San Diego Chargers: Is Norv Turner One of the Worst Coaches Ever?

The Chargers have had some great coaches in their storied past. Names like Sid Gilman, Don Coryell, Bobby Ross and Marty Schottenheimer all bring back memories of great Charger teams.

The Bolts have also had some pathetic coaches. Names like Harland Svare, Tommy Prothro, Al Saunders, Dan Henning, Kevin Gilbride and Mike Riley all bombed as head coaches of the Chargers. If you don’t recognize some of those names, don’t worry they aren't worth looking up.

Here is another name that should disappear in the annals of anonymity: Norv Turner.

There was an era when the Chargers were called "Air Coryell" in the late 70's and early 80's. The moniker came from coach Don Coryell who was made famous for his innovations to the passing attack that is still used today.

That team was loaded with talent much like the team of the past five or so years. They performed equally well, getting to the playoffs in four out of five seasons from 1979 to 1983. They also made one AFC championship appearance only to lose to Cincinnati in the famous “Freezer Bowl”.

The thing that differentiates those two teams besides 30 years was that Air Coryell had absolutely no defense. Their offense was unstoppable, but their defense was just plain rotten. Had they had even a sniff of the defense that our present team possesses, I have no doubt they would have made the super bowl a couple of years.

But they didn't.

Prior to this era was the golden age of the Chargers under the leadership of Sid Gilman. He led the Chargers to five Western Division Titles and one AFL championship in the teams first 6 years of existence. It was during this era that the term “Fearsome Foursome” was originated to describe the Chargers defensive line.

But that was before my time.

Skip ahead 10 years from Air Coryell and ignoring the Al Saunders era, we get to arguably San Diego's greatest coach since the merger of the AFL and NFL, Bobby Ross.

He did something that no other Chargers coach had ever done prior. You may think that I am referring to the Chargers only trip to the super bowl in 1995. While that is a memorable feat and well worth accolades, that is not what I am talking about.

Bobby Ross was the first coach in Chargers history to win a coaching award. He won the Pro Football Weekly NFL Coach of the Year, the Maxwell Football Club NFL Coach of the Year and the UPI NFL Coach of the Year in 1992. That along with the Chargers only Super bowl appearance makes Bobby Ross my personal hero. He wasn't blessed with an overload of talent like the current team has, but had the ability to get the most out of his somewhat average players. During his tenure he made the playoffs only twice but gave it his all when he did. I wish I could say the same about Norv.

Skipping a few more years, a few more coaches and the Ryan Leaf saga, we get to the Chargers only other coach to win an award, Marty Schottenheimer.

Marty took a floundering Chargers team who had won no more than five games in the seasons prior to his arrival and eventually turned the team into a perennial division winner. Marty was fired after his second early exit in the playoffs, though the real reasons were based on his inability to cow-tow to ownership. The team was 14-2 that year, and they fired him.

Enter Norv Turner in 2007. A man with a losing record every where he had ever coached in the NFL.

He was gifted a powerhouse of a team that Marty built in spite of conflicts with ownership. Over the next four seasons, Turner would bring the Chargers down to his level.

What Marty built, Norv has finally destroyed. Look at the record.

In Norv’s first year the Chargers went all the way to the AFC championship game only to loose the the Patriots. The following year they won the wild card, but lost to Pittsburgh in the divisional game. The year after that, after earning a bye, they lost in their first playoff game to the Jets in the AFC divisional game. This year they failed to to even make the playoffs.

That's two playoff wins, followed by one playoff win, followed by no playoff wins, followed by no playoffs at all.

Norv has killed this team. There is no two ways about it.

He inherited a loaded team and has coached the Chargers to progressively weaker performances every single year.

If AJ doesn't fire Norv now, then he must go himself because if the trend continues, next year the Chargers won’t even be competitive. Norv does not have the skills to coach in this league.

The Chargers would have more intellectual prowess at the top if Forrest Gump were the head coach.

Norv is not a smart man.

After a quick snap bomb in the game against Cincinnati that caught the Chargers defense off guard, Norv was seen wandering the sidelines saying "What happened?" That pretty much sums up this season.

There have been numerous delay of game penalties, 12 men on the field penalties and wasted time outs, all because Norv was clueless on the sidelines.

There were times when Phillip Rivers would look over for a play and wait while Norv looked like a deer in the headlights.

Being an egomaniac, AJ Smith loves Norv because he's such a yes-man, unlike Marty. That, perhaps is why Norv has stuck around so long after producing even less that Marty. For his part, Norv couldn't be any more obsequious even if his life depended on it.

I feel sorry for the Charger players and Bolt fans alike having to put up with this moron for so long. I also feel bad for any team that gets Norv in the future. He is, plain and simple, a terrible head coach, and a destroyer of teams.