1 Man’s Opinion

1-Man’s Opinion on Sports-Monday “Whose Fault is this Chargers issue?”

Monday Night Football is upon us.  Used to be exciting, and some weeks it really is.  Not tonght though, this matchup of the Chargers and Bears.

Oh there are some storylines.  John Fox, the Bears coach, and his long respected relationship with Chargers coach Mike McCoy.  Fox had a young McCoy on his staffs while with the Carolina Panthers and Denver Broncos.

And once upon a time, there was some lightning in the rivalry between quarterbacks, Philip Rivers and Jay Cutler.  Of course, that was when the Chargers were winning and the Broncos believed they were pretty good too.

Things aren’t the same anymore on the field.  The Chargers have become a mid-level team despite the greatness of the quarterback.  Cutler moved on from the Broncos to the woeful Bears, his career not having gone the way many thought it would coming out of Vanderbilt.

And something else is no longer prevalent, home field advantage for the Chargers.

Bolt fans are selling their tickets to out of town fans.  Witness the huge Gold & Black turnout when the Steelers came to town, followed by the overwhelming color scheme at the last home game, Silver & Black cheering the Raiders.

And now a likely sea of Blue-and-Orange, the Bears colors dating back to the days of Geroge Halas.

I doubt you see Seahawks fans selling their tickets.  Nor in Pittsburgh or in New England.  Of course those are winners.

But they sell out in Buffalo and Tennesse amongst other places, and those franchises have been losers for an extended time.

So why is this happening in San Diego?

A combination of disappointing seasons strung together.  Maybe it is because this is a melting pot of people from so many other places, therefore there are lots of fans from other teams living here.

Maybe it’s the constant barrage of negativism from Mark Fabiani, chief spokesman-obstructionist of owner Dean Spanos.

Maybe it’s on Spanos himself, for alot of bad decisions made with this franchise, on his watch.  His actions towards the Mayor and the city-county effort to build a new stadium.  Or his failure to put out the AJ Smith-Marty Schottenheimer oil fire.  Or even further, refusing to solve the divorce that came after the Super Bowl season with Bobby Beathard and Bobby Ross.

Lots of history with this owner too.  The ticket guarantee and other issues, the constant whining about the Stadium and others, that just keep resurfacing.

The Chargers spent a chunk of the summer trying to sell us-tell us, season ticket sales were up.  This from a franchise that secretly with-held that information in past offseasons.  What was happening was the reality the Bolt fans were buying tickets to re-sell to the fans of the other clubs.

And of course, the Chargers stance, they sell 25% of their tickets to fans in LA, when the real truth is the ticket brokers are in Los Angeles, and they are selling tickets to those out of towner fans, coming here to see their team play in the sunshine.

It’s tough when the Chargers next road game, is actually a home game tonight against the Bears.  Not too good when your quarterback has to use handle signals to call audibles at the line of scrimmage in his own stadium.

You tell me who is to blame for what this has become?  A losing season with a team that has lost any semblance of home field advantage.  A team whose owner keeps talking about Los Angeles not San Diego.

Enjoy Monday Night Football.  You probably won’t enjoy the atmosphere at Qualcomm Stadium though, unless you wear Blue and Orange-Da Bears colors.

 

—0—