The Chargers shocked the sports world when they fired Mart Schottenheimer last night. The team announced at the end of the season that they would be bringing Marty back for another year, also a decision that shocked many. This remarkable 180 degree turn around occurred in about a months time, shockingly fast considering their stance not more than a month ago.

This means that the Chargers now not only have a defensive coordinator job to fill, they also have a head coaching vacancy. Where does this leave them? It leaves them without the head coach, offensive coordinator, or defensive coordinator that they had on their team last year. They lost their linebackers coach, as well as their tight ends coach. The running backs coach was promoted to offensive coordinator. Considering the division championship and the playoff berth, this is a lot of turnover in the coaching staff.

This should create a storm of rumors about who is going to take over the job. I already hear the rumors flying. Of course people are still saying that Pete Carroll is going to move from USC and suddenly become a good NFL head coach. Since that isn’t going to happen the Chargers are going to have to look at a few other options. Now there are more rumors flying about Bill Parcells coming back, and possibly even Bill Cowher. Again, since the odds of those are about the same as me scoring with Jessica Simpson, the Chargers need to look at other options.

People are saying Ron Rivera, and there are a few other assistant coaches whose names are floating around out there. I personally think that James Lofton might get the nod. Lofton turned down the head coaching job in Oakland for what I assumed at the time would be the offensive coordinator position in San Diego. That slot went to their running backs coach. Why would Lofton stand pat as the wide receivers coach when he knows that his services are valued as more than that.

It will be interesting to see what will happen in San Diego. Whichever coach they bring in will have to minimize their ego to deal with general manager A.J. Smith, who has already run two big names out of San Diego in Schottenheimer and Donnie Edwards. The Chargers will need to figure out how to work as a team with their new coaches for success next year, and that could be a hindrance in their attempt to win the Super Bowl.

After yet another early round exit, the San Diego Chargers may be looking at a new coach for 2007. Marty Schottenheimer has long been criticized for his lack of success in the playoffs and with the Chargers divisional round exit, he’ll draw more of the same this year. It’s been long known that Schottenheimer and San Diego GM AJ Smith have less than a stellar relationship and with yet another failed season in San Diego, this could be Smith’s opportunity to ax Martyball.

It’s odd to talk about a team that finished 14-2 firing their coach at the end of the year. Then again, it’s odd to go for it on 4th and 11 in the first quarter and play ultra-conservative football for 60 minutes. Schottenheimer’s notorious Martyball has long been a victim of criticism because it has cost the Chargers games in the 4th quarter. His play calling abilities for the offense were revoked after a loss to the Baltimore Ravens in week 4 due to his conservative style. On top of that, it is widely known that AJ Smith likes to build a team his way, not Marty’s or anyone else’s. What does this all equal? There is a great chance that the Chargers 24-21 heartbreak loss to the Patriots on Sunday could mean Schottenheimer will soon be unemployed until he decides to join the 80 other random NFL fall outs who join network pre-game shows. Look for Schottenheimer to be sitting along side Chris Berman and Tom Jackson for the start of the 2007 NFL season.

It’s the week after the NFL regular season ended, and as expected numerous head coaches have been axed, and a few more have stepped down. This shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone, but what follows this time could.

Nick Saban pulled a dick move that will go down in history as an all time low blow. He abandoned Miami for Alabama, and faced many outspoken critics, including Don Shula, who is probably more pissed that his son got canned there than he is at the fact that Saban is bailing on his beloved marine mammals.

Meanwhile in Pittsburgh, the legend Bill Cowher resigned. I find this interesting because he didn’t officially retire, he just resigned. Does this mean he is going to be looking for work elsewhere? I hope not, I just can’t imagine this face sending spit flying in anything except Steelers garb. I have heard rumors of Cowher winding up in Miami, but I expect him to take a year off and find some big bucks.

Art Shell joined those being fired, as he was let go by Al Davis for the second time in 13 years. Does this mean that we will get to see another year of Art Shell in another 10 years? I certainly hope so, after all, I am a big fan of emotionless people.

The firings may or may not be done. As surprising as it is to say, two major playoff contenders have their coaches on the hot seat as well. In San Diego there have been rumblings of letting go of coach Marty Schottenheimer. Most of this has come due to the not so private clashes between himself and general manager A.J. Smith. The monkey on Schottenheimer’s back of his struggles in the playoffs probably doesn’t help his cause. And Marty isn’t alone in being on the hot seat. Tony Dungy’s job doesn’t seem to secure either. This is probably because his defensive coaching abilities have manifested themselves in a defense that is practically non-existent. If the Colts or Chargers see an early exit, don’t be shocked if they jump in on the search for a new head coach.