Hey San Diego!

The Chargers Will Return!

While we Ravens’ fans are still basking in the glory of our first victory of the 2017 NFL season, there’s a group of fans that are more heartbroken than Bengals fans right now. San Diego Chargers fans.

They’re into their first week of the NFL season realizing it wasn’t a nightmare but an unfortunate reality that they no longer have a team to cheer on. Those of us that are old enough to recall the Mayflower trucks can relate and we most certainly sympathize for the folks out in San Diego. But don’t worry San Diego fans. The Chargers will return before you know it!

As popular and successful as the NFL is, it’s not immune to failure and man are they on to the biggest failure any sport has ever seen. And you just know Mark Cuban will be front and center when it all unfolds, and rightfully so. He called it, although his “pigs get fat, hogs get slaughtered” comment was in reference to the saturation of NFL games on TV, his premise was one hundred percent on the money.

Greed.

Greed is the driving force behind sticking two teams in a market (I don’t care how big it is) where people are more interested in the Kardashians 24×7 than they are football. I mean, these people use tanning beds as real beds, Starbucks is their church, and let’s not forget that L.A. is the freaking birthplace of the Murse. That’s short for man purse if you’re unaware.

And…

The NFL thinks Los Angeles can support a smash mouth-blue collar sport with not one but two teams. Epic failure, it’s coming. This situation is fascinating with one of the many factors at play and little consideration has been given to how this debacle potentially plays out.

There’s been plenty of talk about the Chargers leaving, about the greedy owner Spanos, the city of San Diego not doing enough to keep its team and of course the new stadium. The fact that two teams relocated to the same city, in the same year, is outright absurd. This is the biggest slap in the face to real NFL fans particularly to those in San Diego and not to be forgotten, St. Louis. Hell, those poor people in St Louis are two-time losers. Los Angeles doesn’t deserve a team much less two, and quite honestly, I would lay money down on the people in L.A. not really giving a flying rat’s ass whether either team came to town.

On the flip side, and looking at this objectively, I believe the Rams have a chance to survive long term in Los Angeles. The Rams have a history in L.A. and they’re bringing back Eric Dickerson as an ambassador, the recently ordained, “Vice President of Business Development”.

Yeah, whatever.

Call it what you want but this is actually a smart business decision. Dickerson alone will get the fan base back into the swing of things, and coupled with a stadium built for the ages you have a relatively good recipe for success. Of course, winning on Sunday has to enter the equation and with the young core of players the Rams currently have they just may pull it off.

Now let’s flip the relocation coin back, shall we. The Chargers have no business whatsoever being in Los Angeles. This will be proven each and every week the Chargers play a home game. They’ll play in a 30,000-seat stadium over the next two years as they wait for their new shared home to be constructed. This Sunday will be the first of what I predict will be some embarrassing times for the NFL. The look of a half filled 30,000 seat stadium is not a good look to put it mildly. But then again maybe it’s not as bad as a 70,000-seat stadium with only fifteen to twenty thousand people in it.

And THAT is going to be the look in two years, mark my words.

Who the hell is going to show up and support this team?

San Diego Chargers fans certainly won’t. LA Rams fans will not support this team, and the man purse crowd? Forget about it!

So, who will?

You’ll have a fringe group that wants to be different and not support the Rams, that’s 5,000. You’ll have transplants from San Diego now living in LA. So, let’s get crazy and say that represents 10,000 fans. You’ll have 5,000 fans from the opposing team show up of course, so there’s that. Maybe things won’t be too bad in their temporary home, but I wouldn’t count on it. This is really going to get ugly for the NFL and there’s no way around it. You can’t tarp off the entire upper level of an NFL stadium.

Or can you?

When news broke that the Chargers would in fact relocate I was somewhat heartbroken as it brought up all those terrible memories of the Colts leaving Baltimore. I’ll never forget watching the Colts exodus on Channel 13 news on that snowy night. I also watched my grandmother cry so sadly and my grandfather swear like the most profane sailor.

Colts and Chargers fans share more than just the similarities of losing our beloved teams. We in fact, have a unique connection. Johnny Unitas finished his career with the Chargers and passed the torch to eventual Hall of Fame quarterback Dan Fouts. Their history may not be as rich as ours but their pain is no less than ours was, and is.

But again, don’t worry Chargers fans.

Your team will be back before you know it.

P.S. Shame on you NFL, shame on you.

Note: I made up the man purse bit but I would say I have a better than 50/50 shot at being right on that one. I just can’t bring myself to googling it to find out.

Editor’s Note: Here you go…

Blog submitted by Brian Lease, Roofing by Elite

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