San Diego ? Now, it’s all about Marty.

From the minute the San Diego Chargers clinched the AFC West title Sunday, it had to have been in the back of everyone’s minds.

While the Chargers are good enough to get to the Super Bowl behind LaDainian Tomlinson, Philip Rivers and Shawne Merriman, their coach, Marty Schottenheimer, is, to use a polite term, playoff challenged.

Schottenheimer has taken the one-and-done routine to the point where this joke has followed him from town to town: What do Marty Schottenheimer and Christmas bells have in common?

They’re both put away by early January.

Schottenheimer has never had a problem getting his teams to the playoffs, having done so now for an impressive 13th time in his 201â2 seasons as a head coach. It’s what happens next that’s vexing. He’s 5-12 in the postseason with Cleveland, Kansas City and the Chargers.

“Well, we haven’t been real successful when we got there. We need to fix that,” Schottenheimer said with a laugh a day after the Bolts beat Denver, 48-20, to clinch the AFC West, improve to 11-2 and grab control of home-field advantage throughout the playoffs.

That said, imagine going to a sports bar – let’s call it Marty’s Place – hoping to hang around for a while. You order a beer, and to your surprise, get punched in the nose and thrown out onto the street after your first round.

That’s how the playoffs have treated Schottenheimer.

Two seasons ago, Schottenheimer suffered his fifth straight playoff loss dating to 1993 when he turned conservative in overtime and his AFC West champion Chargers were upset at home by the wild-card New York Jets. It was his eighth one-and-out performance, coming hours after he was named Coach of the Year.

His defeats have been epic and mystifying.

There were “The Drive” and “The Fumble” in consecutive AFC championship games, when his Cleveland Browns came so close to Super Bowl trips, only to have them ripped away by the Denver Broncos and John Elway, Schottenheimer’s personal nemesis.

San Diego chargers coach Marty Schottenheimer yells instructions to his team during an October game against the Chiefs in Kansas City, Mo.

In Kansas City, Schottenheimer made it back to the AFC title game once – and lost. He also had two teams go 13-3 and lock up home-field advantage throughout the playoffs before shockingly flaming out in the divisional round to wild-card teams, including the Broncos.

Schottenheimer has won 197 regular-season games. He trails only Don Shula, George Halas, Tom Landry and Curly Lambeau, all Hall of Famers who each won multiple Super Bowls or NFL titles.

Schottenheimer has indeed made it to the Super Bowl, but only after buying a ticket. The former linebacker remembers going to the first Super Bowl – after his Buffalo Bills were routed by Kansas City in the AFL championship – as well as the second, third and others.

His protege, Bill Cowher, won a long-sought ring with the Pittsburgh Steelers last year.

Could it finally be Marty’s turn?

The Chargers are widely considered to be the NFL’s best team, and Tomlinson is the front-runner for MVP after breaking the NFL’s single-

season touchdown record with 29, with three games to go.

Inside linebacker Donnie Edwards knows all about Marty’s miseries, having gone 0-2 in the postseason under Schottenheimer, including one of those clunkers in Kansas City. His solution? Ignore the past. The Chargers are playing for the now.

“I don’t think this team knows about it, really,” Edwards said. “It’s a new team. I don’t even think Merriman and those guys were even born when Elway went down the field and did that against him.”

They were toddlers, meaning they probably don’t remember the messy details.

To some, a dream Super Bowl matchup in Miami would be the Chargers, with first-year starting quarterback Rivers, against the New Orleans Saints and the guy he succeeded, Drew Brees.

Edwards spoke with Brees on Sunday night after the QB threw five touchdown passes in the Saints’ win at Dallas. The former teammates allowed themselves a little daydreaming – “How crazy would it be to be in the Super Bowl together? Saints against the Chargers,” Edwards recalled.

The Chargers better watch what they wish for. Brees would probably love to stick it to Chargers general manager A.J. Smith, who let him walk as a free agent after he hurt his throwing shoulder in last year’s season finale.

Schottenheimer has had issues with Smith, too, mainly over quarterbacks. It’s generally assumed the coach has to outlast the Christmas bells by a good measure to save his job.

While the Chargers underwhelmed last year – including losing four home games – they’ve been remarkable this year. Their schedule is easier, Tomlinson is running behind an improved line, they’re leading the NFL in scoring with an average of 33 points, are 6-0 at home and have won seven straight overall.

On Sunday, they even ran a “Bumarooski” – a trick play named for defensive coordinator Wade Phillips’ father, Bum – that resulted in a 4-yard touchdown run by fullback Lorenzo Neal.

With the exception of a loss at Baltimore in which they turned to “Martyball” and blew a late lead, the Chargers have learned to finish games.