Looks Like Fair Weather!

I seem to hear all over the place that the San Diego Chargers are the best football team in the National Football League. I am absolutely sick of hearing it, especially because of who I hear it from. And I'm writing this, as a San Diegan myself, to tell you that no falser statement has been made in the football community this year.

Okay, so maybe I don't like Chargers...fine, I'll admit it, I root against them. Every week. I can't stand to see them succeed. They disgrace me. The team, I'm fine with. But the fans of San Diego epitomize what we call in the sporting world "fair weather fans". Which, said simply, means, they only root for the team when the team does well, and when that occurs, they act like they have been hardcore fans for their entire lives. Now, I may sound biased, considering I have no knowledge of any other sporting cities, yet I know San Diego sports quite well and I understand their fans even better.

The year, 2000, for instance helps drive my point home. San Diego's glorious Chargers went an abysmal 1-15 that year, almost placing them in the record books for the worst team season in the long and storied history of the NFL. I recall the people around me, most of them were naysayers and refused to support the Chargers because of their common last-place finishes (take 2001, 2002, and 2003 for example, yes four straight years as last place).

Many fans at that juncture supported the Oakland Raiders, when they dominated back in that era. I could almost guarantee that San Diego exhibited more Rich Gannon and Warren Sapp jerseys than Ryan Leaf or any other Chargers jerseys. Yet, it is interesting how settings change along with circumstances. Nowadays, I can't go anywhere without seeing Chargers apparel: Shawne Merriman jerseys, Philip Rivers T-shirts, LaDainian Tomlinson hats. Every time I see one of these, I ask myself what kind of fan (if a true fan at all) hides beneath them.

So I have henceforth characterized one typical Chargers fan: the ex-Raider fan. Yet another type of fan has become more abundant with the Chargers recent so-called successes: the average San Diegan. I understand that some of the die hard fans have remained close to the team even in the long-lasting despair of the Chargers' repetitive sub-.500 efforts. But, personally I know that these fans constitute a very thin number; certainly more "hardcore" Chargers fans have recently emerged than have always existed. For instance, one of my friends was primarily a Atlanta Falcons fan. Surely there was no coincidence then when he became a die-hard fan when the team went 12-4 in 2004 and put up a decent show in the playoffs, right? Another person I know had loved the St. Louis Rams. Then, after the 2004 season, remarkably he attached himself to the Chargers like he had always loved them, saying that he hadn't liked the Rams since they moved away from Los Angeles.

Maybe the reason why San Diego and the surrounding areas house so many fair weather fans is because of the lack of another team in hundreds of miles (in such a large population zone). Yet, I know this not to be the answer. San Diegans like to think that they are always right, thus they claim to support the home teams in times of success and they talk down on the teams when hard times come.

So I might be fine with the existence of fair weather fans lest they insist they know so much and pretend to be intense fans. Once I overheard someone with a Rivers jersey claim that Antonio Gates was the best wide receiver in the league. Only one problem. He's not a wide receiver, he's a tight end!!! Most self-acclaimed Chargers buffs that I know can't even name off half the team's starting roster. And they think they can live and die with the team when they don't even know who plays for it! I can cede this: being a fan is a right, but one must earn the privilege of being called a die-hard.

Thus, when a Chargers fan claims that "their team" is the best in league, I often ask why they consider that to be the case. Regardless of their rebuttal (and they always argue, remember that they always think they are right), I always reply that success can't be measured in two seasons of making the playoffs without a playoff win. Good teams win playoff games, or else they did not make it as close to the championship as at least 4 other teams (in the Chargers' case). Obviously, then, 4 teams must be better than the Chargers. I heard it last year, and I have already heard it this year. They are not, have never been, and will not be this year, the best team in the NFL. Only champions can claim that moniker. To win championships, a team must win playoff games. The Chargers have not done that in 13 years. From that perspective, which is the statistical, unbiased, and logical one, the team seems a far way off. Tell a Chargers fan that, however, and you will be wrong. Why? Because when there is fair weather in San Diego, as there is now, the self-deemed followers of the Chargers are always right.

I've given up trying to argue. They are simply ignorant. And in contrast, I am always the one that is actually right. So count on my opinion more than the fair weather. And when I am right once again, I have a feeling that rain or clouds might be in the not-so-distant future for San Diego.