SAN DIEGO - San Diego Chargers running back and NFL MVP LaDainian Tomlinson said he was shocked by the firing of head coach Marty Schottenheimer, the San Diego Union Tribune reported Tuesday.

“I was stunned,” Tomlinson told the newspaper. “You get to a point where you hear or you see that Marty's going to be around, so you start to prepare yourself that Marty's going to be around and you're going to have the same coaches.

“Then this happens and my first thought — after Marty — was, ‘Are we going to have the same coaches?' Something like this happens and my first thought is, 'Are all the coaches going to be gone?' If so, you're looking at starting over with somebody else and that's a tremendous blow for our football team.”

Schottenheimer performed well enough to go 14-2 last season despite what team owner Dean Spanos called a “dysfunctional situation” between the coach and his general manager.

The relationship got so bad in the last month that Spanos fired Schottenheimer on Monday night, another shocking development for a team that thought it was Super Bowl-worthy but lost its playoff opener.

Tomlinson said the players liked and respected Schottenheimer.

“I always had the utmost respect for Marty as a coach and a human being,” he said. “He always tried to do things the right way. He definitely built something special here with our team, and I think the (other players) would attest to that. He created a family, and that's appreciated from my standpoint. I don't know what else to say.”

Other Chargers also were surprised, the Union-Tribune added.

“I am in shock,” safety Marlon McCree said. “I don't know what to say.”

“It's crazy,” cornerback Quentin Jammer said. “You go 14-2 and you get fired. It's wild. Now you go into the offseason not knowing what's going on. I think I speak for a lot of guys on the team when I say we really, really liked Marty.”

Veteran offensive lineman Roman Oben told the newspaper, “I think everyone was shocked because everyone thought his job security was safe after the decision was made to retain him. We knew that this was the make-or-break year. If we didn't go to the Super Bowl or win a Super Bowl he was going to be fired anyway.

“It's a huge blow. We've just got to have hope and be optimistic that the administration, without Marty, is going to do the right thing. It's Super Bowl or bust at this point.”

Spanos said the exodus of assistant coaches — the 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 left on his contract.

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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.”

Schottenheimer did praise Spanos for making a difficult decision. “I don’t disagree with it,” the coach said. “I always put the team first.”

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

Schottenheimer added: “There is and has been no relationship” with Smith.

Since when?

“How long’s he been here?” Schottenheimer said.

Smith was promoted in April 2003 after John Butler died of cancer.

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