Miami Dolphin Talk

With a handful of NFL teams still seeking a head coach, high-profile names are in short supply. Bill Cowher and Jon Gruden have chosen to remain in TV and Jeff Fisher decided Friday to join St. Louis.

But one familiar and successful coach - who has close ties to the confidant of Dolphins owner Stephen Ross - is looking for work: Marty Schottenheimer.

Schottenheimer coached the Kansas City Chiefs for a decade, and his boss for those 10 seasons was Carl Peterson, an advisor to Ross who tried to recruit Fisher to Miami.

Schottenheimer said Friday that he spoke with Peterson just last week about the possibility of resuming an NFL career that spanned 30 years. Schottenheimer also coached Cleveland, Washington and San Diego but has been out of the league since 2006.

"I told Carl I was going to make an effort to get back into the NFL, and left it at that," Schottenheimer said. "We haven't talked since. Notwithstanding the fact I'm 68, my energy level is very, very high, and I have the same drive and motivation I've always had.

"I think the Dolphins are a good football team," he added, "one that's got some players who have a chance to step up and make things happen in a positive way."

Schottenheimer, whose NFL record is 200-126-1, has interviewed with Tampa Bay for its coaching vacancy and is considered a leading candidate.

He was fired after a 14-2 season with San Diego in '06 because of the Chargers' post-season failures and his strained relationship with General Manager A.J. Smith. Schottenheimer admitted Friday that he thought he was done with coaching until the United Football League approached him early last year.

He was hired in March to be coach and general manager of the Virginia franchise - which had moved from Orlando - and won the league title after going 3-1 in the UFL's abbreviated season.

That experience further whet his appetite to return to the NFL.

"Imagine something you enjoy doing, and you're pretty good at it, and now the closest you get to it is taking your 9-year-old grandson and teaching him how to do it," he said.

"The thing coaching does is gives you a sense of satisfaction, when you can work with young guys who have a skill set superior to any I had, and teach them how to turn it loose. Then you can stand there and live vicariously through those players because you made a contribution to their success."

Former New York Giants coach Jim Fassel joined the UFL before Schottenheimer did and recommended it.

"I told him it was the most fun I'd had coaching," said Fassel, whose Las Vegas team lost to Schottenheimer and the Destroyers in the championship game. "When we played them for the title, he told me 'You were right on.'

"As a head coach, there's no substitute for experience, and Marty's got it. There's a tendency out there right now to think a good offensive or defensive coordinator will make a good head coach, but it's a different job description. The risk factor drops off a lot when you get a guy who's done a good job everywhere he's been."

Schottenheimer's head coaching career began in Cleveland, where from 1984 through '88 he took the Browns to two AFC Championship Games.

Peterson, named the president and GM at Kansas City in December 1988, brought in Schottenheimer soon afterward and the pair teamed up to make the Chiefs the NFL's winningest franchise of the 1990s. The Chiefs won four AFC West titles and reached the AFC title game in 1994.

"I had the ideal relationship with Carl, because nothing was left unsaid," Schottenheimer said. "The one thing that is critical in the relationship between the head coach and general manager is trust. I would go to his office or he would come to mine, we would shut the door, argue and disagree, but when all was said and done he and I were after the same thing, and that was to win a championship."

After nine straight winning seasons, including 13-3 finishes in 1995 and '97, the Chiefs went 7-9 in 1998, prompting Schottenheimer to resign. After spending 2001 in Washington and 2002-06 in San Diego, where he won two more division titles, his frayed relationship with Smith and his 5-13 post-season record got him fired.

Schottenheimer recently met with the Glazer family, owners of the Bucs, and said he thinks the club has the talent to be successful.

"Frankly, there's an opportunity there to teach the young guys how to do it," he said. "There are a number of other candidates, so whether a second round of dialogue will take place I don't know. But I will say this: I'm excited about the opportunity. ..."

"If the UFL experience taught me anything, it's that at my age I'm very comfortable stepping into the midst of 25- and 26-year-old kids, to help them grow and develop, and give them the opportunity to succeed."