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Legendary NFL head coach dies at 77

Dustin Schutte

By Dustin Schutte

Published:

Legendary NFL head coach Mart Schottenheimer has died, multiple outlets are reporting. He had been battling Alzheimer’s disease since 2014. Schottenheimer was 77.

Schottenheimer spent over 30 years coaching at the NFL level. He was the head coach of the Cleveland Browns from 1984-88, the Kansas City Chiefs from 1989-98, had a one-year stop with the Washington Redskins (now Football Team) in 2001 and ended his career in coaching with the San Diego (now Los Angeles) Chargers as the leader from 2002-06.

In 20 seasons as a head coach in the NFL, Schottenheimer won 200 career games and had a winning percentage of 58.8%. His teams reached the NFL playoffs 13 times during his career and only twice did his teams finish a season with a losing record.

Schottenheimer was named the AP NFL Coach of the Year in 2004 after leading the Chargers to a 12-4 record in the regular season. In his final season in San Diego, Schottenheimer’s team finished with an impressive 14-2 mark.

Schottenheimer was inducted into the Kansas City Chiefs Hall of Fame in 2010, ending his career as a head coach in Kansas City with a 101-58-1 record and reaching the postseason 7 times in 10 seasons.

Before he was a head coach, Schottenheimer had stops with the New York Giants as a linebackers coach and defensive coordinator (1975-77), the Detroit Lions as a linebackers coach (1978-79) and the Cleveland Browns as the defensive coordinator (1980-84).

Dustin Schutte

Dustin grew up in the heart of Big Ten country and has been in sports media since 2010. He has been covering Big Ten football since 2014. You can follow him on Twitter: @SchutteCFB