RE: according to NFL reporters the jags are talking about firing

Posted on: October 5, 2021 at 09:28:20 CT

http://www.kcconfidential.com/2012/11/12/hearne-no-way-marty-schottenheimer-returns-here-to-scene-of-the-crime/

Now return with me if you will to January of 1999 where I stood in a room alongside other media while Chiefs owner Lamar Hunt and general manager Carl Peterson, without explanation, more-or-less hung Schottenheimer out to dry.

There was no believable explanation for Schottenheimer’s “retirement,” as the shamefaced coach stood before the local media that had adored him and tap danced his way out of town.

It’s true that the Chiefs had just completed a disappointing 7-9 season, but nobody in that room at Arrowhead believed for one minute that Marty’s departure had anything to do with football.

It was about a widespread rumor that the 56 year old head coach had been having an affair with a waitress who worked at Tanner’s in Overland Park just off 119th Street.

Practically everyone in this small town with half a clue about the Chiefs was talking about Schottenheimer’s alleged affair. An affair, by the way, that was undoubtedly terribly hurtful to his wife Pat, who had fashioned a career and image for herself in the community based out of their golf course home in Deer Creek.

Taking a high profile hit over an alleged, high profile romantic rumor most people believed to be true made for an ugly exit. The talk had been so rampant that Lamar Hunt could no longer stand idly by. He had to do something to protect the cleancut image of the organization.

Put bluntly, nobody believed Schottenheimer merely stepped down after a losing season. Coaches get fired for things like that, they don’t “retire” at age 56 with awkward references to painfully obvious romantic rumors. Nor do they get inexplicable, glorious sendoffs from the team.