Team Dysfunction ...
... And if Dean Spanos acknowledges it, that must make it official.
You can draw these conclusions from the scenario that reached its end when the Chargers fired Marty Schottenheimer Monday night:
1. The one-year contract extension (with the paltry $1 million buyout) they offered Marty Schottenheimer a month ago was pure posturing, but team president Spanos and general manager A.J. Smith were caught by surprise when Schottenheimer turned it down.
2. The exodus of assistant coaches -- four of whom moved to higher-profile jobs -- exacerbated a lame duck situation that, otherwise, all parties might have been able to work through. How do you find top-notch replacements if you're offering no more than a year's worth of security?
3. The ultimate and final breakdown, according to several different reports, involved the defensive coordinator hire. A.J. supposedly wanted one of his guys -- Jason Cole of Yahoo! Sports reported that he was pushing Ted Cottrell, who is currently in the NFL office but worked in Buffalo while Smith was there. Marty, insisting that he be allowed to hire his own staff, intended to interview his brother Kurt, who is currently on Green Bay's staff. Spanos and Smith said they didn't want him to hire his brother.
(This was, evidently, the NFL version of "I'll hold my breath until I'm blue in the face.")
But if it wasn't this, it would have been something else. That's how fractured the relationship between coach and general manager had become.
The ultimate irony: Wade Phillips, another old Buffalo guy, probably would have been one of A.J.'s leading choices to replace Schottenheimer if they'd made the switch immediately. But it was Phillips' departure to Dallas that started the fateful chain of events.