SAN DIEGO— A shocking playoff loss was the least of Marty Schottenheimer's worries.

Schottenheimer, who has 200 regular-season wins and no Super Bowl appearances, was fired as San Diego Chargers coach on Monday, a month after being told his job was safe despite another January collapse. Team president Dean Spanos interceded in what he called a "dysfunctional situation" between the coach who led San Diego to an NFL-best 14-2 record and his general manager.

Spanos said the exodus from Schottenheimer's staff — two coordinators became NFL head coaches and two assistants became coordinators — contributed to a difficult situation that resulted in the coach being fired. Schottenheimer is due more than $3 million for the final year on his contract.

While confirming he had no working relationship with general manager A.J. Smith, Schottenheimer seemed puzzled that Spanos made the coach take the fall for his assistants leaving.

"That is absolutely unfair, in my view," Schottenheimer told The Associated Press in a telephone interview. "We had no control over two guys who became head coaches in this league. We gave two guys an opportunity to be coordinators in this league. We've added a couple of guys that people should be very pleased with. The future coach will be very pleased, as well."

The Smith-Schottenheimer feud has been well-publicized for a year now, although no one seems quite sure how it started. They're not saying.

"It was pretty apparent around here," said Schottenheimer, who was 47-33 in five seasons with the Chargers, including 35 wins and two AFC West titles in the last three seasons.

"It's very difficult to win in this league and it becomes particularly so, in my view, when everybody is not on the same page," Schottenheimer said. "I'm disappointed because we've made a lot of progress around here. But hey, it is not a particularly good environment for this head coach to work with this general manager."

Asked if Smith should share the blame, Schottenheimer said: "Uh, I'll leave that judgment to others."

Defensive coordinator Wade Phillips was hired as head coach of the Dallas Cowboys on Thursday. Offensive coordinator Cam Cameron was hired as head coach of the Miami Dolphins on Jan. 19.

Tight ends coach Rob Chudzinski became Cleveland's offensive coordinator, and linebackers coach Greg Manusky was hired as San Francisco's defensive coordinator.

Schottenheimer said last week that change was inevitable, but Smith sounded concerned about losing the coordinators, saying, "Both in the same year. Wow."

Although Schottenheimer was given the power to hire and fire assistants, neither Spanos nor Smith provided specifics of what they kept referring to as an "untenable situation."

"We both wanted to win a world championship very badly," Smith said. "It's just that my approach might have been a little different than his."

Three days after a 24-21 playoff loss to New England, Schottenheimer declined the team's offer of a $4.5 million, one-year extension through 2008, which came with a club-option $1 million buyout. Spanos and Smith seemed angry the coach turned them down.

With a regular-season record of 200-126-1 with Cleveland, Kansas City, Washington and San Diego, Schottenheimer is the most successful coach never to have reached the Super Bowl.

His 5-13 playoff record has taken on a life of its own. The loss to the Patriots was his sixth straight in the postseason dating to 1993, and the ninth time a Schottenheimer-coached team lost its opening playoff game. His teams have failed four times to capitalize on the home-field advantage that comes with owning the AFC's No. 1 seed.

Led by league MVP LaDainian Tomlinson, the Chargers were thought by many to be Super Bowl-caliber. But they had four turnovers and made numerous other mistakes in losing to the Patriots, their first defeat at home in the 2006 season.