From early 2021 to early 2022, Brian Schottenheimer was going through a rough patch. The Dallas Cowboys head coach had lost his dad, Marty Schottenheimer, on February 8, 2021, who was suffering from Alzheimer’s disease for a decade. A year later, on February 8, 2022, after the Jacksonville Jaguars had hired Doug Pederson as the new head coach, they decided not to retain Brian.

At that time, however, Coach Schottenheimer told his wife, Gemmi Schottenheimer, “Hey, you know, babe, I’ve got to become a head coach in the NFL.” Considering he was going through personal loss and challenges in the NFL, becoming a head coach in the NFL wasn’t easy. And this is exactly why the 52-year-old had to take a major step: Hire a life coach.

“The first four I talked to were literally executive coaches to lead and things like that,” Schottenheimer said on The Twins Take Podcast. “And the last gentleman that I went and saw, Chip Dodd, is his name, a good friend of mine, and he’s a therapist. And he talks about leading from the heart. And so the first 5 minutes in the chair, Chip and I were talking, he’s asking me questions, and the next thing you know, I’m just weeping, and I’m like, ‘Why am I crying?’

“And I didn’t know, but what he explained to me, which was real, was like through this journey of losing my dad and going through this journey of the NFL and the lifestyle and moving and being away from your kids, and all that, I was scarred, and I needed to be able to talk about it. And so, I’m very open with that about our players. I was like, ‘You know, we all need someone to talk to.’ And you know, it can’t just be where you suppress everything because that’s what I’ve been doing for so long, is suppressing everything.”

Brian Schottenheimer kicked off his NFL coaching career as an assistant with the St. Louis Rams in 1997. From there, he went on to serve his dad as an assistant when Marty was the head coach of the Kansas City Chiefs, and then as the quarterbacks coach when Marty led the San Diego Chargers.

Marty finished his NFL career as one of the leading head coaches in the NFL with 200 regular-season wins. Although he was unable to win a Super Bowl, Marty won a UFL Championship in 2011. He left coaching after being diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease. Although he was able to travel after a decade long battle, he died in 2021.

Now, Marty’s son, who once dreamt of becoming a head coach and got a life coach to fulfill his dream, is leading the Cowboys. After serving as an analyst and later as an offensive coordinator, the Cowboys promoted Schottenheimer as their next head coach just last year. And as that happened, Coach Schottenheimer acknowledged that his father would have been proud.

“I know he’s proud,” he said in June 2025. “I miss him. I would tell him that I used all the life lessons that he taught me, not just about football, but about life and being a good man and a good husband and a good father, and that I think I’m doing OK for myself. But I know he’s proud; I miss him like crazy.”

While Brian Schottenheimer failed to lead the Cowboys to the postseason in his rookie year, he’s now set to kick off his second NFL season as a head coach.