Quote:
Originally Posted by TEX
Yep. Very "weird" indeed. And, you did call this before the season.
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Yes, I did....and its playing out exactly to script. All you have to do is take a wide-angle lens perspective to see it.
After the SB, the NFL controlled sports shows, ALL, in tandem, simultaneously started talking about the Chargers. This was a team that hadn't been to the playoffs in 5 years and won one game against a winning team last year (9-7 Cowboys). Even when Bosa and Hunter were injured before the season began...the pundits on the hype train glossed over it and continued mentioned them over and over and over. It was completely void of reason or objectivity.
Dig deeper and you find out the owners are extremely worried about the lack of interest...going back before this year. There were talks of trying to figure out a way to get them back to San Diego. Spanos is on the dole because of a 20 year lease on this 4 billion stadium....and seat licensees came in at 25% of initial projections.
The owners make the majority of the "profit sharing" from advertising....so it's in their collective interest that LA succeeds. Its the 2nd biggest market in the country. They are going to have to renegotiate their network deal at some point and having two thriving teams in LA will be a bargaining chip....having a team that nobody gives a shit about isn't a good selling point.
I reposted from the chargers game-day thread against Seattle...and this member summed it up after the refs let an obviously out of bounds TD stand.
"Wow...this season just feels different, we are getting all the calls"...and those calls continued on Sunday night against Pittsburgh. (Steelers were 174-0-1 in home games, when leading by 16 points, at any time in the game...so at least 30 years)
The owners are doing about the only thing they can to try to get the Chargers to succeed...if you saw the stands against the Cardinals in Carson. It was vacant..and they were 7-3.
Unfortunately for KC...Chiefs are the main obstacle in achieving this end. PMII put a giant wrinkle in their plan. They've done what they could...from the zero penalty NE game...to throwing 9 flags in the first quarter against the Rams (while ignoring fouls on TD plays). I think this Hunt video release was intentionally timed...it was at the perfect moment where the exemption list would keep him from playing this season...and cause a major distraction.