Now coach of the Virginia Destroyers, he will return to Northeast Ohio for his team's open tryout at Baldwin-Wallace College on Saturday.
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Associated PressMarty Schottenheimer is taking on a new challenge in the UFL.As head coach of the Browns from mid-1984 through '88, Marty Schottenheimer guided the team during arguably its most successful, exciting and gut-wrenching stretch since the Paul Brown/Blanton Collier era.
Schottenheimer, who lived on Misty Lake Drive in Strongsville at the time and still maintains a local membership at Sharon Golf Club, is back in football as head coach of the Virginia Destroyers of the United Football League. He's also returning to Northeast Ohio for his team's open tryout at Baldwin-Wallace College on Saturday.
SATURDAY'S UFL TRYOUT AT B-W
What: An open tryout for United Football League’s Virginia Destroyers.
Where: George Finnie Stadium, Baldwin-Wallace College; 141E. Bagley Rd., Berea.
When: Registration 7-9 a.m.; tryout 9 a.m.-1 p.m.
How much: $60 (cash or money order only).
More information: http://www.ufl-football.com/tryouts/destroyers
Schottenheimer discussed the UFL and his long NFL career, including his time in Cleveland, during a recent phone interview:
Why are you coaching in the UFL?
Michael Huyghue, who is the commissioner, approached me six or seven weeks ago, something like that, and asked me if I had any interest in coaching again and I said I don't really see that in the future. And he said, 'I'd like to visit with you about it,' and so he met me. . . . Of course, the proximity to Charlotte was such that that it appealed to me. Long story short, he made me an offer, it made sense, so we decided to go back to work.
Do you approach it the same way you did in the NFL, or is it a different challenge?
To me, it's still about teaching, coaching, trying to get the very best out of the kids that you have on your roster. The thing that's been most interesting to me is that the competitive balance in the league is quite keen. Now there's only the five teams, but . . . there's a competitive balance that I think is critical if you're going to draw a fan base.
What was your best team ever?
I think the '93 team of (Joe) Montana and Kansas City. We had arguably one of the finest quarterbacks of all time under center. We had a really good defensive team. . . . We went to Buffalo in the AFC championship game and Joe was injured in the first half, at some point in time, and we couldn't overcome that. I'm not suggesting we would have won even if he had played the game throughout. To me that was the team.
Even better than the 14-2 San Diego team?
Yeah, the Kansas City team, to me, has always been the best that we ever had.
Who's the best player you ever coached?
You know, that's hard to say. Montana was terrific. Philip Rivers is a terrific, terrific quarterback. LaDanian Tomlinson, Derrick Thomas, I mean, you know, I could build a team of them, if you would, by position. ... There's been a lot of terrific, terrific players that I've been fortunate enough to be associated with, and I've always maintained I was always a much better coach when I had good players.
Who's the best player you coached against?
Lawrence Taylor was a formidable opponent, although we didn't have to play against him on a regular basis. (John) Elway, certainly, as a quarterback, and we lived through that in Cleveland, trying to find ways to beat him in the playoffs, which we never did. Those are the two that come to mind, but there's been countless others.
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Plain Dealer file photoMarty Schottenheimer talks with QBs Gary Danielson and Bernie Kosar.You mentioned some of the great quarterbacks you've coached. Where does Bernie (Kosar) rank?
In my opinion, Bernie was as good a field general as there ever was, including Montana. I always chuckle every time I think of Bernie because he used to throw that comeback, you know, run down there 20 yards and come back to the boundary at the 18-yard mark. He'd drop back to throw and he'd throw the ball and I'm thinking, "Bernie, no! Where the heck are you throwing? . . . Oh, great throw, Bernie!" because the ball would come out of his hand well before the receiver even began his break, let alone coming out of it, and, of course, that helped the timing of the pass. . . . There was not a lot of velocity on it, but the timing is critical on that particular pass, and time after time he'd do it.
Who were some of your favorite Cleveland players?
Our linebacking crew was really, really good. We had (Dick) Ambrose and Robert Jackson and Chip Banks and, of course, Clay Matthews, who you can understand where his son has got the genes because Clay was a terrific, terrific player, vastly underrated in my view. One of the best linebackers I've ever been around. We had good play in the secondary, with Hanford (Dixon) and (Frank) Minnifield. (Earnest) Byner and (Kevin) Mack, that combination. Earnest Byner, to me, was as good a player as any player could be. I've always said Earnest got more out of his skill set than any player I ever coached, and that was because he understood the game and, to this day, it breaks my heart, not for me or not for our team, for Earnest, he has to endure "The Fumble."
Any regrets on the way it ended in Cleveland? It's been said if you just would have waited a week and let things cool off, you never would have left.
