Quick Slant | HoustonProFootball.com 
August 22, 2000
Hail to the (Ex)Chief
by Ric Sweeney
HoustonProFootball.com
On September 6, the fans will finally be able to put a face, or more appropriately, a logo, to our still unnamed football franchise. And we’ll at long last have an identity, albeit a cosmetic one.
Despite the mudslinging and heated exchanges that have marked the process of finding the best name for our new team, in the end, it doesn’t really matter. Winning matters. Flashy logos and color schemes appeal to the Michael Jordan-fawning fan, the type who buys sports apparel not as a means of civic loyalty or pride, but because ESPN and Nike have told them to do so.
Those of us who have found the naming process to be tedious and overlong and couldn’t care less, know that we won’t, on September 6, be any closer to having a feel for this team than we were back in October, 1999, when the franchise announcement was made. The real identity of this team will be forged by the next big decision awaiting it — the naming of its first coach.
So while others are busy scrambling to find a way to ensure that their favorite name is indeed the chosen one, I turn my attention to the only part of this that truly matters — what happens on the field of play. And I think I have a pretty good idea who the first coach is going to be.
I certainly know who it won’t be. Cross Jimmy Johnson, Bill Parcells, Mike Holgrem, Dan Reeves and any other current coach of their ilk from the list. While each would be a splashy, "look at us, we mean business" hire, and each meets Bob McNair’s number one priority (previous NFL head coaching experience), none are going to come to an expansion team and let someone else (namely, Charley Casserly) run the personnel department. These guys have had power over personnel decisions before, and they will again. But it won’t happen in Houston. You could probably lump Mike Shanahan, Jeff Fisher and other such rising coaches into this mix as well. None seem likely to make a lateral move to coach an expansion franchise with no say in personnel. They’ve earned the right, in their next assignment, to have one.
In fact, McNair’s appointment of Casserly was an interesting one, seeing as how early in the process it came. Was McNair perhaps unaware of the hole he was digging for himself in the coach search by bringing Casserly on board so quickly? The coach Houston brings in is going to have to not only defer to Casserly, but get along with the guy as well.
Casserly, burned by Norv Turner and forced out in Washington, is still licking his wounds from that debacle. There’s absolutely no way a coach is going to pass muster if Casserly doesn’t feel comfortable with him. And Casserly has shown already an inclination to mine that which he already knows. Check the resume of virtually every scout he’s brought on board thus far, and you’ll find some Casserly connection. Which is fine and dandy by me. But it should lead you to the most obvious conclusion: the first head coach is probably going to have crossed Casserly’s path at some point in his career.
Joe Gibbs jumps to mind first, but I’m not so sure he’d, at this point, concede personnel power. Nor is it viable that he’d leave what’s been a lucrative foray into auto racing. No, the guy I have in mind, so far as I know, has never coached for Casserly, but they’ve worked together, and seem to be men cut from the same old school football philosophy.
Get used to it, Houston: Marty Schottenheimer. Forget that he’s been an unqualified success everywhere he’s coached. And put to rest your fears or concerns over his ability to help build from scratch a franchise. He has the one thing McNair wants — coaching experience — and the one thing Casserly seems to covet — a past relationship. He and Casserly were NFL analysts together at ESPN, and we’d be naive to think they didn’t talk shop on more than one occasion. In fact, Schottenheimer is still working the sports desk, analyzing football, and well, wasn’t one of Dick Vermeil’s selling points that through broadcasting, he’d kept in touch with the game?
More importantly, Schottenheimer yielded personnel power to Carl Petersen in Kansas City. And isn’t quite in the elite status of a Bill Parcells to demand such now. Is he a good choice? He’s not a bad one, that’s for sure. He was one miraculous drive and one ill-timed fumble away from back-to-back Super Bowl appearances in the late 80’s. He owns a superlative resume, complete with 6 division titles, 11 playoff appearances and the 11th most victories in NFL coaching history. His 15-year coaching career yielded a 145-85-1 lifetime record. Credentials that are hard to argue.
No, he’s not the "sexy" hire I think most of us would want. He’ll never be confused with Vince Lombardi or George Halas, and doesn’t have a Houston pipeline (like a Gary Kubiak or Jeff Fisher) either. But he’s solid; a sound choice. And makes the most sense. Personally? When I think back to my Oiler fandom, I used to hate opposing coaches — Chuck Noll, Sam Wyche — oh, God, don’t get me started on Sam Wyche. But I never hated Schottenheimer. Perhaps, unbeknownst to me, he earned my respect. I certainly have no trouble seeing him lead Houston onto the field in 2002, whatever the damn name might be.
Ric Sweeney is currently unemployed and facing marriage in October. He therefore takes no responsibility for any of his actions until both issues have been neatly resolved. Please forward all employment leads, or divorce lawyer recommendations, to his above email address. 
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