Indeed.

I'm sorry to report that Marty Schottenheimer has died at the age of 77.

A legendary longtime National Football League coach who won 200 games during his career as the head coach in many different places, he had been diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease in the year 2014.

His family announced last week that he had been moved into hospice care and again the news that he has passed away peacefully, surrounded by his family.

Yesterday, I have a lengthy list of his career bio here that I can read pieces of to you.

He played six seasons, is a linebacker and the American Football League for Buffalo and Boston.

He became the Browns head coach midway through the 1984 season.

He was there for several years.

He recorded 3 10 win seasons there.

He went to Kansas City.

He was the head coach there for 10 seasons, 101 games coach the Washington football team in 2001 and then spent several years in San Diego, where he was named the AP NFL head coach of the year in 2004.

Again, he coached 21 seasons in the NFL in 1 200 games with the The story of a man's life should not be told exclusively in the things that he did at work.

I got to know Marty Schottenheimer when he worked here in the ESPN for a brief time before he went to Washington.

He was a gentleman.

He was a family man.

His son, Brian has been a football coach for a very long time.

He was surrounded by his loving family, and he was one of the kind ist and most interesting and hardest working people that you could ever meet.

I recall when he would come and work in the morning.

He would bring a blank legal pad and at our morning meeting, and by the end of the day that thing was filled up with notes of things that he had observed and things that he wanted to teach and nobody loved football, and no one was more interesting to talk about it with than Marty Schottenheimer again, whom we have lost today at the age of 77.

I wanna bring Jeff and Marcus in here.

Jeff.

Just a thought, if you will.

Marty Schottenheimer again dies yesterday in Charlotte at the age of 77.

You said it so well.

Just just a true gentleman.

Ah, great competitors.

He coached like he played hard nose.

You heard about.

You heard about Marty Ball.

You know, he wanted to be physical.

Play tough in the trenches.

And, you know, every time you want to go play against his opponents, you know they're gonna be well coached.

But they were gonna be classy.

And I have so much respect for what you said about being a family man, a true teacher off our game, which we need so much of.

And not only a teacher of football, but a teacher of how to handle yourself outside in the community.

And he served us so well.

He's gonna be missed for sure.

Marcus, you have a thought.

Marty Schottenheimer?

Yeah, it's amazing, G.

I actually had a chance to sit with Coach Schottenheimer for an hour, hour and a half and breakdown film on my draft visit to San Diego when he was the head coach with the charges in 2005 and That was when they were transitioning to the 34 along with the Dallas Cowboys and myself and DeMarcus Ware with two prospects that they were looking at, along with Shawn Merriman and Luis Castillo, who they ended up drafting both of those guys and Coach Schottenheimer.

Just in that meeting, he pulled up some plays.

Um, specifically, I remember one from the Arkansas game when I was at L S.

U.

And I ran down the running back like 30 40 yards downfield.

He was like, Is this the guy that I'm gonna get in San Diego?

I said, Coach, turn on the film from all the games.

You will see the same guy and he said, I know that's why you on a visit Hey said Good luck to you in the draft.

So I'm leaving their thinking.

I'm going to San Diego, its final coach, Sean Hamilton, told me.

Come and get me.

So they ended up drafting Shawn Merriman and Luis Castillo, and the Cowboys, with Bill Parcells, drafted the markets where at 11 and me at 20.

So I see Coach Schottenheimer the following year when we play the San Diego Chargers, and I asked him.

I said, Coach, how do you think that draft worked out with your 234 guys versus, uh, me and D, where he said, Well, I sure love to have that big, but on my defensive line, stopping the run like you've been doing in Dallas.

So, man, he was just a good guy, man, you understood that he cared about football and every player that played for him, uh, love playing for him told me he was tough, hard nosed.

But they expected the win when coach shot him was on the sidelines.

So just just feel grateful that have have had some time with him throughout my draft process.

His career will be remembered a lot for some very heartbreaking losses.

He was the coach in Cleveland for their legendary losses in the late eighties, the drive in the fumble and then some.

Devin.

Very difficult losses, home playoff losses in Kansas City and then in San Diego.

But hey was a man who was not defined by winning or losing in football games.

He was a really, genuinely good man who was loved by the entire football community.

So again, the sad news today at the age of 77 Marty Schottenheimer has died.