I have never cared much one way or the other for the Chargers until they fired Marty. Admittedly, since then I have taken a small amount of pleasure in any of their failures. It is not that I have any love for Marty, it is that the high level of hubris associated with firing a coach that just went 14-2 is baffling. And like a Greek drama, I expect the hubris to be punished.
You may want to read this thread. His firing had nothing to do with his record, good or bad, regular season or playoffs. He was fired because he orchestrated his own dismissal. I'm not sure what that has to do with the hubris of anyone in the Chargers organization.
I have read the thread and all the justifications presented. In short I simply do not believe them. I think the fans were frustrated by the lack of post season wins and made a choice to believe a lot of rubbish presented to them by the organization.
You're correct. I don't know if it's this thread or another, but I addressed the flaws in Polar Dude's points. They're serious flaws if you take this stuff seriously, but history is written by the winners, so between Marty and AJ/Spanos we're getting the organization's winning spin. Can't believe I'm doing this again, but to set a few things in perspective. Polar Dude said:
"Step 1: Broke off communications with the GM. (How would it go over at work if you refused to speak with your boss?)"
This is untrue. No one knew about the depths of the communication breakdown until AJ took cheapshots at Marty in the media and Marty responded by explaining AJ wouldn't see him face to face. He used a messenger. Marty was always willing to talk face to face with AJ and in those old comments suggested that he wanted to solve this particular issue. AJ never complied. Petulant little man that he is.
"Step 2: Refused a contract extension, making it difficult to attract quality coaches and staff."
Marty was offered a 1 year extension that read like an ultimatum. No coach goes 14-2, is an eyelash from a championship, has his players falling on their swords for him, and takes a one year extension. Ironically, accepting the offer would have made it more difficult to attract quality coaches because the offer made the situation very tenuous. The organization's spin was the opposite of reality.
"Step 3: After both of his coordinators were hired away to be HCs (both of whom were hired as Chargers at AJ's insistence), refused to talk to potential coordinators that his GM suggested."
Losing Cameron and Phillips was tough but there was nothing anyone in SD could do about it. To insinuate this was somehow Marty's fault is false. If you did that. Which I cannot tell. But some pro AJ types do so its bogus.
AJ suggested Ted Cottrell, who he knew from Buffalo, for the DC position. Marty didn't refuse to talk to him or any others. Marty is a social creature who likes talking football. He was willing. But he was far more interested in Vic Fangio of the Ravens. AJ was pissed at the suggestion and refused to let Fangio be interviewed, then made Marty look insubordinate over the issue. AJ loved Cottrell so rather than suggest him to Marty, he should have just insisted. Noteworthy in this is that Marty did have strong power to build his staff or AJ wouldn't have been making suggestions. He would have mistreated Marty like he did with personnel.
"Step 4: Persuaded other members of the coaching staff to look for similar jobs on other teams, also against the insistence of his GM."
"Persuaded" is the organization's spin again, and this is probably pretty close to the truth, but I have nothing but big respect for Marty here. These were his guys. He's a straight shooter. They knew the situation was a mess. They had feelers for promotions in other organizations. What should Marty have done? Tell them everything was fine? They all knew better. AJ had so mucked up this situation with his nonsense that the two coaches in question, Manusky and Chudzinsky, wouldn't have believed Marty if he tried to tell them things were stable. So Marty, true to his character, told his guys to take care of their families and advance their careers as best they could... always. He was sure he could find great replacements. That's a good man and a good boss and possibly a harmful employee. Can't be sure of that last one because he never got the chance to replace them. Though he did say us fans would be pleased with his new guys.
"Step 5: Tried to hire unqualified family members for vacant coaching positions despite being told not to by both his GM and owner."
No part of this little melodrama has been more blown out of proportion than Marty wanting to hire Kurt as special teams coach. Nepotism sure worked well for the team in the media. Kurt was qualified though and he has held the position for two other NFL franchises despite Marty and AJ. Besides, we're talking about a special teams coach here. Sure brass had said sorry no nepotism, and sure Marty was trying to show them the error of their ways and no doubt with a bit of spite, but the real anger was about Cottrell and Fangio. Make no mistake about that. AJ didn't like Marty and didn't want to embrace his family or his preferred DC likely because he knew Marty was on his way out sooner or sooner. But AJ let's his coach line up a special teams guy, maybe not a DC, but special teams is something he delegated to Norv later.
After hiring Norv he got his guy Cottrell to run the defense. He bombed because
he wasn't qualified and in way over his head and Norv fired him abruptly while AJ refused to take calls. AJ likes not talking. Rivera took over and righted the ship until leaving for greener pastures and who comes back? Manusky. The guy AJ lamented Marty letting find work elsewhere. Well, Harbaugh sure didn't want that nut in his locker room and now Manusky's Chargers are playing just like his Niners did, not very good. Almost as bad as Cottrell. The best irony here? Vic Fangio, Marty's guy, got the gig with Harbaugh and has the Niners D playing nails.
Norv took over a very good team and had some success. While it currently appears that in hindsight some Bolt fans are okay with with the Chargers performance under Norv, I bet if you asked them what they expected when he got the job their expectation where a lot higher. After all, they were a 14-2 team.
