Offline
Final say on a team's personnel matters no longer is a given for the vast majority of coaches.
By Chris Harry/The Orlando Sentinel
INDIANAPOLIS -- San Diego Coach Marty Schottenheimer and Chargers General Manager A.J. Smith went back and forth earlier this month in discussing candidates to fill key vacancies on the team's assistant coaching staff.
Schottenheimer had his list, Smith his. One didn't care necessarily for the other's. Each let the other know.
By messenger.
That's right. Coordinator and positions posts needed to be filled on both sides of the ball, and Schottenheimer, the winningest active coach in the NFL, and Smith, one of the league's savviest executives, were sending an emissary to each other's offices to present their respective sides in the debate.
What, no carrier pigeons?
Turns out, Schottenheimer and Smith rarely had spoken in three years. That was the state of the rapport between the two most important members of San Diego's football operations.
Full Story - The Orlando Sentinel