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Monday, September 28. 2009
Chargers and Other Football Thoughts
Yesterday I went to the Chargers game, the one in which they beat the Miami Dolphins pretty handily, at least in the end. Well, even that was in doubt when, with nine minutes left in the Fourth Quarter, coach Norv Turner decided to play conservatively. Man! When the crowd — of over 67,000 — gets to booing, it drowns out every other sound and the San Diego faithful save their loudest booing for the Chargers. And Norv Turner in particular.Consequently, when the Chargers had the Dolphins beat by a score of 23 to 6, the conservative play calling of Turner resulted in the Chargers turning the ball over on downs, with more than six minutes left in the game. The Dolphins took advantage and marched down the field to score a touchdown and come within 10 points, which, if you know football, isn’t too hard to overcome in the last few minutes of a game.
People booed Marty Schottenheimer pretty vigorously too when he was the Chargers head coach. He took the Chargers on a near flawless regular season run … only to coach his team to a choke during the team’s first game of the playoffs (after a first week bye) in 2007. The Chargers lost to the New England Patriots and even they seemed stunned they won that game.
Marty Schottenheimer is the chokingest coach to ever lead a team. He has the most impressive record of any NFL head coach ever, except that he never lead a team to victory in the Super Bowl. That counts for something, a lot, with team owners and fans.
Schottenheimer comes to mind because some fans began calling Norv Turner “Marty.” Now, that’s an insult apparently, and some women sitting behind us who were also booing Turner immediately began telling everyone, Turner was nowhere near as bad as Schottenheimer. With some people the derision can only be allowed to go so far and calling Norv Turner “Marty” crossed that line.
Philip Rivers went off on one of the offensive coaches after one disastrous series of downs in the final minutes of the game and thanks to the great location of our seats; everyone in our section could watch the yelling. At that point in the game there wasn’t much happening and Rivers’ rant was the most exciting action at the time.
Still, the Chargers won, the majority of the crowd was happy. There were the Dolphins fans in attendance that walked out of the game, most of them long before it officially ended, with sad smiles on their faces. Ah, to be a fan of a losing team.That’s a common feeling in the NFL. You may be a long time fan of a once great team, a storied team like the Dolphins, the only team to have an undefeated season, winning two Super Bowls back in the 70’s … and now, your team is 0-3.
It’s like being a Packer fan for nearly 50 years, even during the 1980’s when the best the team could do was a 9-7 season, maybe 10-6, but usually 8-8 or worse. We watched Lynn Dickey as quarterback struggle with his rickety knees; a Packer legend come in to coach … only to exit in shame. We persevere with our team colors, regardless of the won-loss record, cursing the coaches, the moron players who weren’t focused on particular plays, remembering the glory days of Vince Lombardi, Bart Starr and more recently, Coach Mike Holmgren and Quarterback Brett Favre.
That effin Favre now plays for the Minnesota Vikings! What a punk! Somebody ought to kick him square in the ass! Eh, I’m still a fan.
Of course this season both the Packers and the Chargers should be unbeaten at this point: 3-0. But that’s not the case! Nope! The Chargers lost at hometo the Baltimore Ravens and worse yet, the Packers lost to the Cincinnati Bengals in Lambeau Field. Oh man! The ignominy! Sheesh, I was ready to end my time as a Packer fan right then and there. The Cincinnati Bengals? That’s almost as bad as losing to the Minnesota Vikings or the Chicago Bears at Lambeau!
On the other hand, the Bengals beat the current Super Bowl Champions, the Pittsburgh Steelers, yesterday, so I’m thinking Cincy is for real this year.
But I digress.The read deal with going to the game is being there in the stands with the fans. Feel the power of the sound system pumping the overloaded bass tones throughout the facility, the energy of the crowd. There’s nothing like it.
It’s better to watch the game at home though, since you don’t have to stand for 80% of the game because everyone in front of you is standing and the only way you’re going to see the game on the field is by standing. And if the people in front of you are really tall and wide, well standing is no guarantee either.
So, I go to the Charger games to see things we don’t see much of on television, like the Chargers Girls! Oh sure, the networks have little snippets of the cheerleaders, err, I mean dance squads, but the networks always find ways to hide the cleavage with network ID banners and NFL news scrawls and they almost never show the cheerleaders below the waist, except from a distance.
When you’re at the game and have field lever seats, the Charger Girls are right there, dancing and shaking giving us something to look at while the teams huddle up or there’s a time out. Or if the Chargers are sucking real bad at any moment, we can concentrate on the Cheer … err … dance squad.
Then of course the other fans are always a hoot. Many, after just a few beers, are either comical or rude. Just once I left my seat to unleash the torrents of Bladderstonia and get my friend Jim and I some drinks. When I came back, some of the people didn’t want to move, even just a little, to let me get back to my seat. Oh yes, it was at this point that Chargers got the ball and marched down the field in competent fashion and as I got to the level were we were seated, I just caught QB Philip Rivers scampering into the end zone for a touchdown. Of course I’m waiting in line at the restroom when this all begins to happen!
Chargers games. Football in general, I love the game, love being a fan and love watching the games. I’m grateful to my friend Jim who gave me the ticket to allow me to be there. It’s always fun to be part of the action — even if it is just as an observer.
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