted February 3, 2021 Absolutely. No brain hire they brainsharted on. He got results.
May Day 10 Posted February 3, 2021 Posted February 3, 2021 Apparently he was diagnosed in 2014, so not sure if he would have his capacities long enough. Anyways, the team was un-workable at that point. It was Russ Brandon's team and nothing other than a new owner would change that. Was anyone ever so coveted/rumored to be a Bills head coach through the drought than Schottenheimer (probably Haslett)?
JohnNord Posted February 3, 2021 Author Posted February 3, 2021 3 minutes ago, May Day 10 said: Apparently he was diagnosed in 2014, so not sure if he would have his capacities long enough. Anyways, the team was un-workable at that point. It was Russ Brandon's team and nothing other than a new owner would change that. Was anyone ever so coveted/rumored to be a Bills head coach through the drought than Schottenheimer (probably Haslett)? Thats true. He wouldn’t have last long term but I think it really is telling that Ralph Wilson was more “comfortable” hiring a re-tread, unproven, and non-threatening head coach in Chan Gailey then he was hiring someone with the track record of success like Marty. I hated the Nix and Gailey hires right from the bat. It was clear that Ralph didn’t care about putting a winning product on the field - though he cared about the Benjamin’s
oldmanfan Posted February 3, 2021 Posted February 3, 2021 2 minutes ago, JohnNord said: Thats true. He wouldn’t have last long term but I think it really is telling that Ralph Wilson was more “comfortable” hiring a re-tread, unproven, and non-threatening head coach in Chan Gailey then he was hiring someone with the track record of success like Marty. I hated the Nix and Gailey hires right from the bat. It was clear that Ralph didn’t care about putting a winning product on the field - though he cared about the Benjamin’s I don't think Ralph was fully calling the shots then. I think he was very much influenced by Litman, who was all about cost savings to protect his investment.
CA OC Bills Fan Posted February 3, 2021 Posted February 3, 2021 I really wanted him at the time and absolutely feel he would have turned things around. Even though he didn't win much in the playoffs (5-13 record), that wouldn't have bothered me. In most cases, his team wasn't as good as the other team. I.e. in Cleveland he kept losing to the Broncos. In SD, I remember watching some show (Football Life?) that showed him tell his players just before a turnover that if they get the ball, they need to go down immediately. They got the turnover, the player tried to run with it and make a play, and the other team (Pattsies?) took the ball back. He got fired shortly after that and SD went immediately downhill. I don't think we would have gotten past the Pattsies and Tommy Boy, but I think we would have been much more competitive and perhaps broken the playoff draught much earlier. 1
billsfan89 Posted February 3, 2021 Posted February 3, 2021 He probably would have been better than Chan but the Bills issues were well beyond the coach at that point. 1
thenorthremembers Posted February 3, 2021 Posted February 3, 2021 At the time Ralph was 91 years old and leaning heavily on guys like Russ Brandon. I think the culture here was rotten to the core because of that. Marty would have had a hard time turning the team around because marketing people were running the show rather than football people, and the football people they did have in place were too over-employed, and over-paid to say a word about it. Essentially you had a bunch of people milking a 91 year old who was three years away from his grave. The Bills finally got better because McDermott was able to show the Pegulas what was actually going on, and the Pegulas were of sound enough mind to make the moves to support McDermott in cleaning up the rotten culture. The over-employed, over-paid people were shown the door and the team was finally able to mend. As much as I love Marty, I dont think he could have done much about the situation here. I don't think many people would have been able to because they needed to be empowered by ownership to take out the garbage, and ownership wasnt present at that time. 2
RobbRiddick Posted February 3, 2021 Posted February 3, 2021 34 minutes ago, ProcessAccepted said: I lived in DC at the time. The team was a complete mess when he arrived and he got the players to really give a $#!+ and play hard. Dan Snyder was obsessed with Steve Spurrier and had tried to get him before. Synder was even willing to buy out the balance of Marty's contract for the "Head Ball Coach". Costly mistake financially and team performance wise. I would have loved to have had him as our coach in 2010 Snyder is such a tool. What is Washington's record since he bought the team? The whole Spurrier thing was hilarious. I remember his first preseason when they were running up scores and some people thought they'd be a real force when the regular season started. Rivera seems to have them on the right path at least. 1
JohnNord Posted February 3, 2021 Author Posted February 3, 2021 35 minutes ago, thenorthremembers said: At the time Ralph was 91 years old and leaning heavily on guys like Russ Brandon. I think the culture here was rotten to the core because of that. Marty would have had a hard time turning the team around because marketing people were running the show rather than football people, and the football people they did have in place were too over-employed, and over-paid to say a word about it. Essentially you had a bunch of people milking a 91 year old who was three years away from his grave. The Bills finally got better because McDermott was able to show the Pegulas what was actually going on, and the Pegulas were of sound enough mind to make the moves to support McDermott in cleaning up the rotten culture. The over-employed, over-paid people were shown the door and the team was finally able to mend. As much as I love Marty, I dont think he could have done much about the situation here. I don't think many people would have been able to because they needed to be empowered by ownership to take out the garbage, and ownership wasnt present at that time. Its very possible though I do feel that Ralph had final say on a lot of major issues like coach and GM. I don’t think Buddy Nix is named GM in 2010. By then Ralph only wanted to hire people that he personally knew to run the team. If Russ Brandon truly had the power to hire a GM, I don’t think he settles on Nix. Think back to the drought years - especially lost Donahoe - because Ralph horribly mismanaged the Bills so badly 1
SirAndrew Posted February 3, 2021 Posted February 3, 2021 No, the front office couldn’t draft, and ownership wasn’t going to pay free agents or assistant coaches.
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