Well, you know, I love Art (Modell). ... I'd been there nine years, 41/2 as an assistant and 41/2 as a head coach. I tend to be a little bit too hard on myself if you will. The scenario was similar to the one in Kansas City, where I decided it was time to step down there. I think you've got a shelf life as a head coach in professional football and a shelf life particularly relative to being with one team and all. I prefer to look at the time that we were there. I remember my first full season there and we started off slowly. I remember we were up in Minnesota playing a game against the Vikings. It was the half and they were up by 14 points or something like this. And I remember going into the locker room, I'm saying to myself, what am I going to say to these players right now? Here we are on the road with the Vikings, a very big game and the whole bit. What am I going to tell them? And I remember very, very vividly what I said. I got them all up ready to go out for the second half and I said, "Look, I don't give a damn what the hell the outcome of this game is. I really don't care if we win, lose or draw. What I want out of every guy in this room is you play one play at a time, and whatever happens at the end, we will have exhausted every ounce of energy we have to try and get it done and we'll take whatever that might be." And we went out, played our tails off and beat Minnesota. Came back on the road, beat them, and it was a game that, quite candidly in my mind, had we lost there's no telling what might have happened to my career.
The phrase "There's a gleam, men," has become almost legendary in Cleveland sports. Where did that come from and what did it mean?
The reference was, our goal was the championship. It was the championship. It was the Super Bowl Trophy. My reference to the gleam was the reflection of sunlight or any light on the Super Bowl Trophy and the gleam that becomes the byproduct of the reflection of light off of the Super Bowl. It wasn't something that I ever sat down and thought about, it just came out of my mouth. (Laughs). "It was the gleam men, the gleam, see the gleam, that's what we're trying to get, that's what we're chasing."
You coached some great teams, but they never seemed to get over the hump. Any idea why?
Obviously, had I known I would have solved it before this phone conversation. Just the inability to make plays in a timely fashion. Decisions that I made to go for it in San Diego on a fourth down. It ultimately comes down to making the right play at the right time, and we had our opportunities and we were never able to get it done. Believe me, at the time, it was very disappointing and, of course, as with all things both good and bad, they have a shelf life and when that shelf life is up you put it aside and move on and that's what we've always done.
Are there any things you would have done differently in the Cleveland-Denver games?
Just the outcome. (Laughs) . . . Let me tell you something. I was involved in play-calling when I was a defensive coordinator and I did the same thing the first year that I was a head coach in Cleveland, and I know this with a certainty: It isn't about the play you call, it's about the way the play is played. I have called the absolute perfect offensive play or defensive play for the situation we were in and we failed. And, similarly, I made the worst possible call I could have made in a given situation and it succeeded. Play-calling is vastly overrated, in my opinion.
On programs that revisit "The Fumble," some have said Webster Slaughter was supposed to run an "out" pattern and take Denver defensive back Jeremiah Castille, who recovered Byner's fumble, with him. Is that accurate?
What happened was, and I love Webster Slaughter, he was a rookie, if memory serves me right, at the time, and it's something I have used subsequent to that in talking about the significance of details and what we're doing here. It's not only what we do, but how we do it. In that particular situation, Jeremiah Castille was bump-and-run on Webster out on the left-side flank. When the ball was snapped, he had a rule that said that if a guy's playing bump-and-run on you, you release to his outside shoulder and run up in the corner of the end zone. He'll turn his back and run with you to defend the pass. If he's off, then you go down, attack him and get on him and block him or all you have to do is kind of stand in his way, basically . . . Well, Webster, a young player, decided he wanted to watch that play. So he took two steps and stopped and looked back into the backfield to see what was going to happen with Earnest, and Jeremiah Castille, when he stopped, he looked back and came running in and knocked the ball out. Byner, now he's got to hold onto the ball, I'm not minimizing that at all, but it's a point I use to illustrate to players. Something as innocuous as that is critical to the outcome of many, many plays in football. You have to do the little things right.
In "The Drive," any second guesses about the defense called on that last drive?
No, no, no. You know what happened I'm sure. As part of the third-down play they converted on, they put Steve Watson in motion. Elway was in the gun on third down. I think it was third down and 14 or something like that. The ball was snapped to Elway in the gun and it hit Steve Watson in the hip as he was going behind the center and the ball caromed off. There's fewer quarterbacks in the NFL that were more athletic or even as athletic as Elway. He made a heck of a play just to handle the snap after it had caromed off of the receiver in motion. There's a lot of quarterbacks that at that point in time would have panicked because the thing broke down at the beginning. Well, he found a way to move around from the pressure and throw up over the middle for a first down, and that was the drive that they ended up scoring. My point is that it's all these little things that happen that often times affect the outcome of a play. It's called the football gods.
So you think the defense wasn't too conservative in that drive?
No, no, no. Let me tell you what. If the ball had caromed in another direction, we might well have recovered it and it would have been fourth and 25, if you will. That's the part of the game -- you have to execute -- but there's also what I refer to in a positive context as the football gods. There are things that the football gods decide happen and off they go.
What are you favorite Cleveland memories?
My most fond memory was that stadium full of people. It was a remarkable venue. I'm a western Pennsylvania guy, Pittsburgh. I identify with Cleveland, Ohio, and we had such a great, great fan base there. I just felt as though, when we were at home, we had the edge because of our fans.
As an outside observer, do you have a thoughts about what needs to be done here to turn the franchise around?
No, I really don't. I haven't watched it that close, to be honest with you. But, you know, the bottom line is it starts with playing good defense, field position in the kicking game and the best quarterback you can get. (Laughs). If any one of those three is absent, you're probably going to struggle.
Crappie are still biting on the inland lakes, but the action has slowed. 
