Michael Ventre

By firing Marty Schottenheimer on Monday, the San Diego Chargers in effect have declared that they will be the AFC representative next year in the Super Bowl.

They’d better be.

Because if they’re not, if the Chargers under Schottenheimer’s replacement go belly-up and either fail to make the playoffs or lose in a divisional clash again, then the Spanos family, which owns the franchise, will make Al Davis look like a pillar of reason and good sense.

In fact, this has all the earmarks of a Davis move. The Chargers have long played in the shadow of the Raiders — even in recent years, when the Raiders are setting new standards in the areas of kookiness and self-immolation — because they’re division rivals at opposite ends of the state, and because the Raiders at least have touched the Vince Lombardi Trophy since it was first cast.

Maybe the Chargers are just tired of the Raiders getting all of the headlines, even though they’re mostly ugly. Maybe the Spanos clan figures two can play at this game of musical broken chairs.

Schottenheimer’s playoff struggles have been well documented. The man is no Bill Walsh, Bill Parcells or Bill Belichick, He is Marty, king of the damned, who seems doomed to roam the earth forever in search of a Super Bowl ring.

But his firing comes about a month or so after the Chargers lost to the Patriots, 24-21, in San Diego, a game that was more heart-wrenching for the losers than most. New England, a veteran group used to playoff stress, probably didn’t need any help, but it received some anyway with a few squandered opportunities and poor execution by the Chargers.

Drayton Florence’s meltdown in the third quarter, in which he head-butted New England tight end Daniel Graham — bringing about a 15-year penalty and leading to a field goal for the Pats — epitomized the lack of maturity the Chargers displayed. And there’s only so much any coach can do to help his team mature faster. It takes time and patience. If there were miracle workers out there, then Parcells would have infused Tony Romo with his gruff, tough-as-nails attitude, and Romo would have never flubbed the hold on that field-goal attempt.

Chargers’ officials believe their team was set for a Super Bowl run, but they were deluded, and it had nothing to do with Marty. They had a quarterback in Philip Rivers who was essentially a rookie because it was his first year taking over for Drew Brees. Rivers had a less-than-spectacular performance against the Pats, losing a fumble, throwing a pick and clicking for no touchdown passes. The Chargers played hard and at times well, but their key failings came from a lack of experience, and they were up against a team that had plenty.

But this wasn’t about one game. This was a good, old-fashioned humiliation by the victor to the vanquished in a textbook power play.

Schottenheimer and general manager A.J. Smith have had a frigid relationship for some time, and it has been mentioned in the media often. But that type of thing goes on in sports all the time. If the two parties have a serious disagreement in philosophy, then it’s understandable that one has to go.

Yet this seemed more personal. The two were at odds for some time, but even so Dean Spanos announced last month that Schottenheimer would return.