The Virginia Destroyers took on the Las Vegas Locomotives in the UFL Championship Game last Friday, earning a 17-3 victory before a sellout crowd of 14,172.

In the process, they earned their head coach, Marty Schottenheimer, his first pro title — nearly 40 years after he started his coaching career. 

“I couldn’t be more pleased,” Schottenheimer told the Associated Press during a post-game interview. “Not only for our squad and our coaches and myself certainly, but for the whole Virginia Beach region. We all heard people say that this wouldn’t happen, but I said to a number of our staff members, ‘Who says we can’t make it happen? We’re going to make it happen.’ It was sort of against all odds, but now we’ve done it, and I take tremendous pride in that.”

Schottenheimer was hired to lead the Destroyers in March, taking the team to a 3-1 record during a shortened season and extending a head coaching career that started in 1984, when he took over the Cleveland Browns. Between 1984 and 2006, Schottenheimer coached for the Cleveland Browns, Kansas City Chiefs, Washington Redskins, and San Diego Chargers, compiling 177 lifetime wins.

He remains the winningest NFL coach never to take a team to the Super Bowl.

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