Schottenheimer

Peyton Manning survived the backlash of Baltimore. Now the quarterback of the Indianapolis Colts gets one more crack at the salty New England Patriots and the elusive Super Bowl. The Colts and Patriots earned berths in the AFC championship game next week with two road upsets in a surreal divisional playoff round. Manning's reward for beating the Ravens on Saturday is a chance to shed the big-game albatross that San Diego Chargers coach Marty Schottenheimer couldn't yesterday. Manning will face the team that has tormented him more than any other in his career and twice knocked him out of the playoffs.

SAN DIEGO -- Perhaps San Diego Chargers coach Marty Schottenheimer is simply cursed in the NFL playoffs. With victory within grasp in an AFC divisional playoff against New England, Schottenheimer's Chargers, the top seed in the conference, made enough mistakes to give life to nearly beaten New England and allow the Patriots to escape with a 24-21 win at Qualcomm Stadium yesterday. The Patriots, the No. 4 seed, advanced to the AFC championship against the No. 3 Colts in Indianapolis on Sunday.

Marty Schottenheimer carries the ponderous weight of expectation into the NFL playoffs. His San Diego Chargers have the best record in the league and home-field advantage for the tournament. They have the NFL's sack king on one side of the ball and the rushing champ on the other. In Schottenheimer, however, they have a veteran coach who has never been able to transfer regular-season success into postseason profit. Therein lies the rub for the 14-2 Chargers. They have the No. 1 seed with a coach who has failed miserably three times before with the No. 1 seed, a coach who has not reached the Super Bowl in 12 playoffs and 20 full seasons of trying.

The next time you watch a replay of Sunday's game-winning touchdown pass for the Ravens - you'll see it, you'll see it - take your eye off the ball and check out what happens at the line of scrimmage. Check out the San Diego Chargers rushing just three men. That's right, after hounding and pounding Ravens quarterback Steve McNair for more than 59 minutes, the Chargers suddenly took their foot off the gas pedal with the game on the line. They let McNair have all the time he needed, and he beat them.

If Brett Favre had to decide on his future today, he says he likely would retire. But his interview, which aired Sunday on ESPN, didn't set off any alarm bells for new Green Bay Packers coach Mike McCarthy. "Well, he doesn't have to make a decision today." McCarthy said yesterday. McCarthy says Favre's comments, the quarterback's first since the end of his only losing season with the Packers, are a natural reaction for a veteran player coming off a frustrating year. He said the comments weren't drastically different from what McCarthy heard when they met at Favre's home in Mississippi this past weekend.

There were good finishes (see Kansas City) and bad finishes (that's you, Houston) yesterday in the NFL. Then there was another mystifying Marty finish. You know, Mr. Ultra Conservative, Marty Schottenheimer, the coach who plays it so close to the vest he needs a respirator by game's end. Schottenheimer very nearly coached his San Diego Chargers to another come-from-ahead loss in Week 9 in the New Jersey Meadowlands. After nursing a 15-point lead into the fourth quarter, Schottenheimer watched the New York Jets pull within 28-20.

The last time Doug Flutie lost his starting job, it divided a team and a city. That was two years ago in Buffalo, when the Bills decided to start quarterback Rob Johnson over Flutie. The San Diego Chargers don't expect history to repeat itself. At least that was the indication last week after coach Marty Schottenheimer named second-year quarterback Drew Brees the starter ahead of Flutie, who's in his 18th pro season. Chargers general manager John Butler said he doesn't expect any of the bitterness that accompanied the Flutie-Johnson vendetta to surface in San Diego.

The revolving door that turned out Norv Turner, Terry Robiskie and Marty Schottenheimer spun once more yesterday, and finally delivered a coach Washington Redskins owner Dan Snyder can live with. Steve Spurrier, who made Gainesville, Fla., a mecca for college football, will arrive today at the Redskins' training facility in Ashburn, Va., with a similar design as their new coach. "Steve Spurrier will bring a supercharged, exciting and dynamic brand of football to our great fans," Snyder said.

After a roller-coaster season and a tumultuous week of negotiations, Washington Redskins owner Daniel Snyder fired coach Marty Schottenheimer last night, amid reports that former Florida coach Steve Spurrier, the man Snyder wanted to hire last season instead of Schottenheimer, is prepared to come aboard as the replacement. Published reports indicate that Spurrier, who guided the Gators to an Orange Bowl victory over Maryland, then resigned two days later to pursue an NFL head coaching job, is close to signing a five-year, $25 million deal with the Redskins.

ASHBURN, Va. - In every tangible way, Marty Schottenheimer carried out his duties as coach of the Washington Redskins yesterday, meeting with each player to recap the just concluded season and map out off-season conditioning plans. Roughly 45 players dropped by Schottenheimer's Redskin Park office to chat about the 8-8 season, which began with an 0-5 start and concluded with an 8-3 flourish, with thrills and chills in between. "We all talked about the disappointment about not making it to the playoffs," said Schottenheimer.