Was AJ Smith justified?

JK17 · 01-13-2008, 04:38 PM

Well, now that the Chargers did get passed the divisional playoffs, have won two playoff games all under Norv Turner, was AJ officially justified in firing Marty Schottenheimer?

You can say that Marty could have done the same thing, but again, thats all hypothetical and if LT goes out, is anyone confident Marty would have given Rivers enough experience early on in the year to be ready for this game without LT and mostly wtihout Gates?

I say yea, he was. He got us to the AFC Championsihp game, which, if nothing else, improved upon last year. A lot of people, including many people on this board said AJ should be fired for letting his ego ruin a team. To me, it looks like it helped the team when it mattered.

fenikz · 01-13-2008, 04:43 PM

I think it most definitely was justified, Norv may of not been the difference but the firing of Shotty definitely got the message across that just making the playoffs would not be enough, if they didn't do anything this year I think we would of seen a lot of roster changes as well, if they end up winning the Superbowl it will be a lot like Gruden and the Buccaneers back in Superbowl XXXVII

San Diego Chicken · 01-13-2008, 04:52 PM

The mistakes in last year's New England game were just so severe, that a change almost had to be made. Looking back at it, if the Chargers won that game, they likely would have won the Super Bowl. I think everyone was just so shocked that they replaced Marty with *gasp* Norv. Norv's not a leader, they said, especially compared to Marty. But I'm getting the feeling that the players are now playing FOR Norv. It's not that Marty was a bad coach, he had a huge role in building this team. Something just tells me that on 3rd and 15 deep in Indy's territory, he would just run a draw play or something. Norv shows no fear in letting Rivers go after it.

Average OT LB · 01-14-2008, 06:11 PM

In my opinion, Norv is an okay regular season coach and a good playoff coach. Marty was a fabulous regular season coach and perhaps the worst playoff coach of all time. Nobody could have stepped in like Norv and had a feel for the system... so by default he was the best guy to bring in.. so although i acknowledge our progress this season has been because of Norv and the work he is done... I will still say that I like Marty better.

zdh87 · 01-17-2008, 01:16 PM

I think that now the people who said AJ Smith was being childish when he couldn't get along with Marty will shut up now. If you look at the most successful teams in last 5 years, the Colts and Pats, the GM and Coach are on the exact same page. They aren't in a power struggle and work together very well. I was unaware that Norv was the Chargers OCoordinator LT's first year. I wasn't old enough to know details then. But even when the Chargers were terrible during his year there, LT said that Norv was always positive. Norv never backed off during the Colts game even with Volek, Turner/Sproles, and Manumaleuna. If Marty were there, The Burner would have carried the ball like 40 times and we would be talking about the draft instead of the Patriots. More power to you Norv.