San Diego Chargers issue public plea
Written by Adrian Gregory Glover // October 18, 2012 // NFL, San Diego Chargers // 9 Comments
The way that the San Diego Chargers lost to the Denver Broncos on Monday Night Football was incredibly horrid.
They dropped a 24-point lead in the second half that featured several turnovers and poor game management.
If San Diego’s defense and offense executed poorly, coach Norv Turner’s management style gave the game away.
After years of these episodes, the fans are once again justifiably up in arms.
The team’s public relations department is so desperate to quell the masses that they have issued a formal memo to the fans.
Written by Director of Public Relations Bill Johnston, the title of the piece is titled “Take A Chill Pill.”
This is it in its entirety.
“What’s with you people?
Yes, Monday night’s loss was bad. Horrible. Embarrassing.
Ok…enough already. No mas. I get it.
Now get over it. It was a loss. One loss.
Listening to some of you out there, you’d think Monday night was “win or go home” and the Chargers are now packing their bags.
“The Chargers are finished. Done,” said one scribe.
Another wrote, “Bye, bye Chargers. Put a fork in them.”
Sometimes I think Twitter was invented to give people a chance to puff out their chests and talk big, saying things they never would say to someone’s face.
And talk radio … don’t get me started. The old adage your mom used to preach – “If you don’t have anything good say, don’t say anything” – seems to have evolved to “if you don’t have anything good to say, call sports talk radio.”
Some of those folks are probably the same ones who called for former Head Coach Bobby Ross’ job when his first Chargers team started the 1992 season 0-4. I still remember the self-proclaimed experts saying Bobby was “in over his head”. The Chargers went on to win 11 of the next 12 games that year, along with a 17-0 victory in the first round of the playoffs.
A few of the more recent Chargers teams have been declared dead by quacks, only to awaken in good health. The 3-3 Chargers of 2004 won nine of their final 10 games. The ’06 Chargers won their final 10. The ’07 Chargers started 1-3 before winning 10 of their last 12. The ’08 Chargers won their final four in a row and the ’09 team won its last 11 games.
Time to take a chill pill. No one knows what will happen this season, yet alone the next game. That’s the beauty of the National Football League. I don’t know, you don’t know, no one knows what’s going to happen.
If you want these players and coaches to succeed, then support them. Don’t tear them down. What you want and what we all want, including your team, is to know people believe in them.
Look at it this way. We want our loved ones to succeed, and we’ll do whatever it takes to help them. But when they make mistakes, like we all do, we would never criticize or belittle them publicly.
Your team is 3-3, tied at the top of the division, and has 10 games to play. If the Chargers are your team, get behind them and stay behind them. We’re all at our best when we know others believe in us.”
I’m not sure if the message is spirited or desperate.
The vitriol that is being aimed in their direction is justified and it’s not the frustration that comes from one game or even one season for that matter.
Chargers fans are tired of this kind of thing. They are so upset and as one person has stated to me “wounded by life with Norv” that support groups are perhaps in order.
If Johnston is requesting that folks believe in them, then perhaps the administration should give them something that is consistently worth believing in.
