A mover and shaker
SAN DIEGO -- As general manager of the San Diego Chargers, A.J. Smith makes trades, makes decisions on draft day, makes whatever moves he thinks are necessary to prepare his team for a long-awaited Super Bowl run.
But there’s one thing Smith doesn’t make: apologies.
Nor does he wring his hands over detractors who consider him a humorless grump, a petulant bully who hastily dumped Marty Schottenheimer as coach after the Chargers faltered in the playoffs yet again.
The way Smith sees it, he can’t win over everyone -- and he’s not going to try.
“No matter what you do, there’s going to be somebody who doesn’t like you and somebody who does,” he said. “No matter how successful you are, or how bad you are, that will never change.”
Smith, 58, whose team opens the regular season at home today against Chicago, said he often relies on advice he got from Hall of Fame coach Marv Levy while working in Buffalo: Winning takes care of everything.
“If you want people to say nice things about you, then go out and win,” Smith said. “If you don’t win, they’re going to say some very bad things about you. Matter of fact, you’ll be stupid. And if you win, you’ll be smart.”
By that standard, the Chargers have been regular-season brainiacs and postseason dolts. They were 35-13 over the previous three seasons but haven’t won a playoff game since advancing to the Super Bowl at the end of the 1994 season.
The latest playoff setback was a 24-21 loss at home to New England in January, one that rendered the Chargers’ NFL-best 14-2 season meaningless. That spelled the end for Schottenheimer, who was fired a month later.
Only the 1942 Washington Redskins and 1948 Chicago Cardinals fired their coaches after superior seasons. Even San Diego players came to Schottenheimer’s defense, saying a coaching change wasn’t the answer.
Still, Smith is a man of his convictions. He has no regrets about urging Chargers owner Dean Spanos to let go of Schottenheimer, with whom Smith barely spoke last season. Spanos cited the “dysfunctional relationship” between Schottenheimer and Smith as the reason for the firing.
To replace Schottenheimer, the Chargers hired Norv Turner. Smith bristles at the Martyball mentality, the tendency to get conservative with a game hanging in the balance.
“I cannot stand the conservative, cautious, don’t-lose-type approach,” said Smith, sitting behind the desk in his spacious second-floor office at team headquarters. “Have confidence in your abilities. Have a plan. Be aggressive in your approach but not stupid. Take some chances. If you want to be a winner, you have to step out of the box a little bit.”
Turner’s resume as a head coach is nothing special. He was a combined 58-82-1 at Washington and Oakland, and 1-1 in the postseason. But Smith is convinced he’s the right man for the job.
“We’ll attack this situation and be judged as a tandem,” Smith said. “I understand that. I’m not afraid of that.
“Is it bad for me to have hired Norv Turner coming out of Washington and Oakland? I hired a losing coach. Do you think I’m afraid of that challenge? I have all the confidence in the world that he and I can get this done. I’m excited about it.”
Like him or loathe him -- or simply don’t know him -- it’s hard to argue with Smith’s ability to recognize and assemble talent. A onetime high school physical education teacher with a hardscrabble East Coast edge, Smith was the brains behind one of the most lopsided NFL deals in recent memory.
Under his direction, the Chargers traded No. 1 pick Eli Manning -- who didn’t want to come to San Diego anyway -- for a package that eventually landed them three Pro Bowl players: quarterback Philip Rivers, linebacker Shawne Merriman and kicker Nate Kaeding.
The Chargers had a team-record 11 players in the Pro Bowl last season, and Smith played a role in acquiring eight of those, among them center Nick Hardwick, tackle Marcus McNeill, tight end Antonio Gates, fullback Lorenzo Neal and special teamer Kassim Osgood.
Smith, formerly San Diego’s No. 2 personnel man, took the reins of the franchise in April 2003 shortly after his close friend, general manager John Butler, died of cancer. The two had worked together in Buffalo for more than a decade, helping the Bills reach four consecutive Super Bowls in the early 1990s. It was there Smith got to know Levy, now president of the Bills, with whom he is in close contact.
“He’s outstanding,” Levy said. “I think he’s done a wonderful job in San Diego. Did he take some value from the work John did before him? Yes, absolutely. But one of the marks of [Smith] is he doesn’t say, ‘It’s all my way,’ or, ‘Things are going to be different around here when I’m in charge.’ He recognizes the good work that others do, and he uses that like building blocks.”
So it’s not surprising that among the three books on Smith’s sparse office shelf are two on the management secrets of the New England Patriots, and one on their coach, Bill Belichick.
“World champion coaches -- Jimmy Johnson, Bill Parcells, Bill Belichick -- not only are they good coaches, but it’s their personalities,” Smith said. “They have tremendous confidence in their abilities, and they’re risk-takers. Not foolish risk-takers. They’re smart, calculating risk-takers.”
Smith also took a risk when in 1977 he left his job as a teacher and football coach at Cranston (R.I.) West High to work as a volunteer part-time scout for the New York Giants.
A year later, he moved to a part-time position with the Patriots, then the Houston Oilers. In the early 1980s, he held scouting positions with the USFL’s Chicago Blitz and the Pittsburgh Maulers.
In 1987, he took a personnel job with Buffalo, and stayed there through 2000. It all fostered his love for his game, and his hunger for the NFL’s ultimate prize -- a hunger that’s perhaps greater now than it has ever been.
“I love the chase of it, the chase of winning a world championship,” he said. “When that Super Bowl is over, I’m the happiest guy in the world. I don’t have to be envious of the team that was there, or say, ‘We should have been there.’ They get their ring and, bang, it’s done.
“Now,” he added, “who’s going to win it this year?”
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It’s all about the playoffs
No matter how good the Chargers are in the regular season, the pressure will be on Norv Turner to win in the playoffs. Despite having a sparkling regular-season record in the last three seasons under Marty Schottenheimer, the Chargers failed to win a postseason game. A look at the teams since 1970 with the highest regular-season winning percentage over a three-year span that didn’t have a playoff victory:
*--* Colts 1975-1977 738 (31-11) Cardinals 1974-1976 738 (31-11) Chiefs 1995-1997 729 (35-13) Chargers 2004-2006 729 (35-13) Vikings 1970-1972 714 (30-12) *--*
DROUGHT SEASONS
The Chargers have not won a postseason game since advancing to the Super Bowl at the end of the 1994 season. San Diego has the NFL’s fourth-longest active streak of consecutive seasons without a playoff victory:
Bengals…16
Lions…15
Chiefs…13
Chargers…12
