A resounding shout echoes around the NFL every week. It preaches that the Chargers may be one of the top teams if it only weren't for some guy who's holding out, or some dude who's out on IR. And all I can do is shake my head.
As I write, the Monday Night game between the Broncos and the Chargers is nearing the end of the first quarter, and coming back from an ad break Mike Tirico notes, "Devastating news for San Diego, McMichael has just limped off the field. With him and Gates out, they only have a rookie TE making his first start in the NFL!" Erm, what!? In Tampa, this is the regular scenario every week And tight end?! They're not down to their last QB, or left with two wideouts... BAH.
The amount of sympathy and false recognition wasted on the Chargers disgusts me. Year after year they do nothing besides with a division with three god-awful teams - and when they did it in 2008, it was with a record of 8-8!
Don't get me wrong, Phillip Rivers is fantastic, and the job he's doing with the team he's got is brilliant. But it's no better than what Manning is doing with a team of nobodies in Indianapolis.
The Chargers are an average team. They have no chance of winning the Superbowl, and I'll be surprised if they win a playoff game.
Maybe it's to lure in another franchise to Southern California, but I swear the NFL has some kind of Chargers-bias.
This said, I fully expect the Chargers to win tonight, but my problem is this: Denver will be talked about as a team on the rise, just coming off a 49-29 win against the Chiefs. Whereas, if Denver had been playing my Buccaneers this weekend, the focus would be on their 3-6 record, and their 59-14 home defeat to the Raiders. And if we were to beat them, well, it was only to be expected, of course...
