Jerry’s New Coach and the Chargers’ Old Wounds

From Marty’s Firing to Jerry’s Consolation Prize, How One Coaching Hire Revives a Lifetime of Charger Heartbreak For This Fan

Brian Shottenheimer is the new coach of the Dallas Cowboys.¹

I don’t particularly care about the Cowboys one way or the other except to say: they aren’t America’s team; they’re ‘murica’s team.

But as a lifelong Chargers fan who knows way too much minutiae about my beloved team like this little nugget: Jerry Jones once tried to buy the San Diego Chargers, but was about three million dollars short.² This useless information takes up too much space in the limited hard drive resting upon my shoulders.

So when I read that the Cowboys hired Marty’s son as their new head coach I caught myself remembering a glorious 14-2 season that ended in the Divisional round loss for the Chargers. If only Marlon McCree had just gone down after that goddamn pick. The fallout from that loss was Marty being fired. After a 14-2 season.

Fired.

I had to circle back with the google-y googs and ChatGPT to check my facts because I remember that, along with a power struggle with General Manager AJ Smith causing frict…